"Mountain-Risks" cover the complete chain of the 'living with risk' process: from natural hazard identification through quantitative risk assessment, risk management and risk communication to the final socio-economic and political decision-making. The observed increase in disastrous events over the last decade, associated with a low perception of most natural risks by the communities and societies involved, along with the lack of efficient, socially accepted and environmentally sound remedial measures are amongst the drivers behind mountain risks. In addition in large parts of the world, the dynamic adverse affects of global climate change will increase the frequency, magnitude, dimension and most likely also the complexity of hazardous events.

Communities in mountainous regions are exposed to several hazardous processes, including snow avalanches, storms, floods, landslides, rockfalls and debris flows. But not only this: single hazardous processes may cause complex events, so called “multirisk” (hazard chain reaction). The cost of such phenomena is, in the alpine area, assessed at more than 1 billion Euro per year. Hence, the adoption of a combined multirisk-oriented analysis, in which:
• investigations focus more on the interdependence of events rather than on single events; and
• the potential economic damage of the events is considered,
is absolutely necessary. In addition, the effects of land use changes have to be taken into account not only within the risk analysis, but also in the (spatial) planning strategies. Considering such challenges, it is important to continue to develop methods for assessing quantitative/qualitative risk, as well as progress innovative research, knowledge sharing and education, which in turn provides support for practitioners to produce a comprehensive risk management and prevention policy.

The objective of this Mountain Risks session is to discuss on-going and finished, multi-risk and multi-disciplinary research and/or example projects. The focus of the session can be both on multi-risks and on multi-disciplinary project experiences. Which strategies have been followed to stimulate the integration and collaboration of the involved disciplines? What clear benefits or drawbacks from the multi-disciplinary approach have been identified? How is cutting-edge research involved in the projects?

This session aims at bringing together scientists and practitioners from various disciplines dealing with integrated analysis of multiple hazard risks, particularly encouraging those who are active in mountain areas. In order to keep the focus on the lessons-learnt from multi-risk and multi-disciplinary approaches, the contributions are asked to stress the integration and interactions between project parts (from technical to management to governance).