Avalanche hazards and mitigation in Austria: a review

Abstract

At all times natural hazards like torrents or avalanches pose a threat to settlements and infrastructures in the Austrian Alps. Since 1950 more than 1,600 persons have been killed by avalanches in Austria, which is on average approximately 30 fatalities per year. In particular, the winter periods 1950/1951 and 1953/1954 stand out with more than 100 fatalities. Those events led to an increase of avalanche control programmes in the following decades. While from the 1950s to the 1970s emphasis was placed on permanent measures (technical structures, afforestations, hazard zoning ...) additional programmes such as avalanche warning and forecasting have supplemented avalanche control measures in the last decades. Current research is focused on avalanche simulation, risk management and the influence of the forest on avalanche formation. An important area of future research is to develop improved methods for avalanche forecasting and to intensify the investigation of the dynamics of avalanches.