Resumen de Aplicación del índice de riesgo por alud en un itinerario de montaña del Parque Nacional de los Picos de Europa
José Antonio Vada, Manuel Frochoso Sánchez, Joan Manuel Vilaplana Fernández
The growing interest in natural mountain areas related to winter recreation activities requires the elaboration of studies that quantify the avalanche risk. In this work the main goal has been to assess avalanche hazard and the associated risk from an Avalanche Hazard Index (AHI) in one of the most popular mountain routes in Picos de Europa National Park, the walking route to Vega de Urriellu from Collado Pandébano, the PR-PNPE 21. Firstly, it has been necessary to locate and identify the avalanche path crossing the mountain route using different information: morphological, vegetation and historical. The frequency of the avalanches was estimated from comparison of temporal sequences of aerial photographs, field observations, population surveys and average slope gradient along the avalanche path. With regards to the risk assessment, several possible scenarios in relation to the variability of the data have been considered. The AHI obtained by this procedure is generally low for the entire winter season, moderate in certain situations when the exposure factor is high, and, finally, high during Easter due to an increase in traffic. Also, information for users is proposed as a means of mitigating risk
