Linda Zaugg-Ettlin

In 2008, the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) commissioned EconoMe, an online tool to help them distribute subsidies for natural hazard mitigation projects. Consequently, an interdisciplinary team developed a method to assess mitigation projects concerning their effectiveness to reduce risk and their economic efficiency. Today, fifteen years later, this tool is a significant pillar and reference in Switzerland's natural hazards field. It is continuously being developed further, relying on the feedback and support from the natural hazard community. The newest feature is an interface which allows users to draw on information and calculations from EconoMe while working
in their GIS software.

In der Schweiz erlaubt das Werkzeug EconoMe seit 2008 eine risikobasierte Vorgehensweise im Schutz gegen Naturgefahren. Sowohl die Plattform als auch die Methodik von EconoMe wurden und werden stetig weiterentwickelt. Dieser Artikel gibt einen Überblick über die neuesten und wesentlichsten Änderungen und zeigt die Bedeutung von EconoMe aus Kantons- und Bundessicht. Mit einem Ausblick zu bevorstehenden Arbeiten und den zu überwindenden Hürden schließt der Artikel ab.

Since 2008, the tool EconoMe has enabled Switzerland to adopt a risk-based approach to dealing with natural hazards. The EconoMe online platform as well as the methodology have continuously been developed, a process which is still ongoing. This article gives an overview of the newest and most meaningful changes and shows the importance of EconoMe as seen from a cantonal and a federal perspective. An outlook on upcoming tasks and some expected challenges brings the article to an end.

Over the past 30 years, dealing with natural hazards in Switzerland has changed from being hazard-oriented to using a risk-oriented approach. After a series of catastrophic events, the National Strategy Natural Hazards was published in 2004 and updated in 2018. Following this strategy, various methods and tools were developed. We present some of these developments and give an example of risk-oriented planning for structural avalanche protection measures using the tool EconoMe. The results of the quantitative risk assessment and the benefit-cost-analysis indicate that the planned measures can be recommended for subsidisation.

The Federal Office for the Environment in Switzerland (FOEN) introduced EconoMe in 2008 to compare and prioritize mitigation projects against natural hazards. Mitigation projects have to be assessed regarding their effectiveness and economic efficiency with EconoMe in order to apply for financial subsidies. Experiences and user comments from practitioners have led to continuous improvement and the introduction of additional modules. As such, EconoMe-Light was introduced in 2015 for assessing projects with low investment costs and for a first, rapid estimation of the benefit-cost-ratio of a mitigation project. Analyses of 104 projects show that annual risk reduction of most projects exceeds the annual mitigation cost of mitigation measures by a factor two. The optimization of the effectiveness and the efficiency of mitigation measures is illustrated by the case study Rubi-/Chienbach in the Canton of Lucerne. In the next years, the performance and the data basis for risk calculations such as vulnerability and lethality curves will be improved and further tests on the robustness of the system for decision-making will be conducted.

In recent years cantonal building insurances in Switzerland have been confronted with increasing damage to buildings because of natural hazards. Due to their role as a public monopoly insurance, they are obliged to cover damage, which makes prevention a key issue for them. Local protection measures can be a very effective and efficient way to prevent damage to buildings. To support decision-making on the realization of local protection measures, the foundation for prevention of the cantonal building insurances has initiated the development of a method and a software tool to evaluate the economic efficiency of protection measures. We present this methodology and the software and illustrate the theory with an example. We conclude that the software Prevent-Building will support experts at building insurances in convincing building owners that prevention of damage is in their own interest and that mitigation measures pay off.

Natural hazards have threatened humanity since time immemorial but up until recently, hazard management was conducted more as a reaction to events rather than as a precaution. Nowadays, the common approach is to plan the protection of people and assets from natural hazards before they happen; a job which requires extensive experience and expertise. The program RAMMS was developed enabling professionals to explore natural hazards by simulating snow avalanches, debris flows, hillslope debris flows and rock fall events in three-dimensional terrain. We have taken this program one step further towards managing natural hazard risks by implementing a new module called RAMMS::RISK, which calculates risk and automates risk mapping for buildings. The most attractive functionality of RAMMS::RISK is the visualization of the calculated loss and risk in combination with other building attributes. This allows users to visually explore potential risk hotspots and discover patterns in the risk information. We tested RAMMS::RISK for a case study and conclude that this tool can be a strong support for practitioners in the field of risk management of snow avalanches and other natural hazards.