Part 1 - Mountains and uplands an introduction
Mountain regions of the world
Importance of mountain regions to humankind
Current environmental and socio-economic information and statistics
Environmental stresses: the emergence of the human factor
Global environmental change: fundamental issues
Part 2 - Characterization of mountain environments
Climate
Hydrological systems
Cryosphere
Soils
Ecological systems and biodiversity
Human environments
Data for research on mountain environments
Part 3 - Past environmental change in mountains and uplands
Proxy data: reconstructing the past
Environmental change in the distant past
Mountain environments during the last major glaciation
Mountain environments during the Holocene
Climatic change in the 20th century
Part 4 - Modelling approaches to assess environmental change
The significance of modelling
Spatial and temporal scales
Global and regional climate models
Semi-empirical methods and statistical downscaling techniques
Ecosystem models
Integrated assessment models (IAM)
Limits and range of application of models
Part 5 - Natural forcings
The causal mechanisms of anthropogenic pressures on the environment
Environmental pollution
Land-use changes
Climatic change
Part 6 - Impact of environmental change on natural systems
Challenges for impacts assessments
Impacts on hydrology
Impact on mountain cryosphere
Extreme events and their impacts on geomophologic features
