Projects and research

Development of a concept for the provision of forest reproductive material in Ethiopia - Juniperus procera

Ethiopia has embarked on one of the globally most ambitious programs of forest landscape restoration (FLR) with a commitment to restore more than 20 million hectare of degraded forest landscapes within the next 20 years

Unit for Ecological Genetics

AvaRange | Understanding the Flow Mobility of Avalanches - Cooperation for Researching Avalanches

In-flow data with high precision in real avalanche scenarios are the product of the cooperative project of BFW Institute for Natural Hazards Innsbruck, TU Berlin and University of Innsbruck. This approach is now being applied for the first time to snow avalanches. The destructive potential of gravitational mass flows, such as snow avalanches, has a […]

Unit for Snow & Avalanches

Biodiversity conservation of the native forests in the Austro-Hungarian border region - Interreg Project REIN

In order to counteract the rapid climate change in the Austro-Hungarian border region in practice, as part of the INTERREG project REIN-Forest , regional guidelines for forest reproductive material (FRM) transfer is going to be developed. Reforestation of six demonstration sites is planned with local and with adapted to the future climate FRM of two native tree species, European beech and sessile oak.

Unit for Provenance Research & Breeding

Forschungsteam, bestehend aus 10 Personen, stehen im Wald

Soil Warming Experiment Achenkirch - Long term experiment

The project investigates how global warming affects forest soil processes. A special focus lies on soil carbon. Forest soil store huge amounts of organic carbon which could be released into the atmosphere. Decomposer microbes mineralize dead organic matter such as leave and root litter and thereby release important nutrients for plant growth. A share of […]

Unit for Climate Impact Research Coordination

PARAmount: Interpretation of an Expert Survey by BFW - Questionnaire

Within the framework of the project PARAmount a Communication and Decision Support Tool (CDT) was developed, as a contribution to the highly emotional discussion about natural hazard management. Basic information was collected by means of an online survey in which respondents were asked to rate the importance of individual parameters for different process types. More […]

Code of Practice for the Assessment of Surface Runoff Coefficients - Compendium

The first BFW “Code of Practice for the Assessment of Surface Runoff Coefficients for Alpine Soil/Vegetation Complexes in Torrential Rain” has been published in 2004 (in German language). The Interreg-South East Europe-Project CC-WaterS offered the opportunity to integrate some new findings in experimental runoff research and to release a report in English language in 2011. […]

Unit for Torrent Processes & Hydrology

Aufsicht auf eine Berglandschaft mit vielen gefallenen Bäumen

Transboundary Storm Risk and Impact Assessment in Alpine Regions - TRANS-ALP Project

In the framework of the UCPM project TRANS-ALP institutions from Italy and Austria are working together to improve the impact prediction of storm events for the area Trentino-Alto Adige/South Tyrol, Veneto as well as East Tyrol and the respective bordering regions.

Department for Natural Hazards

Mit der Messkluppe wird der Durchmesser gemessen

European National Forest Inventories harmonise their data - Horizon 2020

Until now the data of growing stock were hardly comparable across country borders. The European National Forest Inventories have now succeeded to harmonise the computation of growing stocks within the scope of the Horizon 2020 project “DIABOLO”. A major support for the information needs at the European level. National Forest Inventories are the major source […]

Unit for Inventory Design & Analysis

RE-ENFORCE – Transnational Cooperation on nature-based solutions for restoring degraded forests of Central Europe - Project RE-ENFORCE

The forests of Central Europe provide a diverse range of ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration, protective functions, biodiversity support, and job creation, while also serving as cost-effective measures for climate protection. However, the effects of climate change are increasingly threatening forest ecosystems and presenting them with major challenges in terms of adapting to changing climatic conditions and protecting biodiversity.

Unit for Forest Growth

Conference “Preparing Europe for invasion by the beetles emerald ash borer and bronze birch borer” - Results of conference

The Conference Preparing Europe for invasion by the beetles emerald ash borer and bronze birch borer, two major tree-killing pests, held in Vienna, Austria, on 1-4 October 2018. The conference focus on the threats to European forests from two tree-killing pests, the emerald ash borer (EAB), Agrilus planipennis, a buprestid native to SE Asia and […]

Unit for Plant Health Control

Protection Forests in the Alpine Region – Adaptation Strategies to Climate Change - Project MOSAIC

Climate change is undeniably contributing to the increase in weather- and climate-related natural disasters, affecting Alpine communities. Natural disasters are often the result of compound events, which are combinations of multiple climate- and/or weather-related hazards that contribute to societal or environmental risks.