Autor: Arthur I. Mears

The editors: Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Florian Rudolf-Miklau is an expert on torrent and avalanche control. In 2002 he became an advisor for technical protection and project financing at the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management in Vienna. He is Chair of the Austrian standards committee ON-K 256 „Protection against natural hazards“ and member of the advisory board of the INTERPRAEVENT research society as well as lecturer at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences and Vienna Technical University. He also acts as a court-certified expert. Dipl.-Ing. Siegfried Sauermoser is director of the Tyrolean Section of the Forest Engineering Service in Torrent and Avalanche Control in Innsbruck, Austria. He has 12 years of work experience as project manager for avalanche barriers. He acts as Lecturer at the University of Vienna, University of Innsbruck and University Center Svalbard in Spitzbergen, Norway. He is a juridical certified expert for torrent and avalanche protection structures and a member of the Austrian Board for Alpine Safety. Arthur I. Mears, P.E., has a B.S. in Civil Engineering and an M.S. in Geology from the University of Colorado in Boulder, USA. Based in Gunnison, he founded Arthur I. Mears, P.E., Inc. in 1981, specializing in avalanche, rockfall and debris-flow analysis and mitigation. He has been a consultant for over 1000 projects in 9 states and 8 countries. The contributors to the handbook are leading European and American experts in avalanche protection.