Snow avalanche controls, monitoring strategies, and hazard management in Svalbard
Snow avalanches present a common natural hazard in snow-covered mountainous areas throughout the world. However, most snow avalanche research has taken place in mid-latitude locations, thereby limiting knowledge of avalanche processes in polar regions. Highlighting the need for better avalanche know...
| Published in: | Cold Regions Science and Technology |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2021
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10852/88359 http://urn.nb.no/URN:NBN:no-90979 |
| Summary: | Snow avalanches present a common natural hazard in snow-covered mountainous areas throughout the world. However, most snow avalanche research has taken place in mid-latitude locations, thereby limiting knowledge of avalanche processes in polar regions. Highlighting the need for better avalanche knowledge and improved hazard management in high-latitude settings, an avalanche struck Longyearbyen, Svalbard in December 2015, destroying 11 houses and killing two residents in their homes. This thesis therefore investigates snow avalanche processes across a range of spatial and temporal scales in Svalbard and places the results in the context of improved hazard management strategies in this location. Primary contributions from this research include: 1) employing and further developing terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) techniques to illustrate and quantify how specific meteorological conditions control snow distribution and avalanche activity at the slope and catchment spatial scales near Longyearbyen, and 2) investigating the broader-scale meteorological controls on avalanche activity in Svalbard’s rapidly changing climate. Results from this work help refine our understanding of how snow and wind associated with winter storms serve as key controls on snow avalanches in Spitsbergen and can help inform future avalanche research and hazard management strategies here and in other high-latitude locations. |
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