Within 2 days, participants from Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Slovenia and Germany intensively discussed on natural hazards in the Alps with focus on so called systems engineering or system life cycle and life cycle management. This topic is currently receiving increased attention and involves related costs for engineering life cycle but also a range of other activities targeted at mitigating the effects of natural hazards. It also involves for example necessary infrastructures, which are often in remote areas with complex topography and require high investment. Besides systems engineering, ensuring well adapted land use management is further to be considered a valuable measure for mitigating natural hazards in mountain forest ecosystems as is the conservation of biodiversity.
This new way of thinking, taking into consideration a multitude of aspects and processes, is in line with projects implemented at EFICENT, namely FRISK-GO and Integrate+ which aim to connect across sectors and topics.

The more holistic perspective became rather clear through the questions that were addressed to the high level panellists (Dr. Josef Hess - Vice Director BAFU, Switzerland; Dr. Andreas Rimböck - Bavarian Environment Agency; Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Jürgen Schwarz - University of the Bundeswehr Munich; Jörg Bödefeld - Federal Waterways Engineering and Research Institute, Germany; Maria Patek - President of the Planalp, Austria; and  PD Dr. Florian Rudolf-Miklau - Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management, Austria).

A poster displaying the major outcomes of the FRISK-GO project was displayed and received considerable interest from the conference participants. It sparked discussions on how FRISK-GO addressed thinking across borders, topics and units. Good contacts were made and follow-up is planned, in particular as the FRISK-GO project has demonstrated what kind of an added value an operational European Forest Risk Facility could play in the future related to forest hazards.
On the second day the organizers offered a field trip to river stream facility and presented how to act and interact with different players from various disciplines when protective measures against natural hazards are required.

For more information on the Alpine Convention: alpconv.org