Acta Univ. Agric. Silvic. Mendelianae Brun. 2011, 59(5), 237-246 | DOI: 10.11118/actaun201159050237

Creation of the snow avalanche susceptibility map of the Krkonoše Mountains using GIS

Petr Suk, Martin Klimánek
Ústav geoinformačních technologií, Mendelova univerzita v Brně, Zemědělská 3, 613 00 Brno, Česká republika

This article deals with the development of the snow avalanche susceptibility map in the Czech part of the Krkonoše Mountains using the free Geographic Information System (GIS) GRASS. The area susceptibility map consists of two components: the morphological risk map, which is derived from the digital terrain model (DTM) and describes the slope steepness, aspect and curvature of the slope, and the protecting vegetation influence map, which is based on supervised image classification (spectrozonal aerial photos) and takes into consideration the importance of vegetation cover. The final map also includes starting zones calculated on the basis of significant changes in slope steepness and approximate shapes of avalanche paths based on these zones. In the map development, the layer of measured paths of avalanche cadastre in the Czech part of the Krkonoše Mountains was used, partly to gain the morphological characteristics of starting zones and partly to check the quality of the map.

Keywords: snow avalanche, avalanche starting zone, avalanche cadastre, applied geoinformatics, the Krkonoše Mountains, supervised classification, GIS GRASS
Grants and funding:

This paper was produced as a part of research project MSM6215648902 "Forest and Wood - Support of Functionally Integrated Forest Management and the Use of Wood as a Renewable Raw Material". Spectrozonal images were acquired under the project VaV/620/06/03 "Categorization of Forests of the Krkonoše Mountains for the Possible Abandonment of the Forests to Their Natural Processes Serving as a Basis for Revision of Zoning of the National Park" and were provided by the National Park management. Digital terrain data were provided by GEODIS BRNO, Ltd. This study is also a part of a wider project "Possibilities of Using GIS in the Issue of Snow avalanches" which is completed in cooperation with the Krkonoše Mountains National Park management. Another part of this project is the creation of the avalanche cadastre web map server application, which is also used for the publication of the study results.

Received: May 31, 2011; Published: March 23, 2014  Show citation

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Suk, P., & Klimánek, M. (2011). Creation of the snow avalanche susceptibility map of the Krkonoše Mountains using GIS. Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 59(5), 237-246. doi: 10.11118/actaun201159050237
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