An increasing number of people with limited knowledge and skills are undertaking travel in the back country. Consequently, reliable and easy to understand forecasting systems are increasingly important.

The basic reasoning behind the development of the model is that the model acts as the  impetus for hazard identification area by a skilled skitourist who judges snow and avalanche conditions.

The LAWIPROG-MODEL

The Analysis of North Vancouver Avalanche Hazard Regions applies the LAWIPROG GIS prototype developed for the visualization of avalanche hazards for the Swiss avalanche bulletin. This prototype model is designed as a forecast tool to produce large scale grid modeling of local hazard areas. The LAWIPROG-Model is a simple multiplicative model for avalanche hazard mapping. 

The Swiss avalanche model uses topological and morphological features to describe hazard areas. The attributes of slope, altitude, aspect, and the morphological elements of ridges, gullies and basins are combined for a given location to present resultant hazard levels.  For example, if terrain is steep and aspect considered hazardous, but the location is situated below the critical altitude for snowpack, then the determined hazard rating may be lower than that of areas of greater altitude. 
 
 
 
 

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