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World of Science | International Snow Science Workshop

Review of the ISSW 2018 - Introduction

by Anselm Köhler • 11/07/2019
Graphic summary of the topic blocks

Graphic summary of the topic blocks

Graphic summary of the topic blocks

Every two years, full-time snow scientists - both practitioners and those with a more theoretical bent - meet to exchange knowledge at the International Snow Science Workshop, the so-called "Ei-S-S-double-you" (ISSW)*. Every two weeks, we take a look at individual topics from the last conference and summarize them in a generally understandable way, or at least try to. What the ISSW is in particular, and what the last one was, can be found in this article:

Scientists rarely speak to the public, but remain within their own circles, speak their own language and record their findings in paid-for (online) magazines. Their circles are small and large national and international conferences, their language is mostly plain English, but full of technical terms and literature references for every statement. Which of the thousands of magazines an article is published in supposedly underlines the value of the work via impact factor and H(irsch) index...

It is difficult for users and practitioners to maintain an overview of current research, let alone comprehend specific results.

The ISSW conference, which is labeled "A merging of theory and practice" and specifically brings together theorists and practitioners, is different. In other words, the ISSW is the most important international conference for people who deal with snow and avalanches on a daily basis. The ISSW has been held every two years since 1976 - initially only in North America, but now for the third time in Europe. After Davos (2009) and Grenoble (2013), the last one, ISSW 2018, was held in Innsbruck, right at PowderGuide's doorstep.

Opening of the ISSW: Snow fliers without snow

Opening of the ISSW: snow flurries without snow

Opening of the ISSW: snow flurries without snow

The ISSW 2018 in figures

The participants met over four conference days and one field day in Innsbruck in October 2018. Many of the participants were also speakers and presented their work and projects in 19 different thematic blocks, the so-called sessions. In total, there were 425 contributions from speakers from 27 countries. Most of the contributions came from Austria, the USA and Switzerland. Around a third of the contributions were presentations, while the others were exhibited as posters throughout the week and invited personal discussion with the author teams.

All abstracts, i.e. the summaries of the contributions, were proofread by a total of 130 scientists and their relevance to the ISSW and in particular to the individual sessions was assessed. The extent to which the contributions corresponded to the motto "merging theory and practice" was also assessed. Over 40% of the contributions contain this bridge-building, and around 30% each are either of a purely practical or theoretical nature.

The ISSW 2018 in topics

The diversity of the topic blocks cannot be captured with numbers, so here is a list of all 19 sessions. Over the course of the coming winter, we will try to describe most of the sessions mentioned:

  • Snow and avalanche dynamics

  • Protection Measures: Risk management and engineering solutions

  • Integral engineering solutions; from protection forests to temporary measures

  • Operational remote sensing - applications for snow and avalanches

  • Snow hydrology, sustainability and climate change

  • Snow making and ski resort management

  • Avalanche detection: Industry and research

  • Model chains and simulation

  • Snow products and services

  • Snowpack: Stability and variability

  • Avalanche forecasting

  • Avalanche accidents

  • Avalanches and law

  • Human factors: Risk and strategies

  • Education and rescue

  • Hazard communication and perception

  • Information technologies

  • Terrain-based decision making

Graphic summary of the topic blocks

Graphic summary of the topic blocks

Graphic summary of the topic blocks

Journey into the world of science

The World of Science column on PowderGuide aims to explain the latest knowledge in snow and avalanche research and motivate you to read scientific publications on your own to see the beloved snow with different eyes.

Every two weeks we will summarize one or two similar sessions from the ISSW. We won't go into too much detail, but we'll try to provide you with a good overview of the topic blocks. Similar to real scientific publications, we will provide references where appropriate so that you can read the original sources if you are interested in more detail. We will mainly link to the ISSW's own online library, which is completely publicly accessible.

We will start next week with the sessions "Snowmaking and ski resort management" and "Snow products and services".

And the next ISSW

An ISSW will take place again next October, this time in North America, in Fernie. Theoretically, anyone can register there, but of course, flights, accommodation and congress fees are not free. So let's hope that after the very successful ISSW 2018 in Innsbruck, the European snow and avalanche community will finally be given equal consideration and that the two continents will alternate hosting the ISSW every two years.

Unfortunately, there are still a few winter seasons left until then. For now, we hope to keep you entertained with the current topics. Feel free to give us feedback via the knowledge column, in the comments or by email to redaktion@powderguide.com.

* Why is it actually called "the" ISSW? It should be called "the" workshop. Do you know? Then write your answer as a comment under the article. The best explanation will receive an ISSW shirt!

This article has been automatically translated by DeepL with subsequent editing. If you notice any spelling or grammatical errors or if the translation has lost its meaning, please write an e-mail to the editors.

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