Permafrost

Permafrost shapes the alpine mountain landscape and plays an important role e.g. for the planning and construction of high mountain infrastructures, for natural hazard management or landscape development. If the permanently frozen ground warms up or thaws, the frequency and occurrence of natural hazards such as rockfalls or debris flows may change. With its research as well as long-term in-situ observation in permafrost areas, the center develops important baseline data on the thermal state of permafrost soils and their dynamics. The aim is to document changes, better understand processes and identify future developments at an early stage in order to ultimately prevent risks and hazards.

More information: Research group Permafrost

Projects

Swiss Permafrost Monitoring Network 2023–2026

The Swiss Permafrost Monitoring Network (PERMOS) documents the state and changes of mountain permafrost in the Swiss Alps based on long-term field data of groundtemperatures, changes in ground ice content and rock glacier velocity.

Piz Buin Pitschen: Experimental investigations

Rockfalls, debris flows and rockslides are gravitational mass movements that occur frequently in the mountains. Several SLF research groups are jointly developing methods to detect potential instabilities as early as possible.

WaWaRu – Forest structure, water balance and shallow landslides

The WaWaRu project marks a key step towards understanding the processes involving different forest structures and contributes to a better quantification of the forest effect on soil and slope stability.

Sicher Wandern 2040

Auch in Zukunft sollen die knapp 65'000km des Schweizer Wanderwegnetzes möglichst gefahrlos begangen werden können. Eine Literatursynthese soll die für das Wanderwegwesen relevanten Naturgefahren identifiziert und Auswirkungen einer Klimaveränderung abschätzen.

Disposition of rock sediments and water in ice-rock mixtures

Recently, rock-ice deposits have come into focus for their potential to provide sources of secondary hazards and as an alternative water resource in a changing climate. The aim of this project is to model the evolution of the thermal regime of rock-ice deposits under future climate scenarios.

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