An integrated system to assess snow forces on avalanche defense structures from snow-gliding: La Tour test site - Aosta Valley (IT)

A new test site devoted to the measurement of the effects of snow-gliding on active de- fense structures has been conceived and built in Aosta Valley, north-western Italian Alps. The core of the experimental test site is represented by an instrumented snow-umbrella, a semi- flexible snow retaining device composed of a flexible net panel supported by a rigid metallic frame, and by a set of instrumented glide shoes for the evaluation of downhill snowpack motion. Snow/soil interface temperature and moisture sensors and an automatic weather station, surround the main apparatus allowing the recording of the environmental conditions onsite. After a detailed description of the instrumentation, the paper stresses on the integrated approach, which presupposes to combine data and knowledge pertaining to different scientific fields, i.e., soil science and snow science and engineering, in order to provide a unified view of the topic and its ef- fects.