Exploring Climate Impact and Risk Management in the Italian Alps

A letter from the 3rd Summer School of The International Association for Engineering Geology (IAEG), in Aosta Valley, Italy.

This summer I had the wonderful opportunity to join the 3rd Summer School of IAEG (The International Association for Engineering Geology), hosted by the University of Aosta. Located in Aosta, in the breathtaking landscape of the northern Italian alps, we had firsthand access to several interesting sites concerning slope stability and risk management. We even arrived in the midst of a torrential rain episode causing flooding and flood slides in several valleys, resulting in the isolation and evacuation of the valley of Cogne, as well as large damages due to flooding in the village of Cervinia. This was a firsthand experience of how climate change is impacting the mountainous regions in Italy. Reports from Meteo Valle d’Aosta point to a combination of torrential rain, saturated ground due to snowmelt, extreme heat periods in the recent years causing melting of permafrost and more unstable slopes, finding that climate change contributes as a fundamental factor to explain and exacerbate such events in this area.  

The topic of this year’s IAEG summer school was natural hazards, societal impact, and risk, from theory to practice: identification, assessment, and remediation, and spot on for my own ongoing PhD research on risk management and adaptation to climate-related natural hazards. For ten days we had theoretical lectures and discussions about slope instabilities relating to avalanches, landslides, and rockfall, as well as flooding and risk assessments (to name but a few of the comprehensive list of topics covered), participated in hands-on workshops trying out tools for rockfall modelling and image correlation, and of course field trips to visit onsite several areas of interest from both a geological and a risk management point of view, such as the large slope instability issue at the Beauregard dam and the continuous monitoring systems in the Grandes Jorasses area (Whymper and Planpincieux glaciers) and the La Saxe landslide in the Courmayeur-area.   

Through this course I gained invaluable insight into the current knowledge and research on slope stability, dynamics, monitoring, and risk management, and I am looking forward to applying my new knowledge to further bridge the natural and social sciences in my research oriented towards a holistic approach to climate adaptation. 

- Leikny

Interdisciplinarity in snow science - UiT workshop

There is a firm belief within our research group on the need for interdisciplinarity in approaching the challenges of climate change, also in terms of climate change adaptation to geohazards. We were thus thrilled to be invited to join an internal UiT workshop aiming to develop a joint, interdisciplinary center at UiT with the purpose of improving research and education on snow and landslides!

Last week, UiT-based researchers from several disciplines ranging from geology, mathemathics, physics, human geography, political science, psychology and anthropology to name a few, came together for a joint purpose: to discuss how we can enhance UiTs contribution to the research and education on topics related to snow, avalanches, and landslides. PhD student Leikny Bakke Lie, together with professor Are Sydnes, joined this workshop representing the perspectives of climate change adaptation and societal security. 

We had a full day of engaging discussions across disciplines illuminating various challenges and potential solutions, and we are very excited to see where this takes us and the UiT community going forward. More news on this hopefully to follow as our ideas mature and starts materializing!

Sign up for COPE online seminar (06.06.24): Main findings from CliCNord!

COPE Seminar (06.06.2024): Climate Change Resilience in Small Communities in the Nordic Countries (CliCNord) - the main findings, with participation from our researcher Laurien de Korte.

Copenhagen Center for Disaster Research is hosting an online seminar where researchers from the CliCNord-project Climate Change Resilience in Small Communities in the Nordic Countries, will present some of the main findings.

Presenters include Rico Kongsager from University College Copenhagen, Matthias Kokorsch from University Centre of the Westfjords, Iceland, Laurien de Korte from UiT- The Arctic University of Norway and Johan Sjöström from RISE Research Institutes of Sweden.

When: 06th of June, 2024. 13:00 - 14:30 CEST.

Where: Zoom, sign up below for link.

Sign up here before 05.06.2024!

Are Kristoffer Sydnes  –  Professor

Laurien de Korte  –  Doctoral Research Fellow

Leikny Bakke Lie  –  Doctoral Research Fellow

Christer Henrik Pursiainen  –  Professor of Societal Security

Bjarte Rød  –  Postdoctoral researcher

Stian K. Kleiven  –  PhD-fellow