Climate Detectives Projects 2018-2019

Project title: Mountains: sentinels of climate change

Team: eHAND

2018-2019   Liceo Statale Scientifico e Classico ‘Ettore Majorana’   Desio   Italy   22 Student’s age: 14-15

Mountains are particularly vulnerable to climate change. because glaciers are the primary victims of global warming and their melting the first alarm bell. We started to study this problem and its consequences: flooding; hydrogeological instability; hydroelectric power loss; landslides; biodiversity loss; economic impact and we focused in deep on the permafrost thawing problem. We made geomorphological and geophysical analysis of our area: research also in collaboration with research Institution and Universities in Lombardy and we Identified an area near the Passo del Foscagno to investigate. We considered only 4 parameters: height above sea level, vegetation, soil and snow cover. We analyzed available satellite images to define snow cover patterns of the selected area in September ( minimun of snow cover) and in February (maximum) in the last ten years. We will go on field on June to search for typical vegetation species in order to be able to map the presence of different species in the examined area amd we will use a radiometer to analyze the absorbed and reflected radiation to study the albedo of the area. We will take sample of soil at different depths over the permafrost table using an auger, collecting the GPS location of the soil sample, and digital photographs of the area.

We will able to have all data in June, when we can go on field. For now we analized the data from satellites.

We can not do anything to directly counter the permafrost thawing but since climate change is caused by human expansion of the “greenhouse effect” we decided to focus our actions on the using energy wisely, rising awareness for the problem in our school and community. We prepared questionnaires about the waste in our school and community , then, based on the results of this survey, we organized a hackathon to plan a project to improve the quality of the school in relation to sustainability, focusing on the importance of the culture of knowledge, science and technology and using mostly digital technologies. Since this activity is part of an Erasmus+ project, we also had the opportunity to organize an exhibit about this problem in order to increase the awareness in our community.

https://twinspace.etwinning.net/15801/pages/page/417839