AvaForCE - Avalanche mitigation and forest dynamics under climate change in the mountains of southeastern Europe and the Alps

Snow avalanches are a major disturbance in mountain ecosystems, causing fatalities and threatening infrastructure. Avalanches provide insights into climate change, with rising temperatures and shifting precipitation patterns altering snowpack and creating variable conditions. Effective forecasting and safety measures require understanding long-term avalanche regimes and climate variability. 

This project addresses research gaps in avalanche-forest interactions under changing climates in Bulgaria and Romania. We will use tree-rings to map large-magnitude avalanches and analyze historical and remote sensing data to study avalanche ef-fects on forests. Comparing this data with Swiss records will highlight climatic influ-ences on avalanche regimes. We will simulate avalanches to enhance hazard mapping, which is currently lacking in Bulgaria and Romania. The project will improve hazard mapping and mitigation, reducing risks to human life, infrastructure, and tourism in different countries.