Page - 495 - in Book of Full Papers - Symposium Hydro Engineering

Fig.2: Monthly precipitations during 1950 – 2000 according to WorldClim – Global Climate Data (http://www.worldclim.org/download) Many features in the high mountain environment such as glaciers, permafrost, vegetation or soil are very climate-sensitive and could experience large changes in the future. As a consequence, the potential starting zones for natural hazards, the dynamics of processes, and the areas potentially affected by natural hazards are likely to change as well. Therefore, the high mountains can be seen as a complex system in which various features react to the rising temperatures in different time scales and intensities. The rock glaciers are expected to thaw over the coming years and decades, posing a new threat of landslides in the avalanche starting zone. However, climatic change may be the most direct cause of terrace formation because hydrological dynamic parameters that dominate riverbed sediment aggradation and transportation (e.g., flux and flow velocity) are directly related to climatic conditions (Wang et al.,2008). Another important factor is the wind situation when considering luv and lee-effects of exposed slopes (sun and rain exposition). Therefore, the wind pattern and wind properties have to be monitored. 495