The avalanche winter of 1999 and the storms of 2005, which caused damage amounting to some 350 million and 3 billion francs respectively, clearly showed how vulnerable Switzerland is to natural hazards. A pilot project for the development of a countrywide warning system for natural hazards is now underway.
The Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), MeteoSwiss (the Federal Office of Meteorology and Climatology), and the Federal Office for the Environment are currently collaborating in the construction of a Joint Information Platform for Natural Hazards (GIN). The aim is for all the data on natural hazards gathered by regional systems to be seamlessly integrated into this joint platform.
Avalanche warning system as model
Based on the experiences and infrastructure of the Swiss avalanche warning system (Intercantonal Early Warning and Crisis Information System, IFKIS), the WSL has spent the last three years developing warning systems for streams and debris flows as part of the pilot project “IFKIS-Hydro”. The way in which such a warning system will be built up depends greatly on the size of the catchment area. In the pilot area, namely Canton Glarus, a computer- based discharge forecast model was developed for the River Linth. For smaller catchment areas, by contrast, the aim is to create a good observation network and ensure local densification of the precipitation measurement network.
Reducing the risk of damage
Generally speaking, the different measures to reduce the risk of damage posed by natural hazards can be broken down into three categories:
- technical (construction) measures,
- planning measures (hazard maps and their implementation) and
- forecasting, warning and intervention.
Increasing attention has been paid recently to warning and intervention. This is probably not least because these kinds of measures promise a favourable cost/benefit ratio in many cases. The goal of a warning system is to facilitate the timely initiation of measures designed to reduce damage.
Aiming for a country-wide warning system
The challenges along the road to achieving a country-wide warning system for alpine hydrological (water-caused) natural hazards are:
- intensified collaboration between the specialist offices of the Confederation and between Federal government, cantons and municipalities,
- the development of emergency concepts for intervention measures,
- the improvement of the basis for decision-making (weather and discharge forecasts, observation and measurement networks) and
- the training of task forces (management bodies, fire service, civil defence functions, etc.).
