Snow avalanche susceptibility in the eastern hillside of the Aramo Range (Asturian Central Massif, Cantabrian Mountains, NW Spain)

• Main Authors: Salvador Beato Bergua, Miguel Ángel Poblete Piedrabuena, José Luis Marino Alfonso
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2018-11-01
• Series: Journal of Maps
• Subjects: Snow avalanche; susceptibility mapping; natural hazards; Aramo Range; Cantabrian Mountains
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17445647.2018.1480974

A detailed snow avalanche susceptibility map of the eastern hillside in the Aramo Range (Cantabrian Mountains) is presented at a scale of 1:25,000. The Aramo Range is one of the major middle-altitude mountains of the Asturian Central Massif. Although it has of moderate height (maximum altitude of 1791 m a.s.l.), its eastern slope presents unusual snow avalanche activity. Specifically, a hundred of snow avalanche tracks have been mapped based on meticulous fieldwork and supported by interviews with local people, searches in newspaper archives, photointerpretation, and calculations based on the digital terrain model and geographic information system. As a result, a susceptibility map has been elaborated, which shows the suitability of combining fieldwork and geographic information technology. The composition consists of two maps that detail how the susceptibility mapping is obtained. The section analysed is limited to the eastern slope of the Aramo Range, whose total surface area is 1555.62 ha.