Climate Change Impacts on Alpine Mass Movements

Global warming is inducing rapid changes in high mountain geomorphology. Changes resulting from rising air temperatures are well observed, whereas changes caused by precipitation are less known. The latter are significant since they impact the frequency, magnitude and severity of alpine mass movements (AMM). Especially the interaction of processes is less understood. Additionally, forest disturbances will undermine the efficiency of protection forests. Due to the increased risk of AMM and altering protection forests, communities will have to adjust to these changes and need robust adaptation measures.

Our session focuses on responding to the emerging challenges posed by climate change impacts on AMM. It targets the questions: (i) how will the hazard potential for different processes change, (ii) how will the impacts of AMM change due to changes in their initial conditions or flow dynamics, (iii) which roles do cascading events involving different processes play, (iv) what are the interactions of AMM with ecosystems, and (v) how will these changes alter the risk?