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Management of Snow Avalanche Risk in the Ski Areas of the Southern Carpathians–Romanian Carpathians

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Sustainable Development in Mountain Regions

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Abstract

Snow avalanches represent an undeniable reality in the Southern Carpathians, both as a geomorphological process and as a type of natural hazard with the highest number of fatalities and injuries, and also substantial impact upon forests, highways, and people. This study focuses on the Făgăraş massif and on the Bucegi Mountains, representative mountain units in the eastern part of the Southern Carpathians with altitudes surpassing 2500 m, large quantities of snowfall, between 6 and 8 months/year of soil with snow cover, or even 10–11 months/year at high elevations, and a high occurrence of snow avalanches. The importance of management of snow avalanche risk resides in the fact that these mountains have important winter tourism activities. Today, the main management measures on snow avalanche risk are preventive temporary or permanent measures, passive and active defense points of intervention, temporary closure of ski pistes, and the issuance of danger level.

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Acknowledgments

The authors express their appreciation to the members of the Bâlea and Sinaia 1500 nivometeorology laboratories for having made available documentation of the nivometeorological reports for the winter seasons from 2003–2004 to 2010–2011 and also to the Sibiu and Sinaia Mountain Rescuer Public Services for the all information on snow avalanche accidents.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, West University of Timişoara, Pârvan Bv. no 4, 300223, Timişoara, Romania

    Mircea Voiculescu & Florentina Popescu

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  1. Mircea Voiculescu
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  2. Florentina Popescu
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Correspondence to Mircea Voiculescu .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Geophysics, Geodesy and Geography, Sofia, Bulgaria

    Georgi Zhelezov

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Voiculescu, M., Popescu, F. (2016). Management of Snow Avalanche Risk in the Ski Areas of the Southern Carpathians–Romanian Carpathians. In: Zhelezov, G. (eds) Sustainable Development in Mountain Regions. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20110-8_13

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