Protective Capacity of Forests against Snow Avalanches in Chile

CASTELLER, A.; BEBI, P.; CORDERO, D.

Davos

Conferencia; 5th International Disaster and Risk Conference IDRC Davos 2014; 2014

GRF Davos & United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction

Mountain forests have an important function as protective measure against snow avalanches and other natural hazards. Our presentation will start with a short overview on research conducted at the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF) in relation to snow avalanches and mountain forest. We will then shift from the Alps to the Chilean Andes, in order to present the EPIC project being conducted in collaboration with IUCN and local stakeholders. In the study area Nevados de Chillán, we have identified the main avalanche tracks affecting infrastructure and we are using remote sensing, tree-ring methods and avalanche dynamic models for analyzing the spatio-temporal patterns of avalanches and other natural hazards. A vulnerability assessment based on local people?s perceptions was carried out generating a series of proposals to address such vulnerabilities. The project is also working on multi-stakeholders dialogues and communication in order to promote eco disaster risk reduction in Chile. Our preliminary results demonstrate the importance of snow avalanches but also of other hazards for our study area and suggest that vulnerability assessments should be conducted as early as possible within a transdisciplinary research project.