Flood and avalanche hazard in Colorado: Political implications of the new federalism

Abstract

/ This article examines the likely impacts of the United States' "new federalism" on natural hazard land use management in Colorado. Flood and avalanche hazard programs are the focus of the study Both short-and long-term effects of changes in funding are discussed, and the conclusions summarize probable positive and negative program impacts for the state. These results may help researchers and state authorities mitigate similar effects in their states prior to the enactment of new federalism.

Teaching Natural Hazards: The Use of Snow Avalanches in Demonstrating and Addressing Geographic Topics and Principles

“…In North America, the level of historical documentation, development of avalanche-hazard maps, and regulation of land use within and near avalanche paths varies considerably from place to place. The state of and communities within Colorado are clearly in the forefront of such mapping and regulating, thanks in large part to research efforts of personnel associated with the Colorado Geological Survey (Mears 1976(Mears , 1979 and the University of Colorado's Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research (Ives and Plam 1980;Mean 1980;Huber and Gruntfest 1983;Oaks and Dexter 1987). Many states and provinces are only now beginning to map the locations of avalanche paths (Freer and Schaerer 1980), and unfortunately many municipalities which are well aware of the avalanche hazard refuse to adopt enabling legislation which would control land-use within avalanche runout zones.…”