The SPCC Bündel seeks to understand the permafrost system of the European Alps in an integral way and on different spatial and temporal scales. The following generic questions are posed:

• To what extent are permafrost dominated periglacial mountain environments sensitive to climate change and how can we describe and quantify the sensitivity of the system (disturbances and reactions)?
• Which permanent and transient environmental factors dominate the spatio-temporal response to atmospheric forcing? What are the controlling factors for permafrost degradation and aggradation?
• How do the atmospheric system, subsurface material properties and geomorphic process activity interact?
• To what extent is mountain permafrost evolution influenced by non-linear threshold and buffer behaviour?

• Development of appropriate downscaling techniques to combine Regional Climate Model simulations and high-resolution permafrost subsurface model simulations.
• Development of a permafrost specific subsurface model for data- and scenario-driven simulations of the mountain permafrost evolution at different test sites.

• Mapping of spatial characteristics of permafrost in unconsolidated sediments and solid rocks, and monitoring of spatio-temporal system evolution by combining geomorphological and geophysical techniques.
• Quantification of frozen subsurface characteristics concerning temperature, ice and unfrozen water content.

• Mapping and monitoring of changes in landform geometry in order to quantify process rates (kinematics) for creeping permafrost phenomena, such as rockglaciers and frozen talus slopes as well as permafrost-related rock wall instabilities that result in rock creep, rock block slides and rockfalls.
• Analysis of spatio-temporal changes in kinematics as well as landform failures by the implementation of temperature data and information on subsurface characteristics to decipher the rheological response.