Abstract

The Colorado Statewide Snow Avalanche Path GIS Database and Project
Track: Atmosphere, Climate, and Weather
Authors: Douglas Scott

Since 1950 avalanches have killed more people in the state of Colorado than any other natural hazard, and in the United States, Colorado accounts for one-third of all avalanche deaths. The Colorado Avalanche Information Center has the task of providing safety to the highways through 17 mountain passes and to provide avalanche/weather information to the backcountry using public for over 15 mountain ranges. What we developed as a GIS database to address the problem. Working with the Colorado Avalanche Information Center we have developed a complete GIS project of avalanche information for the State of Colorado. The current GIS project contains the following layers of avalanche related information; 7 different avalanche paths layers depending on what they affect, avalanche accidents, weather stations, and forecast zones. This presentation will cover various GIS techniques used for the Avalanche GIS database and the usage of these avalanche path feature classes and related datasets.