Avalanche Cartography: Visualization of Dynamic-Temporal Phenomena in a Mountainous Environment

Avalanches represent a very short, local, dynamic event in snow-covered mountainous regions. They are not easy to predict and often can produce devastating results. Avalanche cartography deals with the causes and consequences of such incidents and attempts to depict them in a variety of ways. The most common cartographic representation within this field is the avalanche hazard map. It incorporates mainly large-scale topographic elements with thematic features. However, besides just visualizing what has happened and depicting locations of potential risk, it is now possible within modern cartography to experiment with different approaches and to visualize complex variables in a cartographically demanding way. This paper deals with the phenomena of avalanches from a cartographic perspective and shows the variety of possibilities cartography can offer today to understand and predict these complex natural hazards. Situees dans les regions montagneuses couvertes de neige, les avalanches representent un evenemen...