The protective effect of forests against rockfall cannot be neglected in risk management. This is, of course, under the condition that a considerable slope length in the transit area is forested and that a tree diameter distribution which can provide sufficient ...

In France, Risk Prevention Plans (PPR) are standard documents that determine risk areas and building authorisations for ten-year periods. This paper is about the PPR revision of the town of Veyrier-du-Lac (France), where is implemented a new methodology based ...

Coppice forest stands can play a key protective role on active rockfall slopes in mountainous regions. This paper aims at quantifying their protection function and at explaining the role of different stand parameters in this function.

Following a major rockfall event in 1987, two types of protection measures were taken in the village Saint Martin le Vinoux (French Alps). Firstly, technical measures using civil engineering were installed, and secondly, a forest management intervention to ...

This study reveals that disturbance induced under natural conditions triggers more intense and more widespread anatomical responses than that induced under artificial stimuli, and that experimental laboratory tests considerably underestimate tree response. ...

There are presently no clear rules for determining optimal rockfall protection forests, taking into account forest and site characteristics as well as the size and energy of the falling rock. To provide a tool that meets these requirements and quantifies the ...

To effectively prevent rockfall related disasters below forested slopes, silvicultural, eco-engineering, civil engineering or mixed techniques can be used. To do this in a cost-efficient manner it is necessary to know the following: 1) where rockfall events ...

It is still uncertain what a mountain forest should look like to provide optimal protection against rockfall. Knowledge is limited due to the slow reaction of mountain forests to the rapid environmental and socio-economic changes that have occurred in the ...

Forest dynamics have long-term impacts on the effectiveness of mountain forests in providing protection against natural hazards, but these are difficult to study because of the long time periods involved. We addressed this difficulty using simulation models, ...

At the scale of forest stands, there is a lack of quantitative, statistically valid data on the protective effect of forests against rockfall. Therefore, the first objective of this study was to quantify the velocities, rebound heights as well as the residual ...