RisKLIM – Verstehbare Vorhersagen im Klimawandelkontext – Transnationale Klimatologien und Klimaszenarien und proaktives Naturgefahrenmanagement - Inklusive Kommunikation; bezogen auf Lawinen und Schneelast

The Alpine region is particularly affected by climate-induced changes in natural hazards (e.g. avalanches and snow load events). The project aims to develop cross-border climate services and operational tools to improve risk assessment and to support decision-makers at local and regional levels with targeted, usable information.

The Alps are distinguished by meteorological/climatic pre-conditions and evolutionary disruptions which are vastly different from those in the non-Alpine world. Within the reaches of the programme, ever-higher risks of climate-linked dangers are currently being anticipated as a consequence of climate change, for example, avalanches and inordinate snow burdens. These risks harbor immense potential danger which is nearly impossible to calculate in advance and, what’s more, will have a direct, immediate impact on the development of those future regions acutely exposed to the shifting vortex of danger and on society itself. The effects of the most recent natural catastrophes bear sharp witness to the significance of precise prior information based on high-definition graphic pinpointing of both spatial and temporal aspects with the aim of creating a target-oriented danger management system and medium and long-term plans for the Alps. The ultimate goals are cross-border solutions for climate services as well as an overall concept for optimizing climate service communications. The isolated approaches currently operative among the partners need to be bundled, focused, expanded by innovative processes. These synergies, together with concerted integration of local and regional players, will make it possible to render key information available to the relevant regions and empower cross-border communication of that information to flow smoothly to recipient target groups for the most pressing questions. An overriding goal of the project is to utilize the wide-ranging experiences and abilities of all the participating institutes through a mutual exchange of knowledge among experts, scientists, savvy local/regional participants, and subsequently, to exchange current methods and know-how in workshops, evolve them, make them more graspable. The relationship between institutes and user are sustainable for years to come.