Gloria Marti
Deputy EAWS
European Avalanche Warning Services
Spain

Biography
Gloria Marti has a degree on Geology (1991). She works as snow avalanche specialist at the Institut Cartogr?fic i Geol?gic de Catalunya (ICGC) from 1991 developing snow avalanche forecast, databases and mapping. She is also member of the European Avalanche Warning Services (EAWS) where she takes part of the working group developing tasks focused on harmonizing and developing avalanche standards in the European Frame. From 2013 she is the deputy coordinator of the EAWS.

Abstract
Snow Avalanche Warning Services Cooperation in Europe: EAWS

Co-Authors:
Igor Chiambretti, Coordinator EAWS, European Avalanche Warning Services
Patrick Nairz, Webmaster, European Avalanche Warning Services

The European Avalanche Warning Services (EAWS) is a non-government, not for profit organization dedicated to public avalanche safety. The EAWS was set up in 1983 with the aim to achieve International level top shape coordination, improving cross-border cooperation with regard to snow avalanche forecasting with the support and collaboration of national, regional or provincial sector agencies dedicated to warn about this specific natural hazard through avalanche bulletins. The vision of EAWS is to coordinate the activities of the Avalanche Warning Services in Europe. The mission comprises to deepen and reinforce an effective and continuous cooperation between the European avalanche forecasting services, coordinating technical and organizational issues, establishing common codes, operating methods, better ways of exchanging data and information. The creation of a working group allows to tackle such issues and propose common and sustainable solutions. One of the most outstanding achievements of this cooperation was the setting up of the European Avalanche Danger Scale in 1993. At present it is composed of 16 European and two non-European countries that recently became members, namely the United States (2007) and Canada (2007), with the goal of expanding consensus at a worldwide level. Furthermore the official website www.avalanches.org, the biannual general EAWS meetings and the working group meetings were setup to achieve the international cooperation. Snow avalanches have a strong spatio-temporal component. According to EAWS standards and to the EU INSPIRE directive (2007/2/EC 14th March 2007), EAWS wish to establish an interface or infrastructure for snow and avalanche data spatial or geographical information exchange and/or sharing of such data, making them more accessible and interoperable for a wide range of purposes, between neighboring offices. The avalanche information system contains georeferenced data of snowpack stability assessment including snow profiles, tests and snow avalanche accidents. The official EAWS website is aimed to be the platform of the avalanche data exchange.