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<font 12.0pt/inherit;;inherit;;inherit>Protection against avalanches mudslides and rock-falls</font>
This regulating ES belongs in CICES to the division ‘mediation of flows’ the group ‘mass flows’ and the class ‘Mass stabilisation and control of erosion rates’. In earlier classification systems and frameworks such as the Millenium Ecosystem Assessment and the TEEB study it mainly belonged to the larger regulating service group ‘natural hazard mitigation’.
Ecosystems play a crucial role in regulating the effects of extreme natural events on human systems. They influence both the probability and strength of natural hazards and their impacts1) . In the case of this specific ES the ecosystem counteracts the occurrence of avalanches, mudslides and rock falls, mainly through vegetation cover. In the European Alps this ecosystem function is strongly connected with the protective effect of forest ecosystems in mountain areas mostly known as 'Protection Forest'.
Within the AlpES project the provision dynamics of the ES Protection against avalanches, mud slides and rockfalls in the Alps (here you put the link to the new article) were assessed by means of the following supply, demand and flow indicators:
Supply: Site-protecting forest (%)
Demand: Infrastructure at risk (%)
Flow: Object-projecting forest (%)