Confederation updates natural hazards portal
For more than ten years, the Confederation's natural hazards portal (www.natural-hazards.ch) has provided the public with information on the current natural hazard situation in Switzerland. To ensure that the portal continues to meet users’ needs in the future, the federal agencies with responsibility for natural hazards have revised it: warnings and notifications, as well as information on danger levels and recommended behaviour, are now more clearly presented and easier to find.
An overview map shows the current warnings and notifications for twelve different natural hazards, such as floods, avalanches, rain and earthquakes. In addition, there is a dedicated map for each hazard type. These maps are all structured according to the same principle. Only earthquakes are not shown on a timeline; instead, they carry the note “occurred on” together with the corresponding date. This makes it clear that the depicted earthquakes have already taken place and do not represent a forecast.
A common understanding of the hazards and coordinated cooperation between the authorities and the population are crucial for warning procedures to function smoothly. Recommendations for behaviour based on the danger levels therefore supplement the warnings on the natural hazards portal. In particularly critical situations, the specialist agencies also publish natural hazard bulletins on the portal, providing more detailed technical information and expert assessments of the natural hazard situation.
The natural hazards portal was revised under the leadership of the Federal Office of Meterology and Climatology MeteoSwiss in collaboration with the other federal agencies with responsibility for natural hazards, i.e. the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN), the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research (SLF) and the Swiss Seismological Service (SED) at ETH Zurich. The next step will be to add key content in plain language and information in sign language, as well as further content adjustments.
Further information
- Media release (available in German, French and Italian)
- Natural hazards portal
