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International audience; The tourism market, especially sports tourism, in some parts of Quebec territory is characterised both by a strong dispersion of supply and low density of demand. Saying that Quebec is a vast territory is obvious, but this is also a key element of the tourist offer. In this respect, if certain territories are more densely populated, notably Montreal (4015 inhabitants per km2 ) and adjacent areas (Laval, 1728 inhab/km2 ) and Montérégie (136 inhab/km2 ), all the others regions in Quebec are below the limit of 40 inhab/km2 , and sometimes very widely below than 10 inhab/km2 . In such case, the accessibility to the territories is a major issue which affects the number of tourist visiting. In effect, tourism demand (tourists and excursionists) consists of 90% of Quebecers, while international visitors represent less than 5%. Add to that, the climate change impact on the seasonal activities creates new constraints on tourism market. Indeed, despite that the average temperatures are still very low, sudden variations in temperature affect the offer and the seasons’ succession. This new phenomena produce a seasons shifting which is no longer in accordance with the mass departures for holidays.

International audience; Current snow cover area products are derived from mid-resolution optical observations but their spatial resolution (e.g. MODIS, 500 m) is too coarse for many applications in mountains where the snow cover varies at decametric scales. The Theia land data center (http://www.theia-land.fr/) is preparing the distribution of a new snow cover product from Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 data to map the snow presence or absence at 20 m resolution every 5 days over a large region, which currently includes the French Alps, the eastern part of the Swiss and Italian Alps, the Pyrenees and the High Atlas (Hagolle, 2016). The algorithm takes as input a Sentinel-2 or Landsat-8 image of surface reflectance corrected from atmospheric and slope effects, the associated cloud mask and a digital elevation model. The output is a vector file or single band raster at the same resolution of the input image, which gives the snow presence or absence and a new cloud mask. Before the launch of Sentinel-2 the algorithm was tested on various SPOT-4 Take 5, SPOT-5 Take5 and Landsat-8 time series in the Pyrenees, the High-Atlas in Morocco and the french Alps (Gascoin, Grizonnet, Klempka, 2016).

International audience; The Club Alpino Italiano (CAI) was founded in Turin in 1863 and since the origins was very active in reforestation campaigns, favouring and creating the protection of the alpine flora and fauna, the development of craftsmanship and little mountain factories, the regulation of water streams, the development of mountain agriculture. During the fascist period, the references were opposing: on the one hand, the article in the monthly CAI magazine acclaimed the off-road performance of Fiat Balilla, but on the other hand, the CAI despite being the regime friendly association, protested against the construction of roads and hotels in the Breuil Basin, on the Italian side of Mount Cervino. In the same years, CAI supported the policy of foundation and development of National Parks. In the 50’s and 60’s, in front of strong development of tourism infrastructures and facilities for the winter sports CAI expressed its negative opinion about the construction of cable cars. In the early 80’s, CAI took part in some protest against the development of uranium mines and at a later time was also involved in protesting against marble extraction plans in the Apuan Alps.

International audience; This study shows how the territorial labelling of a specific heritage site in the NE Cape Drakensberg, South Africa contributed to a contested, fragile and obscure national identity, in the form of figures on a nation’s coat of arms. The methodology analysed the language harnessed by both the South African government and the South African museum in Cape Town where the excised Linton Panels reside. Furthermore, a number of maps were analysed, showing how the area was, and still is, neglected and marginalized. Moreover, a few academic papers were studied, showing how the cave was cut into, and panels excised for transport to the South African Museum, and then no further significance, or protection, attached to the extremely noteworthy shelter from whence the panels came. The territorial area today is marked by deep spatial and cultural inequalities, with extremely vulnerable communities living close by, despite half-hearted and incipient measures to revive the economy of the area.

International audience; Currently the European Union and its fully-fledged members are experiencing the most challenging times since its inception. The EU’s building-process was conceived as an ideological, economic, social and institutional effort geared to facilitate connections and exchange at multiple levels. Alpine countries and both the development and implementation of their cooperation and integration strategies and mechanisms have been embedded within the same strategies. Nevertheless, in parallel to this complex process of multi-layer integration, regional specificities and requests have been challenging the implementation of common policies and governance systems. This tension and cleavage has been growing since 2008 as a consequence of the economic and financial meltdown. Populist anti-immigration political parties have been gathering momentum and their influence is spreading also among countries of the alpine space. In this vein, both nation-states and regions are increasingly demanding more autonomy and independence. The ongoing migration crisis is deepening and worsening this trend and existing policies and cooperation agreements are being jeopardised. Recent examples of borders closure and blockage among countries which are part of the existing alpine protocols and policies are evidencing this disintegration process. Therefore the possibilities of trans-border cooperation and socio-economic promotion may collapse.

International audience; European institutions have identified both rural and ‘marginal’ areas in the context of rural development policy and cohesion policy. Rural areas have been defined by Eurostat, using population density (Eurostat, n.d.). A number of types of ‘marginal’ areas have been mapped, for instance in the ESPON GEOSPECS project (University of Geneva et al. 2012), which used defining criteria relating to topography, accessibility and population potential. The project ‘Social Innovation in Marginalised Rural Areas’ (SIMRA), running since April 2016 and funded by the EU Horizon 2020 Programme, builds on such previous work with particular attention being paid to countries of Eastern and Southern Mediterranean as well as the rest of Europe which also includes mountainous areas. First intermediate results of the methodological work to analyse Social Innovation will be presented, both defining ‘marginalised rural areas’ according to consistent criteria, and presenting their characteristics according to criteria – e.g. demographic, economic, land use, transport – that are relevant for social innovation in such areas. Challenges discussed include those of undertaking analysis at such a wide regional scale, with particular reference to issues of appropriateness of scale and spatial resolution.

International audience; Sustainable forest management requires a precise knowledge of the forest resource and existing infrastructure, to consider harvesting scenarios. LIDAR, a remote sensing technology, is used by many countries to model and map the forest resource (Naesset, 2004). In France, forests are more heterogeneous (in species and structures). So a “based area” method have been adapted to calibrate empirical models relating dendrometric parameters measured in the field with metrics derived from LIDAR (thanks to a research program ANR-Foresee). The results show that it is possible to characterize forest resources in different forests: from plain with beech or pine regular forest to mountain covered by heterogeneous fir-spruce forests (Munoz et al. 2016). The accuracy of LIDAR inventories is equivalent to that of traditional field methods. Moreover, LIDAR allows to achieve a continuous mapping of modeled variables (see fig. 1), and calculations at different scales (plots, forest). If thousands of square kilometers have been mapped using LIDAR data, demonstrators are underway at ONF to evaluate the operational use of these innovative methods, before a possible deployment to large scales.

International audience; The purpose of this research is to characterize alpine summer sport tourists with findings that span across different outdoor sporting activities. Special focus is put on destination choice criteria such as natural environments, sporting infrastructure and services provided. Data was collected in ten different Tyrolean regions from tourists involved in some form of outdoor sporting activity. The importance of and satisfaction with the above mentioned destination goods are analysed with the help of an importance-performance analysis. Findings highlight the multi-optionality of summer sport tourists and a high importance of environmental destination characteristics. In general, satisfaction corresponds to the assessed importance of attributes but differs across sporting activities. Practical implications allow alpine destinations to optimize offers which are specifically tailored to summer sport tourists, to identify new sport tourism opportunities and to further enhance sport tourism infrastructure and environments.

International audience; Territorial labelling of mountain food products serves as a marker of both product quality traits and cultural heritage. In mountain regions, the use of territorial labelling relates to competitiveness of farming enterprises and to the renewed attractiveness and identity of the territorial domain. A wide range of farming practices across European mountains, with a wealth of tradition and know-how, generates a variety of mountain products appreciated by consumers (EuroMARC, 2009; European Commission, 2011). However, farmers face difficulties in valorising this potential marketing advantage and in getting a fair price for their products (European Commission, 2009). The use of quality labels has been proposed as a strategy to resolve this. To help promote their products, mountain actors across Europe use a variety of quality labels linked to mountain territories. Territorial labels have the potential to structure and govern food chains and are conceptualised as processes of respatialization/relocalization of food systems studied in the literature on origin-based quality in the food sector. This literature contextualises the shift from production to quality-driven system in the specific histories and networks of territories (Allaire & Sylvander, 1997; Allaire, 2002, 2010); it is particularly interested in understanding how the regulatory frames underlying quality labels are shaped by local organisational actors and generate collaborative structures (Allaire, 2002).

International audience; In the Europe 2020 Strategy, Social Innovation (SI) tries to respond to unmet or unresolved social demands. SI includes new institutional and governance arrangements, new relationships between actors and new fields of activity. Despite increasing recognition of its novel features when compared to classical Schumpeterian innovations, several challenges remain with actual implementation and evaluation of SI. This is due to the lack of recognized mechanisms for assessing performance and standard units of analysis for its impact evaluation. This qualitative paper is based on initial analysis carried out within the EU funded H2020 project Social Innovation in Marginalised Rural Areas. Starting from critical challenges in European marginalised mountain areas, we explore whether and how existing methods, approaches and tools can be used or adapted to propose a new evaluation framework that measures SI and its impacts more accurately and comprehensively. Ad hoc criteria and indicators that capture the specificities of SI and its impacts may thus contribute to formulate more relevant and effective mountain development policies intended to address the specific social demands of these areas.

International audience; Starting from the Engadine Panorama – designed by Giovanni Segantini for the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris – this contribution aims at retracing the relationship between perception and representation of some mountain landscapes. The 400 square metres of painted surface of the Engadine Panorama was an artistic synthesis that represented a territory reshaped by imagination. The observer was optically and emotionally engaged through a “script of the landscape”. In this way, the idea of Engadine became a shared narrative, capable of structuring an iconic mythology. Archetypal figures of landscape have progressively been shifted to a more conceptual level. They become backgrounds in the interest of a communication strategy. Advertising has replaced visual arts in conveying images, symbols, ideas, beliefs and behavioural patterns. The bucolic and romantic image of alpine landscape disappears exploring the Apennines’ landscape. How to start a dis-imagining process to renew the relationship between people and their environment and regain knowledge on how to act inside it, restoring the third dimension of the space flattened in the images?

International audience; The transformation from Fordist society to a liberal-productivist model of society touched regional development paradigms and the position of mountain areas since the 1990s. It was linked with a renaissance of Schumpeter’s thesis of the “creative destruction” which he attributed to technical and commercial innovations in the sense of economic prosperity. This paradigm of a new entrepreneurial understanding of regions substituted the former welfare state paradigm of everlasting growth and general redistribution by trickling down effects. The new model offers new possibilities for those groups of social actors and regions which are able to develop distinctive features as uniqueness and unique selling propositions to show a high performance on global markets. In this sense “marginality” which is a characteristic for several mountain areas can be an “innovative” feature but at the price of losing this characteristic. Marginal regions in general and mountains in particular should develop a clear profile and an entrepreneurial attitude to solve their specific problems in self-responsibility and subsidiarity but on responding to external demands (for specific mountain resources like leisure, water etc.).

International audience; Several studies were already published concerning the socio-economic impact of marathons or small scaled sport event. All of them study several events either in the same town (Gibson et al., 2012) or in the same country (Lapeyronie, 2009). The idea of the research is to develop the same study in several towns in different countries using the same methodology. The communication presents how this project was organized and developed with 14 countries and, as an example, what are the results obtained for the race studied in Phalempin, France. The main purpose of this communication is to show the methodology used to obtain results at an international level, with possible comparisons and so a deeper knowledge of the type of event studied.

International audience; The parks are moving increasingly to become instruments for land management and allow the control of human interventions on the territory, both in conservative terms and through the promotion of activities that can lead to development processes in marginal areas. Among the main reasons that lead to the establishment of a Park lies – in the first place – the presence of externalities about the conservation of natural resources and thus the need to safeguard the public goods which costs should not be counted against its citizens while – secondly – the non-repeatability of natural resources needs the right compromise with the increasing of technological progress, this is the reason why the parks should regulate the equilibrium between the transformation and conservation processes. Anyway, the establishment of a park and its transformations can give rise to problems of distribution: the higher is the spreading of the benefits, the greater will be the costs to be endured by the national collectivity. For these reasons, in favor of local populations that fall in the park area should be identified development forms compatible with the environment, or should be provided with a compensation measures in terms of payment for any missed revenues deriving from structural constraints that implies a protected area.

International audience; Some cities have established brands or labels from hosting sport teams and events i.e., Barcelona, Innsbruck, Augusta, and Le Mans, to name a few, while others have forged identities from art, architecture, ways of life, religion, wine and gastronomy, etc. Florence, Venice, Mecca, or Hershey, Pennsylvania USA. Founded in 1610, Santa Fe, New Mexico is the oldest and highest capital city in the US (elev. 3000m). Santa Fe was designated a UNESCO Creative City in 2005, the first US city to be so honored and currently one of only a few Creative Cities in the world. Renowned as an art and cultural-heritage destination for mature markets, Santa Fe has recently been pursuing younger visitors who ski, mountain bike, and/or run. The city is adjacent to the Sangre de Cristo mountains, national forests, open spaces, tribal lands, and trails. Alpine or downhill skiing is one of the most popular winter sports in the world, and a focal attraction for many sport tourists. In the United States, 4.5 million skier days were recorded in 2015, with a majority in the western Rocky Mountain region. Ski tourist spending contributes significantly to the billion dollar US ski industry and local economic development.

International audience; This paper mainly deals with the changes that have occurred from the twentieth century onward in the relationships between the valley and the highlands in the western Italian Alps. In particular, it will examine the changes that have affected the rapport between lowlands and highlands, mainly after the growing success of winter sports. It has moved from a situation where the valley floor, the place where the factories of the second industrial revolution were built, were crucial from an economic point of view, to one in which gained ground the mountain resorts. This has had, as we shall see, significant consequences on land values in relation to the great growth of the construction of secondary homes. A very intense building activity with serious consequences from environmental and touristic point of view that will be explored in the paper

International audience; Current snow cover area products are derived from mid-resolution optical observations but their spatial resolution (e.g. MODIS, 500 m) is too coarse for many applications in mountains where the snow cover varies at decametric scales. The Theia land data center (http://www.theia-land.fr/) is preparing the distribution of a new snow cover product from Landsat-8 and Sentinel-2 data to map the snow presence or absence at 20 m resolution every 5 days over a large region, which currently includes the French Alps, the eastern part of the Swiss and Italian Alps, the Pyrenees and the High Atlas (Hagolle, 2016). The algorithm takes as input a Sentinel-2 or Landsat-8 image of surface reflectance corrected from atmospheric and slope effects, the associated cloud mask and a digital elevation model. The output is a vector file or single band raster at the same resolution of the input image, which gives the snow presence or absence and a new cloud mask. Before the launch of Sentinel-2 the algorithm was tested on various SPOT-4 Take 5, SPOT-5 Take5 and Landsat-8 time series in the Pyrenees, the High-Atlas in Morocco and the french Alps (Gascoin, Grizonnet, Klempka, 2016).

International audience; Starting from several field-works done inside cross-border Alpine valleys – connected to the metropolitan areas of the lowland plains – and supported by a cartographic work that brings together spatial and statistical data on industrial demography at the whole scale of the Alps, this contribution attempts to open a critical reflection on the polarization, specialization and marginalization of the Alpine territories. The central aspect of this work is to bind the shape of the alpine city-territory to the structure of the industrial and infrastructural space, by revealing the real substance of the «Alpine productive platform» and by explaining its strength and its strategic importance in the light of the “third-fourth industrial revolution”. The Alps, thanks to the huge presence of natural resources and to their strategic position, could attempt a possible renegotiation of their marginality and subservience to the metropolitan areas of the plain, guiding a new season of economic and social development.

International audience; Starting from the Engadine Panorama – designed by Giovanni Segantini for the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris – this contribution aims at retracing the relationship between perception and representation of some mountain landscapes. The 400 square metres of painted surface of the Engadine Panorama was an artistic synthesis that represented a territory reshaped by imagination. The observer was optically and emotionally engaged through a “script of the landscape”. In this way, the idea of Engadine became a shared narrative, capable of structuring an iconic mythology. Archetypal figures of landscape have progressively been shifted to a more conceptual level. They become backgrounds in the interest of a communication strategy. Advertising has replaced visual arts in conveying images, symbols, ideas, beliefs and behavioural patterns. The bucolic and romantic image of alpine landscape disappears exploring the Apennines’ landscape. How to start a dis-imagining process to renew the relationship between people and their environment and regain knowledge on how to act inside it, restoring the third dimension of the space flattened in the images?

International audience; Sport events are often staged by destination marketers for branding purposes, to attract new tourists, and/or to address tourism seasonality issues, among other reasons. But before athletes vie for championships in far-away places often an equally vigorous competition has taken place months or in some cases, years earlier to determine the host cities. Such is the case for mega- events i.e., Olympic Games and FIFA World Cup as well as for second tier events including the International Ski Federation (FIS) Nordic World Ski Championships. One might perceive that cross country skiing involves quietly schussing through pine forests but at the elite level, nordic ski races are highly commercialized, featuring athletes in colorfully-clad skin suits adorned with corporate emblems, and the courses, lined with sponsor signs, finish in a stadium. The event atmosphere is like a rock concert: Large screens broadcast the races while pulsating music blares and fans dance (to keep warm). Food, beverage, and merchandise vendors display their wares for sale or sample. For those seeking sport in pristine wilderness environments, too much commercialism may be disconcerting, leading to shortened stays and negative referrals; conversely too few commercial opportunities linked to nature-based sport tourism may inhibit existing businesses and/or future investments, or lead to an event atmosphere that is blasé.

International audience; Among the most complex and debated topics related to the concept that is used to link sport and tourism are the terminology, definition, and categorization. It is important to debate and determine these issues to establish a conceptual line of thinking, allowing IRNIST affiliated researchers and professionals to build joint projects and to work in the same framework. This communication attempts to discuss and suggest a designation, definition, and categorisation of Sport Tourism. The analysis is based in a literature review applying a content analyses method to examine the main works presented in the literature focusing these three topics. A reflection will be made about the use of the term sport tourism rather sports tourism or other terms, in line with the perspective of some scholars, including Gibson (2008), “to encompass a wider analysis of sport as a social institution rather than the micro view of individual sports” (p. 27). Additionally, based in the analysed studies, the definition and categorization of sport tourism will be presented from the supply side and matched with the demand side. In doing this, an empirical rather than an intellectual concept will be presented, allowing to develop, for instance, studies of socioeconomic impact.

International audience; The purpose of this research is to characterize alpine summer sport tourists with findings that span across different outdoor sporting activities. Special focus is put on destination choice criteria such as natural environments, sporting infrastructure and services provided. Data was collected in ten different Tyrolean regions from tourists involved in some form of outdoor sporting activity. The importance of and satisfaction with the above mentioned destination goods are analysed with the help of an importance-performance analysis. Findings highlight the multi-optionality of summer sport tourists and a high importance of environmental destination characteristics. In general, satisfaction corresponds to the assessed importance of attributes but differs across sporting activities. Practical implications allow alpine destinations to optimize offers which are specifically tailored to summer sport tourists, to identify new sport tourism opportunities and to further enhance sport tourism infrastructure and environments.

International audience; The parks are moving increasingly to become instruments for land management and allow the control of human interventions on the territory, both in conservative terms and through the promotion of activities that can lead to development processes in marginal areas. Among the main reasons that lead to the establishment of a Park lies – in the first place – the presence of externalities about the conservation of natural resources and thus the need to safeguard the public goods which costs should not be counted against its citizens while – secondly – the non-repeatability of natural resources needs the right compromise with the increasing of technological progress, this is the reason why the parks should regulate the equilibrium between the transformation and conservation processes. Anyway, the establishment of a park and its transformations can give rise to problems of distribution: the higher is the spreading of the benefits, the greater will be the costs to be endured by the national collectivity. For these reasons, in favor of local populations that fall in the park area should be identified development forms compatible with the environment, or should be provided with a compensation measures in terms of payment for any missed revenues deriving from structural constraints that implies a protected area.