Abstract
Abstract. During the last decades, the process of explaining life-threatening natural hazards to the public has become a major public issue from the point of view of effective prevention policies. The avalanche risk and the communication methods aimed at its forecasting and prevention constitute the focus of this paper. Among the strategies for an effective communication of environmental risks, cartography plays a pivotal role. It has proved to be essential not only for communication purposes, but also for the planning of prompt and efficient preventive interventions; in so doing, it contributes to the reduction of avalanche-caused damages and deaths. The paper investigates prevention and forecasting activities of the Meteomont Service of the Alpine Troops Command (COMTA) of Bolzano (capital city of the province of South Tyrol - North Italy), resulting in the daily publication of avalanche bulletins (Bollettini valanghe), which also include hazard maps. Specifically, the phases that contribute to the production of the avalanche bulletin and the embedded avalanche risk maps will be firstly examined; secondly, such maps will be analysed in order to assess their communicative potential for the purpose of a correct interpretation aimed at the effective prevention of snow-related risks in mountain areas. Possible improvement will be proposed on the basis of the experience of several avalanche warning services worldwide.
Highlights
During the last decades, the process of explaining lifethreatening natural hazards to the public has become a major public issue from the point of view of effective prevention policies
Two types of avalanche hazard maps can be distinguished on the basis of the scale, the contents, and methods used in data collection and processing: on the one hand, “hazard registration maps”, i.e. those “containing the maximum boundaries of historically known avalanches, usually [...] compiled from literature, documents, and interviews, and by field investigations and interpretation of photographs” (Barbolini et al, 2011, p. 452); on the other hand, those “outlining zones with different degrees of hazard, [...] drawn on the basis of known historic events, geo-morphological investigations, and statistical and/or dynamic computational models” (Ibidem), ascribed to the category “hazard zoning maps” (Sauermoser, 2006)
Avalanche danger is here essentially represented through a combination of meteorological and topographical elements resulting in the hazard map of the depicted area. Their importance is twofold: on the one hand the publication of the bulletins lowers the avalanche-caused risks in the mountain environment in the short term; on the other hand, the data collected by the Meteomont Service for the daily production of the bulletins, as well as the related hazard maps, are becoming considerably important since they could contribute to the creation of avalanche hazard zoning maps aimed at minimising risks in medium-long term
Summary
The process of explaining lifethreatening natural hazards to the public has become a major public issue from the point of view of effective prevention policies. In view of these considerations, both dealing with avalanches forecast and risk prevention, and communicating such information in the most effective and comprehensible way, is becoming crucial for avalanche warning centres worldwide Within this epistemological framework, the paper intends to investigate prevention and forecasting activities of the Meteomont Service of the Alpine Troops Command (COMTA) of Bolzano (capital city of the province of South Tyrol - North-eastern Italy), resulting in the daily publication of avalanche bulletins (Bollettini valanghe), which include hazard maps. The paper intends to investigate prevention and forecasting activities of the Meteomont Service of the Alpine Troops Command (COMTA) of Bolzano (capital city of the province of South Tyrol - North-eastern Italy), resulting in the daily publication of avalanche bulletins (Bollettini valanghe), which include hazard maps Such maps will be analysed in order to assess their communicative potential for the purpose of a correct interpretation aimed at the effective prevention of snow-related risks in mountain areas. Possible improvement will be proposed on the basis of the experience of several avalanche warning services worldwide (Kunz, Hurni, 2008; Staněk et al, 2010; Martí et al, 2009; Engeset, 2013; Ruesch et al, 2013)
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