FAT tool: A decision support tool for disaster risk reduction in the Alpine Space

Abstract

<p>The last decades have seen a higher attention payed to natural hazards due to the increasing losses and economic damages caused by them. Researchers, practitioners and local administrations studied the best way to mitigate and prevent them, using both structural and non-structural  defense techniques. Even though there are now several possible solutions to be used, it is not always easy for decision makers to choose the best option from both a technical and an economical point of view.</p><p>With the FAT tool we aimed at providing a useful mean for practitioners to help them choose between various protection options. The FAT tool is an online platform where the user, inserting a limited number of input data (e.g. slope profile, slope width, forest cover), is provided with an easily understandable output, that being a comparison of the costs and the benefits generated by different protection solutions.</p><p>The tool is built on an empirical, profile-based hazard model and deals with avalanches, rockfall and shallow landslides. The outputs of the hazard models are used to dimension and calculate the costs and benefits of several protection options and the damages avoided by those. The possible solutions considered are: ecosystem based solutions (e.g. protection forest), technical measures (e.g. snow fences, catching dams, rockfall nets), avoidance measures (e.g. road closure, building evacuation) and a combination of these. The most innovative part of the tool is the importance given to the role of the forest, and generally to the Eco-DRR solutions, on the hazard track, where a forest protection effect indicator is calculated to assess the effectiveness of a stand in mitigating the risk on the chosen profile. The outputs of the FAT tool, consisting in the index and the economic values of different alternative protection measures, can help the user identify the areas where the forests have the highest mitigation effect and choose where to allocate forest management resources.</p>

Risk-Based Decision Support for Protective Forest and Natural Hazard Management

“…Using the simulation results of the GMF model, the risk assessment and economic model TEGRAV performs a cost-benefit analysis of FbS (green measures), technical measures (grey measures), and land use avoidance (avoidance measures), allowing for their comparison [47,48]. Risk assessment and cost-benefit analysis are carried out by integrating costs and effects of mitigation measures and damage potentials (i.e., the estimated values of assets that are potentially at risk; Figure 8).…”

“…Figure 11.Mitigation measures that are included in the TEGRAV (TEchnical -GReen -AVoidance) risk assessment and economic model and considered in the Protective Forest Assessment Tool (FAT), distinguished by hazard, area of implementation, and type. Adapted from[48].…”

How to Use Scientific Information: Road Map for Tailoring Your Own Natural Hazard Risk Management Solution

“…Avoided damages: all detriments to infrastructures, people and assets that could occur without protection measures ✓ [18][19][20] Benefits: the sum saved or earned due to the construction/ implementation of the measure…”