Management of Snow Avalanche Risk in the Ski Areas of the Southern Carpathians-Romanian Carpathians - Sustainable Development in Mountain Regions: Southeastern Europe - page 118

Fig. 10.13 The delineated trails and the snowpack support (on top ) and the display panels (on the
bottom ) (photos by Popescu, 2009)
10.5 Conclusions
Unfortunately, the management of different natural risk does not yet represent a
major concern. The increasing incidence of snow avalanches affects not only skiers,
but also the entire economy of the ski areas. The responsible authorities for the
management of the ski domains need to invest in:
- the surveillance of the phenomena;
- sending warnings through special services which would transmit meteorological
and nivometric bulletins;
- drawing-up hazard maps on the mountain groups of the Southern Carpathians;
- emitting codes;
- risk reduction, the consolidation and extension of snow avalanches protection
structures such as: deflecting dike, snowpack support structures, snow sheds and
the introduction of explosive controls, as well as, artificial release of snow in ski
areas and along roads;
- integrating and using the European avalanche risk scale, especially as Romania is
part of the European Spatial Planning Observation Network (ESPON) Data base
as far as mountain hazards are concerned;
- implementing standardized pennons (as in the French system) especially within
ski domains (where the trail number and type or off trail would be stated) and to
implement warning panels (European or North-American System);