Abstract

Snow avalanches are events often involving serious risk to human beings and goods due to their destructive power. This is why effective control measures are required to mitigate the risk for human settlements, goods and services on mountain slopes or at the foot of avalanche ways. This article summarizes the different structural systems and techniques used nationally and internationally to support and stabilize the snowpack in avalanche starting zones. These measures act by reducing the pressures originated by the creeping and sliding of the snowpack. While the current state of the art and the control systems implementation have been mainly developed in Europe, the prevention measures by modern supporting structures have been carried out in Chile since the 80s.