Avalanche Activity and Interaction with Harvested Terrain: Terrain Analysis and Decision Support Systems for Risk Management.

The destruction of valuable timber due to snow avalanches that interact with regenerating and mature forest stands has become an issue of great concern in western Canada, in the mountain ranges of British Columbia. The avalanche research group at the University of British Columbia has been collecting information on destructive snow avalanches which initiate within cut blocks and on those which descend into cut blocks. Information gathered is being used to study relationships between terrain and vegetation parameters and relationships with frequency and magnitUde. Results of this study will be the foundation for decision support systems to minimize risk generated by destructive avalanches in future logging operations. In this paper, the direction of the research group's current research is discussed and preliminary results are highlighted.