Editing Avalanche (section)

=== How to prevent avalanches ===
{{Main|Avalanche control}}
Preventative measures are employed in areas where avalanches pose a significant threat to people, such as [[ski resort]]s, mountain towns, roads, and railways. There are several ways to prevent avalanches and lessen their power and develop preventative measures to reduce the likelihood and size of avalanches by disrupting the structure of the snowpack, while passive measures reinforce and stabilize the snowpack ''in situ''. The simplest active measure is repeatedly traveling on a snowpack as snow accumulates; this can be by means of boot-packing, ski-cutting, or [[Snow grooming|machine grooming]]. [[Explosive]]s are used extensively to prevent avalanches, by triggering smaller avalanches that break down instabilities in the snowpack, and removing overburden that can result in larger avalanches. Explosive charges are delivered by a number of methods including hand-tossed charges, helicopter-dropped bombs, Gazex concussion lines, and ballistic projectiles launched by air cannons and artillery. Passive preventive systems such as [[snow fence]]s and light walls can be used to direct the placement of snow. Snow builds up around the fence, especially the side that faces the prevailing [[wind]]s. Downwind of the fence, snow build-up is lessened. This is caused by the loss of snow at the fence that would have been deposited and the pickup of the snow that is already there by the wind, which was depleted of snow at the fence. When there is a sufficient density of [[tree]]s, they can greatly reduce the strength of avalanches. They hold snow in place and when there is an avalanche, the impact of the snow against the trees slows it down. Trees can either be planted or they can be conserved, such as in the building of a ski resort, to reduce the strength of avalanches.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Védrine |first1=Louis |last2=Li |first2=Xingyue |last3=Gaume |first3=Johan |date=2022-03-29 |title=Detrainment and braking of snow avalanches interacting with forests |url=https://nhess.copernicus.org/articles/22/1015/2022/ |journal=Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences |language=English |volume=22 |issue=3 |pages=1015–1028 |doi=10.5194/nhess-22-1015-2022 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2022NHESS..22.1015V |issn=1561-8633|hdl=20.500.11850/621336 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>

In turn, socio-environmental changes can influence the occurrence of damaging avalanches: some studies linking changes in land-use/land-cover patterns and the evolution of snow avalanche damage in mid latitude mountains show the importance of the role played by vegetation cover, that is at the root of the increase of damage when the protective forest is deforested (because of demographic growth, intensive grazing and industrial or legal causes), and at the root of the decrease of damage because of the transformation of a traditional land-management system based on [[overexploitation]] into a system based on land marginalization and reforestation, something that has happened mainly since the mid-20th century in mountain environments of developed countries.<ref name="García-Hernández et al., 2017">{{cite web|last=García-Hernández |first=C |title=Reforestation and land use change as drivers for a decrease of avalanche damage in mid-latitude mountains (NW Spain). Global and Planetary Change, 153:35–50|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/316750923|publisher=Elsevier |access-date=28 August 2017}}</ref>