Testing and Developing Methods for Avalanche Forecasting in Norway

NVE 1 was in 2009 appointed the national authority responsible for avalanches and landslides. A project was initiated, aiming to test and develop methods for avalanche forecasting on a national/regional scale in Norway. The project focuses on developing methods and assembling data for the avalanche forecasting service. It also has a component on data processing and visualisation (weather data, snow and hydrological modelling and data dissemination) which supports a complementary project aimed at developing tools for the national/regional landslide forecasting service (a service which is not yet established). The project is split into five components: (1) a review of existing tools on setting the danger level, (2) local snow observations and collaboration with local partners, (3) weather data, (4) snow simulations and (5) web portal development based on an existing web application seNorge.no 5 . The project and preliminary results are presented in this paper. 1 Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) 2 Norwegian Metrological Institute (met.no) 3 Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NPRA) 4 Norwegian National Rail Administration (NNRA) 5 http://www.senorge.no/ 6 Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI) 7 http://forevar.senorge.no/