Adapted forest management in Austria

Forest management and climate change directly or indirectly exert impacts on water supply, both in terms of quality and quantity. In order to safeguard water resources, forest management should focus on maintaining a continuous forest vegetation cover, on minimizing disturbance, and on the prevention of soil degradation.

This report presents the results of the Pilot study 1 of the Orientgate project (A network for the integration of climate knowledge into policy and planning). The study focused on climate change adaptation in forests in the Austrian Alps where there is a growing level of uncertainty in relation to climate change impacts, and where the risks of incorrect silvicultural management are increasing.