Torrent and avalanche control

Torrent and avalanche control (WLV, die.wildbach)
State level	Federal level
position	subordinate agency
At sight	Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Regions and Tourism
founding	1884 (as forest technology service for torrent and avalanche control / forestry department for torrent control at the Ministry of Agriculture )
Headquarters	Vienna 1030 , Marxergasse  2
Website	die-wildbach.at

The torrent and avalanche control ( WLV , today also die.wildbach ) is the organization responsible in Austria for the agendas of torrent control and avalanche control .

history

Has the technology of civil protection obstruction in the Alpine region a long tradition of medieval and early modern road construction , irrigation lines , dams and Känale the mills -Kleinindustrie that transhipment sites of navigation and rafting and the Klausen and rake the Holztrift back from the respective operators, associations and financed by the landlord, but always limited to local interventions. Larger regulatory projects were already being considered under Maria Theresa . The first systematic publication on the technology comes from Franz Zallinger zum Thurn at the University of Innsbruck in 1779. More extensive state construction measures then took place, for example, in the 1820s on the Salzach in Oberpinzgau, and in the 1830s on the Danube Canal in Vienna. From the 1850s onwards, organized construction work also began in the upper reaches of the torrents, and measures to consolidate the soil, still financed by the inhabitants of the valleys concerned ( basic relief and responsibility of the local communities ). The University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, founded in 1872, has been holding lectures on torrent and avalanche control since 1879 .

After the devastating flood disaster in 1882 , it was decided to set up a separate authority for flood protection . On June 30, 1884, the law on precautionary measures for the harmless discharge of mountain water came into force, and a forest engineering service for torrent and avalanche control and the forestry department for torrent control were established by an act of the Ministry of Agriculture .

The office was divided into a southern section in Villach and a northern section in Teschen (today Cieszyn CZ), and further sections followed in other regions of the monarchy until 1904. The first systematic hydrographic survey of the torrents and catchment areas was started. Construction measures were carried out with voluntary workers as well as with prisoners.

After the First World War , the department had to be restructured, due to the loss of many skilled workers and the hardship of the post-war years , hardly any construction took place. After the annexation of Austria to the German Reich, more budget and forced labor were available again, but the building measures were quickly restricted to war-essential facilities and soon came to a complete standstill.

After the Second World War , the department at the State Office for Agriculture and Forestry was rebuilt by Oswald Wagner.

In 1975, the Forest Act came into force, with which torrent and avalanche control were expressly anchored in law, incorporated into forestry and defined in relation to hydraulic engineering ( Federal Water Management Administration / Department VII5 - Protective Water Management , offices / departments for hydraulic engineering of the federal states ). Organizationally, the office was now divided into sections and 37 area construction managers - which were reduced to 30 in 1979. The tasks of the forest engineering service for torrent and avalanche control were also newly regulated and now also included the creation and elaboration of hazard zone plans and official expert work .
In 1980 a geological office was also established. In 1984 the WLV was set up as the third department in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry . In 2000 (after the avalanche disaster in Galtür ) the Snow and Avalanche Unit was set up in Schwaz in Tyrol.

Today the office is an economically calculating construction management authority as well as a competence center for alpine natural hazards in advice and research.

organization

Throughout Austria, die.wildbach is now divided into 7 sections, 21 regional construction managers, 3 technical staff units and central payroll accounting.

Office at the Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Regions and Tourism

Torrent and Avalanche Control in Austria has been managed by Florian Rudolf-Miklau since February 2017. The central office in the BMLRT takes on the management and strategic control of the entire torrent and avalanche control. The agendas include:

• Recording , hazard zone planning (according to § 8 and 11 ForstG 1975): torrent and avalanche cadastre , protection score card
• Soil protection , climate change adaptation in the area of protection against natural hazards
• Natural space analysis and geographic information system NIAS forest
• Procurement and procurement
• Public procurement law , technical guidelines and implementation regulations
• Review, financing and approval of projects and construction programs, colludations , reporting and controlling , test reports and quality assurance
• Crisis and disaster control management , claims
• Area Economic Community projects, national and international funding programs
• Expert activity , expert activity
• Education and training
• public relation

Sections and regional site management

The tasks of the section heads are, for example, regional coordination and monitoring of all the services of the area construction management, review, control and approval services on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture, local implementation of strategic development and external representation in the federal states, local public relations work. The regional construction management provides all core services in a citizen-friendly manner.

The sections are:

1. Section Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland : Headquarters Vienna ; Responsibility for the states of Vienna, Lower Austria and Burgenland
   1. Regional construction management 1.1 - Lower Austria West with headquarters in Melk and responsibility for the districts: Amstetten , Gmünd , Horn , Krems , Melk , Sankt Pölten , Waidhofen an der Thaya , Zwettl , and Scheibbs . Cities: Krems an der Donau , Sankt Pölten and Waidhofen an der Ybbs .
   2. Regional construction management 1.2 - Vienna, Burgenland and Lower Austria East with headquarters in Wiener Neustadt and responsibility for the states: Vienna and Burgenland . Districts: Baden, Bruck an der Leitha, Gänserndorf , Hollabrunn , Korneuburg , Lilienfeld, Mistelbach , Mödling , Neunkirchen , Schwechat, Tulln , Vienna area and Wiener Neustadt. City: Wiener Neustadt .
2. Upper Austria section : seat in Linz
   1. Regional construction management 2.1 - Upper Austria North based in Linz and responsible for the city of Linz and the districts of Eferding , Freistadt , Grieskirchen , Linz-Land , Perg , Rohrbach , Schärding and Urfahr-Umgebung .
   2. Regional construction management 2.2 - Upper Austria West based in Bad Ischl and responsible for the districts of Braunau am Inn , Gmunden , Ried im Innkreis and Vöcklabruck .
   3. Area construction management 2.4 - Upper Austria East, based in Kirchdorf an der Krems and responsible for the districts of Kirchdorf , Wels-Land and Steyr-Land as well as the cities of Steyr and Wels.
3. Salzburg Section : Headquarters in Salzburg
   1. Area construction management 3.1 - Pinzgau based in Zell am See and responsible for the districts of Zell am See , Salzburg (city), Salzburg area (Flachgau) and Hallein (Tennengau)

Development project Warme Mandling, Wildbach and avalanche control Pongau, north of Filzmoos

1. 1. Regional construction management 3.2 - Pongau, Flach - and Tennengau with headquarters in Salzburg and responsibility for the city ​​of Salzburg and the districts of Hallein , Salzburg-Umgebung , Sankt Johann im Pongau with the exception of the communities Altenmarkt im Pongau, Eben im Pongau, Filzmoos, Flachau, Forstau, Radstadt and Untertauern.
   2. Regional construction management 3.3 - Lungau , based in Tamsweg and responsible for the Tamsweg district and the municipalities of Altenmarkt im Pongau , Eben im Pongau , Filzmoos , Flachau , Forstau , Radstadt and Untertauern .
2. Section Styria : Headquarters Graz
   1. Area management for Ennstal and Salzatal : Liezen ; Liezen district
   2. Regional construction management Upper Murtal : Scheifling ; Districts Murau , Murtal
   3. Regional construction management for the Middle Murtal and Mürz Valley : Bruck an der Mur ; Districts of Leoben , Bruck-Mürzzuschlag
   4. Regional Construction Management East and West Styria : Graz; remaining districts
3. Carinthia section : Headquarters Villach
   1. Regional construction management Central and Lower Carinthia : Villach; Districts Klagenfurt Land , Klagenfurt City , St. Veit / Glan , Völkermarkt , Wolfsberg
   2. Regional construction management Gailtal and Mittleres Drautal : Villach; Districts Hermagor , Villach Land and Villach Stadt
   3. Regional construction management for Liesertal and Ossiacher Seebecken : Villach; Districts Feldkirchen , parts of Spittal / Drau and Villach Land
   4. Regional construction management Upper Drautal and Mölltal : Villach; Parts of Spittal / Drau
4. Section Tyrol : Headquarters Innsbruck
   1. Regional construction management Ausserfern : Lechaschau ; Reutte district (Ausserfern)
   2. Regional construction management Upper Inn Valley : Imst ; Districts of Imst and Landeck
   3. Regional construction management Middle Inn Valley : Innsbruck; Innsbruck-Stadt and Innsbruck-Land
   4. Regional construction management for the western Lower Inn Valley : Schwaz ; Schwaz district
   5. Regional construction management Eastern Lower Inn Valley : Wörgl ; Districts of Kufstein and Kitzbühel
   6. Regional construction management East Tyrol : Lienz ; Lienz district (East Tyrol)
5. Vorarlberg section : Bregenz headquarters
   1. Regional construction management Bregenz: Bregenz; Districts of Bregenz , Dornbirn and Feldkirch
   2. Regional construction management Bludenz: Bludenz : District Bludenz

Staff units

The staff units report directly to the Ministry:

• Geographic Information Unit (SGI): Vienna - Information and Communication Technology  (ITK), geographic information technology and geodata management , natural space information systems
• Geology department : Vienna - Expertise in geotechnical engineering , assessment of slope processes (rockfall, rock fall, landslides and large slope movements) as well as hydrology , evaluation of construction technologies
• Office Snow and Avalanches  (SSL): Schwaz / Tyrol - all snow and avalanche- related questions

Projects

• Torrent and Avalanche Register  (WLK), the complete directory of all avalanche stretches and catchment areas and all wild waters in Austria including protective structures, the central business area of ​​the WLV has existed since it was founded in 1884
• Danger zone plan for torrent and avalanche control , a record of landslides, mudslides and similar hydrological-geodynamic as well as avalanche-relevant zones, especially since 1975 based on the Fost Law
• Protection Score Card  (PSC), the strategic development of torrent and avalanche control
• Forest natural space information and analysis system (NIAS-Forst) , the central geographic information system for the forest, since the 1990s (in this department)
• Forest development  plan (WEP), forest framework planning of all forest areas (useful, protective, welfare, recreational functions) (Department BMLFUW / IV4a spatial planning )
• Wasserinformationssystem Austria  (WISA), the central information system on water issues (Department BMLFUW / VII2)
• eHYD , measuring network for water level measurements, access to Austria's hydrographic data on the Internet (Department BMLFUW / VII3)
• Flood risk zoning Austria  (HORA), a complete modeling of flood risks in cooperation with weather models, was created from 2005 - today as eHORA including other natural hazards such as snowfall, storms, earthquakes, thunderstorms and hail, as a portal of natural hazard risks (Department BMLFUW / VII5)

Today, all these projects are mostly also accessible to citizens as web GIS in addition to the special applications (web portal Geoland and GIS of the federal states)

Research projects:

• ETAlp , pilot study for the holistic recording and evaluation of erosion and transport processes in torrent catchment areas (Geology Department)
• Natural Space Potentials of Alpine Mountain Areas (NAB): System for the detection and preventive protection of floods, mudslides, landslides and avalanches, since 2006 (Geology Unit, with ÖROK )
• SAMOS / SamosAT and ELBA + - leading avalanche simulation programs ; with simulation database since autumn 2005

Education:

• Biber Berti project “Living with natural hazards” , a pedagogical concept of awareness-raising especially for the 3rd and 4th  primary school level

There is close cooperation with the other departments of the Ministry of Agriculture, the other geoscientific services ( ZAMG , BEV , BFW , UBA ), the professional association of qualified engineers for torrent and avalanche control in Austria  (WLV), the relevant geoscientific research institutions (such as BOKU , Leoben , BFW) Innsbruck , Joanneum Research , HBLFA Raumberg-Gumpenstein , etc.) and other institutions.

Overview: Work areas of the WLV

In total, around 12,300 torrent catchment areas and 6,000 avalanche catchment areas are looked after in Austria. This means that 67 percent of the national area of ​​Austria - in Vorarlberg, Tyrol, Salzburg and Carinthia even 80 percent - falls under the care area of ​​torrent and avalanche control. In about 80 percent of the managed areas, settlements and infrastructure are threatened by torrents and avalanches.

BH, Gem.… District authorities, municipalities Fl. ... area of ​​the supervised area EW… population in the care area

Gem./Fl. re. ... municipalities / area with torrent or avalanche catchment area ECB ... catchment areas (number) Risk fee ... risk areas for falling rocks or landslides BL ... regional construction management

section	bra	According to	Fl. in km²	EW	Gem. Concerning.	Fl. concerning. in km²	ECB torrent	ECB avalanches	% Fl. re.	% Risk fee	BL
Vienna / Nö / Bgld	34	745	23,558	3.4 million	418	9,500	2,356	24	40	3.5	3
Oö.	18th	445	11,981	1.4 million	-	5,630	1,239	258	47	8.2	4th
Sbg.	21st	542	7.154	524,400	-	5.010	1,299	561	70	3 0	4th
Styria	18th	542	16,392	1.2 million	-	11,470	3,039	1,167	70	4th 0	4th
Ktn.	12	279	9,544	673,500	-	6,580	1,239	295	69	- ∗	4th
Tyrol	9	279	12,648	673,500	-	2.210	1,878	2,189	91	20th 0	6th
Vlbg.	4th	96	2,601	362,500	-	5,630	1,369	1,481	85	30th 0	2

Source: Ministry of Life / Forstnet, status: 4/2012

Numbers are approximate

^∗ not yet collected

literature

• die.wildbach / WLV: data and figures , annual report, current year ( brochures , Lebensministerium.at).

Web links

Commons : River regulations in Austria  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Torrent and avalanche control in Austria , die-wildbach.at, homepage of the department
• Torrent and Avalanche Control , the Department of Forestry bmlrt.gv.at → → Torrent and Avalanche Control
• Natural hazards in Austria , naturgefahren.at, portal of the Federal Ministry for Agriculture, Regions and Tourism
• die.wildbach in Austria , bmlrt.gv.at - with the exact addresses of the departments
• Beaver Berti and his friends
• Entry on torrent and avalanche control in the Austria Forum  (in the AEIOU Austria Lexicon ) - background information

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} 120 years of torrent and avalanche control in Austria. (No longer available online.) In: Rinderzucht Austria. Central Working Group of Austrian Cattle Breeders (ZAR), September 7, 2006, formerly in the original ; Retrieved May 1, 2012 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.    
2. ↑ Federal Hydraulic Engineering Administration .
3. ↑ Services ( Memento from June 16, 2012 in the Internet Archive ), Lebensministerium.at → Forest → Protection against natural hazards → Torrent and avalanche control
4. ↑ ^{a b} torrent and avalanche control , naturgefahren.at ; die.wildbach in Austria , area of ​​responsibility of the departments
5. ↑ Torrent and avalanche control. Retrieved February 4, 2020 . 
6. ↑ RIS - Entire legal regulation for torrent and avalanche control-Dienststelleverordnung - Federal law consolidated, version of 27.01.2017. Retrieved January 27, 2017 . 
7. ↑ see also torrent and avalanche control . In: Salzburger Nachrichten : Salzburgwiki .
8. ↑ A. Schabl: Feasibility study for the forestry natural space information and analysis system (NIAS forest). Final report to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, Leoben February 1991
9. ↑ Flood hazard map: HORA-HOchwasserRisikozonierung Austria ( Memento of the original from July 16, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , zamg.ac.at 
10. ↑ eHORA - Natural Hazard Overview & Risk Assessment Austria
11. ^ Mathias Granig, Stefan Oberndorfer: Development and calibration of the flow and dust avalanche model SamosAT . In: Journal for torrent, avalanche, erosion and rockfall protection , issue 158, April 2008, volume 72, articles on various topics ( journal archive  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective . Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this note. , Wlv-austria.at; article , pdf, interpraevent.at); See also Siegfried Sauermoser (Head of the Snow and Avalanche Department ): SamosAT - Dust avalanche simulation life! . In: Ministry of Life, Torrent and Avalanche Control: Annual Report 2007 , p. 30 f. (at the start of the new SamosAT, pdf  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , www.lebensministerium.at); also: Avalanche dynamics  ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) , BFW> Research & Results  
     
    
12. ↑ Gerhard Volk: ELBA + - a new generation of simulation models . In: Journal for torrent, avalanche, erosion and rockfall protection , Issue 149/2004, Innovations ( Journal archive ( Memento of the original from January 27, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check Original and archive link according to instructions and then remove this note. , Wlv-austria.at) 
13. ^ Association of qualified engineers for torrent and avalanche control in Austria
14. ↑ quoted from torrent and avalanche control relies on lifelong learning - presentation of the 2007 annual report on torrent and avalanche control , APA press release, OTS0037, June 19, 2008
15. ↑ Organization ( Memento from June 16, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) → Subpages of the sections