Exploitable results European Summer University courses on natural hazards, 2006 cycle - advanced course in avalanche dynamics and numerical modelling European Summer University 2006: Advanced course on the use of new models in avalanche hazard mapping The targeted audience consists of advanced students specialising in natural hazards issues and experienced engineers (outside academia) active in avalanche hazard mapping and consulting. Previous participation in one of the basic courses on avalanches offered by the European Summer University program or an equivalent formation will be a prerequisite for participation. The intensive course will give an overview of the present knowledge of avalanche dynamics (gained particularly during SATSIE), introduce the modern concepts of hazard mapping, discuss the new avalanche flow models and apply them to real-world problems in the surroundings of the course location, including substantial field work. The participants will be made aware of the different national guidelines and regulations concerning avalanche hazard mapping. If possible, representatives of national agencies responsible for avalanche safety will be invited to a presentation of the course results and a discussion of the prospects for harmonising the diverging standards within Europe. The course instructors will be recruited from the staff of the consortium members. Software suite for analysis of avalanche videos Matlab and C software suite for analysing video images. The software has been successfully used on ping-pong ball avalanches, snow avalanches and laboratory experiments. It is designed for fixed cameras and assumes that the flow only arrives at each point once. It is based on a temporal change-point method that generated the first arrival times of the front so that the level sets are the flow contours. The package includes software for camera calibration and conversion to world coordinates on geometric surfaces and digital terrain models. FMCW radar A high-performance profiling C-band radar based on the principle of continuous-wave frequency modulation has been developed jointly by the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI) and the Institute for Communication Technology and Wave Propagation (INW) of the Technical University of Graz. The purpose of this device is to measure the flow depth, the erosion rate and-by cross-correlation of the signals from a pair of radars positioned in the flow direction-vertical profiles of the internal longitudinal flow velocity. Its outstanding features are -high spatial resolution (< 0.15m), -high temporal resolution (> 100 profiles/s), -narrow beam width in the flow direction, allowing to place the radars as close as 2m without cross-talk, -a detection range > 15m, and -rugged construction withstanding unattended operation during an entire winter season in a cavern inside an large avalanche track. Further development has the objective of simplifying the device (at the expense of a reduced measurement rate) to the point where it can be manufactured as a low-cost snow-cover monitoring sensor. The intended use is primarily in inaccessible release zones of avalanches that endanger settlements or traffic routes. From the evolution of the snow cover depth, safety responsible obtain decisive information on the likelihood of an avalanche release and can more securely and accurately time evacuation decisions. Under suitable circumstances (single release zone, long avalanche path, short endangered segment of traffic route), such radar systems may also be used for triggering a traffic light closing the segment as soon as an avalanche is released. Where avalanches are released artificially under storm conditions, the FMCW radars can also be used to verify whether the snow mass was indeed released, even when it does not arrive on the valley floor. NGI has an agreement with an electronics company that will produce and market such radars after positive test results from the research system at the Ryggfonn test site and the construction of a prototype of the simplified system. Handbook on avalanche dam design Handbook on deflection and catching dam design: Different types of protection dams and their basic principles of operation are presented. Insight gained from recent laboratory and full-scale experiments is presented and discussed. This knowledge is used to analyse the merits and shortcomings of newly developed dimensioning criteria and compare them critically to the traditional methods. Based on this, recommendations are given for the procedure to follow in assessing the suitability of different dam types in a specific situation and in the overall design of a dam. Several examples illustrate the main points. Summary of avalanche seismic detection installation Report describing avalanche seismic detection installation in Ryggfonn. Presentation of the purpose of the seismic installation to measure signals from avalanches and results obtained. Description of the set up of distribution of seismic equipment (sensors and DAS) in a particular experimental site (Ryggfonn). Description of the seismic equipment characteristics and acquisition parameters. Software suite for analysis of correlations from pairs of LED/photocell sensors for determining velocity profiles in avalanche flows A package of Matlab functions for calculating velocities from the time lag between sensors. These are usually opto-electronic. Standard techniques are included such as fixed windows as well as continuous lag calculation and matched filtering. Error estimated can be calculated as well as 2d vector velocities. Searching for OpenAIRE data... There was an error trying to search data from OpenAIRE No results available
