GeoSphere Austria and the Naturfreunde Österreich are hosting the sixth International Avalanche Symposium in Graz in October 2025, featuring public discussions, workshops and presentations. At this internationally attended symposium, the latest findings in avalanche research and risk and disaster management in this field will be presented to the general public (up to 600 attendees are expected) in the form of talks, while an international panel will strengthen cross-border collaboration in the field of snow and avalanche research.
The scientific committee invites interested parties to submit a talk or workshop proposal on the following overarching topics:
Avalanche risk management
- Assessment of individual slopes
- Avalanche slope protection measures
- Avalanche accident analyses
- New developments in practice: decision-making in avalanche commissions
- Slab and glide-snow avalanches
- Grey areas in decision-making
- Official emergency and risk management for securing critical infrastructure
- Emergency avalanche response and avalanche rescue
Psychology in the context of major loss events and avalanche/snow accidents
- Psychosocial emergency care
- Individual and collective resilience
- Traumatisation and long-term processing
- Psychodynamic aspects of crisis and disaster management
Climate
- Climate change and climate communication in the context of snow and avalanches
- How are winters changing from a climatological perspective, and what does this mean for avalanche hazard?
- How extreme are extreme events in winter?
- Risk communication and crisis communication, including warning communication
Submissions by 25 January 2025 via upload at https://forms.gle/gGhoUzxa3EHeAJsM9
