As an alpine country Switzerland has always been threatened by natural hazards. Our ancestors respected nature and used to build their houses in safe places where the risk was naturally low. As the settlements expanded and space got limited people started to inhabit more exposed areas. In order to protect housing and personal belongings protective structures against floods, mass movements and snow avalanches have been built. However, after the experience of massive floods and other extreme weather events during the last decades we know that nature cannot be controlled and this selective approach does not sufficiently protect us and our property. Th e solution to decrease the damage potential and to satisfy the call for protection of property is the alignment of land-use with the natural conditions.
Hazard maps are fundamental for land-use planning and haz- ard prevention and serve to determine endangered areas and as a base to formulate conditions of building. Although their benefit is not challenged anymore and the Swiss hazard maps are of high quality some improvements might be of value. Es- pecially the visualisation of synoptic hazard maps is a challenge and new digital ways of displaying these complex maps could facilitate their reading.
The visualisation of uncertainty is a relevant issue whenever spatial data is concerned. Since the implementation of hazard maps can bear huge consequences for property owners and municipalities the data quality is very important and it would be interesting to know how (if at all) the visualisation of uncertainty alters the process of decision making. However, suitable methods for the assessment and presentation of those uncertainties will have to be found.
@InProceedings{ kunz:2008:HMIS,
author = {Melanie Kunz and Lorenz Hurni},
title = {Hazard Maps in Switzerland},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the 6th ICA Mountain Cartography Workshop},
pages = {125--130},
year = {2008},
}