Snow avalanche disturbances in forest ecosystems—State of research and implications for management

Bebi, Peter; Kulakowski, Dominik; Rixen, Christian

doi:10.1016/j.foreco.2009.01.050

Cited by 209 publications

(147 citation statements)

References 86 publications

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“…More broadly, strong interactions between avalanches, forest and society exist (Bebi et al, 2009;Feistl et al, 2015). Pressure on wood resources remained strong until the nineteenth century, leading to the extension of deforested areas (including pastures) at the expense of forested areas, and therefore, presumably, to an intensification of avalanche activity.…”

Section: Land Use Changesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A 240-year history of avalanche risk in the Vosges Mountains based on non-conventional (re)sources

Giacona

Eckert

Martin

2017

Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci.

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Abstract. Despite the strong societal impact of mountain risks, their systematic documentation remains poor. Therefore, snow avalanche chronologies exceeding several decades are exceptional, especially in medium-high mountain ranges. This article implements a combination of historical and geographical methods leading to the reconstruction, at the scale of the entire Vosges Mountains (north-east of France), of more than 700 avalanches that have occurred since the late eighteenth century on 128 paths. The clearly episodic nature of the derived geo-chronology can be explained by three interrelated factors that have changed together over time: the body and reliability of sources, social practices conditioning the vulnerability and the natural hazard itself. Finally, the geo-chronology reflects the changes in the meaning of the hazard in social space. Specifically, the event which could be retrieved from the historical sources is an aspect of the interaction between society and its environment. These results confirm the role of the historian in contextualising and evaluating such data. It transforms these data into information that is relevant for mitigating risk and understanding its change over time. The work also demonstrates the usefulness of constructing an original database from a diverse suite of historical data and field investigations. This approach could be applied to other risk phenomena in the frequent situation in which archival data are sparse.

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Section: Land Use Changesmentioning

confidence: 99%

A 240-year history of avalanche risk in the Vosges Mountains based on non-conventional (re)sources

Giacona

Eckert

Martin

2017

Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci.

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“…Dotted lines represent the 372 natural hazards action in reducing the strength or capability of supporting or reinforcing 373 system to maintain the mass. For example, accumulated snow can result in avalanche from 374 rain (indicated with a broken line, Stimberis and Rubin 2011) or earthquake (Podolskiy et al 375 2010) by breaking the connection between grains or chunk of snow, while strong winds 376 upturning trees increases the risk of an avalanche because the trees function to stabilise the 377 snow cover (Bebi et al 2009 In this case, the link from "windfall trees" is represented as a broken line. In another 385 example, there were landslides linked to the problem of trees destroyed by several typhoons 386 in Hyogo, Japan 2004.…”

Section: Fig 2 Cascading Natural Disasters Categorised As "Striking"mentioning

confidence: 99%

Anatomy of cascading natural disasters in Japan: main modes and linkages

et al. 2015

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“…Mountain forests are known for stabilizing the snowpack in potential avalanche release areas and thus help preventing avalanche initiation (Weir, 2002;Bebi et al, 2009,). In the case of small to medium-scale snow avalanches (i.e., < ca.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…10000 m 3 ), forests can also extract snow from the avalanche flow through deposition on 20 the upslope-facing part of tree stems and on other obstacles (Feistl et al, 2014). Forest parameters such as stand composition, stem density and terrain roughness have thus not only an effect on stabilizing the snowpack in potential release areas (Bebi et al, 2009;Viglietti et al, 2010), but may also influence the spatial extent of small and medium-sized avalanches . However, snow avalanches can break, uproot and overturn trees (de Quervain, 1978;Takeuchi et al, 2011).…”

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confidence: 99%

Assessing the interaction between mountain forests and natural hazards at Nevados de Chillán, Chile, and its implications for Ecosystem-based Disaster Risk Reduction

Casteller¹,

Häfelfinger²,

Donoso³

et al. 2017

Preprint

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Abstract.Gravitational natural hazards such as snow avalanches, rockfalls, shallow landslides and volcanic activity represent a risk factor for mountain communities around the world. In particular where documentary 15 records about these processes are rare, decisions on risk management and land-use planning have to be based on a variety of other sources including vegetation and tree-ring data and natural hazard process models. We used a combination of these methods in order to evaluate dynamics of snow avalanches and other natural hazards at Valle de las Trancas, in the Biobío Region in Chile. Along this valley, natural hazards threaten not only the local human population, but also the numerous tourists attracted by outdoor recreational activities. Given the regional 20 scarcity of documentary records, tree-ring methods were applied in order to reconstruct the local history of snow avalanches and debris flow events, which are the more important weather-related processes at respective tracks.A recent version of the model Rapid Mass MovementS (RAMMS), that includes influences of forest structure, was used to calculate different avalanche parameters such as runout distances and maximum pressures, taking into consideration the presence/absence of forest along the tracks as well as different modelled return periods. 25Our results show that local Nothofagus broadleaved forests contribute to a reduction of avalanche runout distances as well as impact pressures on present infrastructure, thus constituting a valuable ecosystem disaster risk reduction measure that can substitute or complement other traditional measures such as sheds.

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Snow avalanche disturbances in forest ecosystems—State of research and implications for management

Cited by 209 publications

References 86 publications

A 240-year history of avalanche risk in the Vosges Mountains based on non-conventional (re)sources

A 240-year history of avalanche risk in the Vosges Mountains based on non-conventional (re)sources

Anatomy of cascading natural disasters in Japan: main modes and linkages

Assessing the interaction between mountain forests and natural hazards at Nevados de Chillán, Chile, and its implications for Ecosystem-based Disaster Risk Reduction

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