Analysing avalanches online
New developments have been created in order to contribute to sustainable development in Europe's mountainous regions. These include improved tools for hazard mapping, design criteria for protection dams and economical radar systems for overseeing avalanche hazard in critical models. Specifically, the focus was on improving the physical basis of dynamic avalanche models and simulating the flow regimes and rates of snow entrainment and suspension. Experiments have been done in full-scale avalanche test sites as well as in laboratory chutes. Furthermore, novel sensors for measuring crucial parameters within the flowing avalanche were developed. In order to record avalanche flow, a set of Matlab and C software for analysing avalanche video images was developed. The software has proven to be successful with ping-pong ball avalanches, snow avalanches and laboratory experiments. It is configured for fixed cameras and presumes that the flow reaches each point only once. The method it is based on is a temporal change-point one that rendered the initial arrival times of the front, making the flow contours the level sets. The package consists of software for camera standardisation and transition to world coordinates on geometric surfaces and digital terrain models. As a result, this new development could bring increased competence to all countries concerned with avalanches.
