Abstract. Rockfall is an extremely rapid process involving long travel distances. Due to these features, when an event occurs, the ability to take evasive action is practically zero and, thus, the risk of injury or loss of life is high. Damage to buildings and infrastructure is quite likely. In many cases, therefore, suitable protection measures are necessary. This contribution provides an overview of previous and current research on the main topics related to rockfall. It covers the onset of rockfall and runout modelling approaches, as well as hazard zoning and protection measures. It is the aim of this article to provide an in-depth knowledge base for researchers and practitioners involved in projects dealing with the rockfall protection of infrastructures, who may work in the fields of civil or environmental engineering, risk and safety, the earth and natural sciences.

The aim of the paper is to develop a fully 3D simulation technique for rockfall dynamics taking rock shape into account and using the state-of-the-art methods of multibody dynamics and nonsmooth contact dynamics. The rockfall simulation technique is based on the nonsmooth contact dynamics method with hard contact laws. The rock is modeled as an arbitrary convex polyhedron and the terrain model is based on a high resolution digital elevation model. A specialized friction law for rockfall is proposed which allows for the description of scarring behavior (i.e., rocks tend to slide over the terrain before lift-off). The influence of rock geometry on rockfall dynamics is studied through two well-chosen numerical simulations.

Protection against natural hazards on windthrow areas We give an overview on natural hazard processes on windthrow areas during the first 20 years after the winterstorm Vivian (1990). This overview is based on 1) repeated pulling experiments and a long-term analysis of stem movements in the uncleared winthrow area Cavorgia/Disentis, 2) the assessment of avalanche protection function of 26 windthrow areas, and on (3) StorMe cadastral data of natural hazard events on windthrow areas. The effective heights and stem resistance of lying logs have been reduced to ca. 40% of the original values on average in the uncleared winthrow area Cavorgia/ Disentis. In particular on very steep (>45°) and rocky slopes, some of the stems have moved several meters. Most of the 26 investigated windthrow areas did not fulfill any of the considered criteria to effectively protect against avalanches. Nevertheless, very few avalanches and rockfall events were observed on Vivian areas. The relatively large number of shallow landslides in the years after the windthrow could, however, be a sign of a certain time with increased landslide susceptibility. Our results and observations suggest that the increased terrain roughness after Vivian largely compensated for the decreased protection effects against avalanche and rockfall of former stands structures during the first years after the storm. After 20 years, the terrain roughness effect has strongly decreased and reliable protection against mass movements depends in most cases on a sufficiently advanced natural forest regeneration or on additional post-windthrow plantations. It is important to consider specific conditions on the level of single slopes when planning measures against natural hazards in windthrow areas.

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