So if it's true that alpinists can, more or less, take their lives into their own hands, it's just as true that it's worth protecting those who aren't alpinists and who happen to be a few kilometres from an intangible danger.
As a result, ever since this serac has been carefully monitored by Fondazione Montagna Sicura, on behalf of the Valle d'Aosta Geological Survey. With a degree in Environmental Engineering and Land Management, she is the technical manager of the Fondazione Montagna Sicura projects.
We would be grateful if you could briefly illustrate the Foundation's activities related to the environment Fondazione Montagna Sicura has as its mission the consolidation and development of a culture of safety in the mountains; is a center for applied research, documentation and training on issues related to the high mountains and safety. In addition to being a research center working in collaboration with universities and international research centers, supports the region in various monitoring activities and the prevention of natural hazards, such as in the preparation of Snow and avalanche bulletin as well as in the management of a Plan risk monitoring glacial.
With regard to security, on its website www. To stay abreast of the times is also active on Facebook with a page that is updated with information related to the issues addressed and the current initiatives. How many glaciers are there in Valle d'Aosta? Due to the decline in recent years we can expect this number to drop after the next count, the smallest will most certainly have disappeared. How many of these are monitored due to their inherent danger to things or people?
On the basis of historical information and other factors, at present 22 glaciers are being monitored that could hold a potential threat to things or people. But there are different levels of danger level; at the moment only three glaciers require in-depth, specific monitoring while for the others all that is needed is a helicopter analysis.
Flights are carried out in early autumn when there is less snow to see how they are evolving and to check that things haven't become more dangerous. Are the glaciers constantly regressing as people say or has a year like this one slowed this process down?
We're currently making the last readings of the "mass balance"; this is the most significant measure of a glacier's volume loss, calculated by the difference between glacier's annual accumulation snow and loss snow and ice melting.
The initial data, although not analysed completely, indicates that this year has been less negative than the previous years. In many cases large parts of the glaciers are still covered by winter snow meaning that the ice below, at least this year, has not been affected. To find out exactly how the glaciers have fared this year we need to wait for all the relevant data; the findings will be posted on our website www.
What do you think of some techniques used to preserve the surface of the glacier, such as plastic sheets spread out onto the ice. Do they work? And what is the environmental impact of such massive undertakings compared to the benefits? These techniques have been, and still are, used for specific purposes; for example, on the Presena glacier to preserve the snow needed for skiing or close to structures such as chair lift pylons located on the glacier, to prevent stability issues that might occur due to the melting glacier.
Covering large glaciers with plastic sheets to stop the climate and nature from taking its course is unthinkable. Glaciers are an element that work in careful balance with the climate and if the temperatures rise, regardless of why the climate is changing, then the glaciers will shrink.
How and with what instruments are surveys carried out on moving masses such as the suspended Whymper serac? Optical prisms are fixed to the glacier and their position is measured every hour by a measuring system at Planpincieux, in Val Ferret.
Furthermore, we are currently experimenting the use of GNSS GPS receivers we've developed since these can provide data even in cloudy conditions and in poor visibility; for the optical prism system to work the glacier must be visible from the valley, and this isn't always the case given its altitude and its particular position on the Grandes Jorasses, on the ridge along the Italian-French border that is often hit by storms.
We've also got some automatic cameras placed both above the glacier and to its side, that transmit images that help us watch the evolution of the serac fractures and the collapses that occur at the front of the serac. I suppose that the collapse point of a serac is calculated on the basis of a series of different data. The right bank has steep rocky sides that descend from the peaks of the Mont Blanc range to the valley floor at 1, m. This incredible drop of approximately 2, m is the perfect terrain for avalanches and debris flows.
In fact, these natural hazards usually originate well above the timberline and are often associated with rockfalls and extreme precipitation events or, sometimes, to the partial collapses of glacier fronts i. Grandes Jorasses and Planpincieux glaciers. These events flow over existing stream incisions, and their frequency effectively precludes the presence of forests in these areas.
The left bank, facing northwest, has more continuous forest cover, up to 2, m. On this side of the valley, the forest provides better protection from natural hazards, but despite the milder slopes, avalanche phenomena can still occur. During the winter season, the Val Ferret road is open up to the village of Planpincieux, which is located at the entrance of the valley.
From this little town, cross-country ski trails extend to the village of Lavachey, halfway up the valley. The end of Val Ferret is accessible only with ski mountaineering equipment. During the cold season, the valley is a famous tourist destination, even though the high frequency of snow avalanches make access to the valley quite difficult Figure 3.
In mountain areas, local avalanche risk management has always been of crucial importance. In addition to being a complicated task, it requires excellent knowledge of the terrain and avalanche sites, as well as a deep understanding of the seasonal snow cover and the alpine micro-meteorology. Born to support the decision-making process of avalanche risk management in municipal areas, CLVs have the task of carrying out forecasting activities and assessing the snow and the meteorological conditions and the stability state of the snow masses in the designated areas.
It also acts as a body of vigilance, alert and intervention in situations of risk and emergency management, in order to ensure, at the local level, the control of dangerous situations in its area of competence. CLVs also provide a civil protection technical consultative opinion to the mayor. Regarding the Val Ferret PAR, in the event of avalanche danger, the mayor issues an order for the permanent closure of the municipal road of the Val Ferret valley and, if there is high risk to inhabited areas, the mayor can order the evacuation of the whole valley.
The closure is generally preceded by a controlled evacuation plan, according to an intervention regulation as part of the Municipal Civil Protection Plan.
This database has been updated every winter since the early s and since , it has been fully available online. Table 1 summarizes some data regarding Val Ferret. Avalanche sites and avalanche events in Val Ferret data: update [ 7 ].
In summer Val Ferret is entirely accessible. The municipal road is open up to the hamlet of Arp-Nouva, and side paths are available for mountain bikers and trekkers. On the valley floor there are numerous tourist facilities, such as hotels, restaurants, campsites and a golf course.
The valley is crossed by numerous hiking paths, the most famous of which is the Tour du Mont Blanc, a km hiking trail that surrounds the Mont Blanc massif and passes through parts of Italy Aosta Valley , France Haute-Savoie and Savoie and Switzerland Valais.
Every year, this trail becomes the stage of the Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc, a world-renowned trail running race with up to 10, participants. Given the large number of visitors throughout the whole summer season, risk management is more complex compared to the winter period. Regarding hydrogeological instability, the natural hazards that endanger the valley during summer are more rare and harder to forecast i.
Alerting abilities are thus less developed, especially because the event precursors are not as evident as those in winter hazards. In Italy, functional centers have been established in compliance with a decree of the President of the Council of Ministers [ 8 ] in , following a tragic event in the year before, in an effort to better the civil protection system linked to weather-related hazards.
This legislative act established, for the first time in Italy, an integrated monitoring network, enabling the diffusion of hydro-pluviometric data throughout the whole country, while integrating them in a civil protection system designed to rapidly alert the population in case of a weather-related hazard.
In this context, the different functional centers create a tight net of forecasting, monitoring and surveillance bodies and provide technical support to the competent agencies dealing with risk management and civil protection.
The principal tool used by the functional centers to alert the different agencies and the municipalities is the Bulletin of Critical Issues.
This concise report describes, with a progressive color scale, the increasing danger and the expected scenarios according to the forecasted weather and hydrological conditions. The municipalities included in the alert areas are required to activate the operational phases defined within the Municipal Civil Protection Plan.
During the summer season, the most influential gravitational processes in the Val Ferret PAR are linked to water-related hazards, more precisely to floods and debris flows. These phenomena occasionally reach the valley floor, endangering crowded areas, such as houses, hiking trails and the main road Figure 4. Debris flow deposit in Val Ferret and clearing operations of timber and debris from the stream bed photo: FMS.
Streams and river basins that can potentially be affected by these phenomena are very numerous; there are hundreds in the entire regional territory and at least twenty in Val Ferret alone. In addition, glacier-related hazards have to be considered as well in the risk assessment analysis of the Val Ferret PAR. In fact, the current risk management plan already considers ice avalanches originating from the Mont Blanc massif as a potential threat to the valley floor.
This subject is addressed in depth in Chapter 3, which is dedicated to the best practices carried out in Val Ferret, such as the open-air laboratory of the Grandes Jorasses glaciers. The forestation index might seem low, especially when compared with the average of other Alpine regions. However, the surface morphology and characteristics of the Aosta Valley have to be taken into account.
With an average altitude above 2, m, an entirely mountainous territory and the considerable presence of glacial and periglacial environments, the area available to forests is limited. Therefore, the per capita area of forest in the Aosta Valley is 7, m 2 , compared to the Italian average of 1, m 2. This clearly shows that the current wooded area is quantitatively a significant part of the regional territory. Potentially, this area can still see further expansion, however, and the forest has already regained areas where, in the last three decades, land-use has changed.
The constant increase recorded for about a century Table 2 is mainly the result of the decline of agriculture work in mountain areas, lower livestock pressure inside and on the edge of the forest, and reforestation carried out since the first post-war period. Variation in the forested areas of the Aosta Valley in the past years [ 11 ]. Since the s, the regional administration has implemented regional policies aimed at expanding knowledge about its forest heritage. The different classes are based on the prevailing functions that wooded areas are required to satisfy: productive, protective, touristic-recreational, and naturalistic.
The economic plans define a set of rules that establish the extent of the interventions needed for conservation purposes and the strengthening of the forest. These regulatory plans for the region, municipalities and consortiums have been constantly updated for 50 years. However, in , due to financial reasons, the review was temporarily interrupted.
Today, opportunities to complete the economic plan review, as well as to develop the agricultural and forestry sectors, arise mainly through the EU Rural Development Plan. As a matter of fact, The Rural Development Program — is currently operational in the Aosta Valley Autonomous Region, carrying out measures to guarantee forest conservation and to increase the potential of the forest-wood supply chain.
As part of the European Alcotra Renerfor Project, in , a new forest map was created [ 10 ]. This inventory identified 21 forest categories 14 broad-leaved, 6 conifer and one mixed and 95 forest types. In particular, in order of occurrence, there are larch, spruce, Scots pine, stone pine and silver fir.
The majority of broad-leaved trees are in coppice populations, generally old growth, and in spontaneous high forest successions. The most represented species are chestnut, downy oak, poplar, ash, cherry, rowan, sycamore maple and beech. The subdivision into prevalent functional destinations, with the exclusion of unmanaged forests, is linked to the different conditions of fertility, location and accessibility of each specific forested area.
In the Aosta Valley, the main role of forests is protection from natural hazards, even if partially combined with timber production. In , a publication containing guidelines for the management of protective forests [ 11 ] was published by the Aosta Valley Autonomous Region together with the Piedmont Region. This study, starting from the exchange of experiences between foresters in the Western Alps, provides the necessary silvicultural path needed to enable a specific forest to perform its protective role in a lasting and effective manner.
These suggestions were defined considering the main natural hazards characterizing the area. However, the frequency and intensity of natural hazards seem to change, particularly under the effect of climate change. In fact, in response to shifts in temperature and precipitation, many climate models predict an increase in the frequency of extreme weather events i. The collaboration between the forest departments of the Piedmont and Aosta Valley regions, has been extended thanks to the Alcotra — Project [ 15 ].
This cross-border project between Italy Aosta Valley and Piedmont regions and Switzerland Canton du Valais resulted in, amongst other things, the publication of cognitive complements on the management of protective forests.
The research and experience gained in these five years have been summarized in two publications [ 16 , 17 ], which expand on the first one [ 11 ] through the deepening of the interactions between natural hazards and the stability of protective forest. Map of protective forests in the Aosta Valley Autonomous Region data from [ 15 ]. Research on Mont Blanc has always been an interdisciplinary effort, with numerous national and international projects built upon high mountain observation, mass balance measurement and glacial and periglacial environment monitoring.
It is of crucial importance to study glaciers and their evolution, especially during this period of rapid change in which global warming is expected to drastically reduce glaciated areas and increase their instability. The team at the Canzio the day after. The Chamonet website states:. The volume of the serac fall will be measured in due course, but it's known to have fallen down the Whymper couloir and stopped close to the Rocher du Reposoir.
According to the Chamoniarde Website there is now an Italian Bylaw closing access to the Normal Route for safety reasons: "Please, for your safety, follow the Italian by-law forbidding the access to the normal route. As climbers we strive to make UKClimbing. If you appreciate the content we offer then you can help us by becoming an official UKC Supporter.
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