Interreg IV B Projekt AdaptAlp: Adjustment strategies for the improvment of natural hazard- and riskmanagement in Alpine regions

AdaptAlp is an Alpine Space Programme (Priority 3: Environment and Risk Prevention) project, which is part of the European Territorial Cooperation 2007-2013. 16 project partners from six different countries are involved in AdaptAlp with the overall aim of assessing impacts of and adaptation to climate change in the Alpine Space. In the course of the project, recommendations for policy-makers and local stakeholders will be derived regarding adaptation strategies and disaster risk management. In various pilot regions the experiences and results of the project activities will be brought together in order to find ‘best-practice’ examples. The basic of hazard mapping is the knowledge about the magnitude and frequency of the past events of debris flow on alluvial fans. Chronicles and silent witnesses can deliver important information about historic events. Unfortunately the chronicles are often incomplete or incorrect and silent witnesses often get loss due to the impact of intensive human land use. The event magnitude and event frequency are depending on the climate and therefore influenced of the unknown effects of climate change. Modern methods of historic dating of flood and debris flow events on alluvial fans can deliver important information about the frequency of events and complete historic data. Furthermore offers the method an indication for the possible influence of climate change. The method, which is rather used in the praxis of the natural hazard management, will have a great importance for the methodology of hazard mapping to the climate change.