Between 8 and 12 September 2025, spatial planners from Avannaata Kommunia in Greenland participated in a week-long workshop dedicated to “Integrated Risk Management” of mass-movement processes. The event was organised in the framework of Swiss Polar Institute’s Konrad Steffen Grant.
The core idea of the workshop was to share first-hand experiences from complex process chain events in the Swiss Alps with Greenlandic colleagues and to explore whether some of the lessons learnt in the Alps could help the management of potential future events in Greenland. Lectures and exercises were provided by Dr. Cornelia Brönnimann from the Natural Hazard Division of the Canton of Bern and Prof. Markus Stoffel from the University of Geneva. Alexander Gamble from the Geology Department, Greenland Government complemented the inputs with experiences of the island’s government on tsunamigenic disasters.
The workshop started with an indoor training and desk-based exercises in Ilulissat and continued with considerations on the probability of occurrence and intensity of potential tsunami waves as well as hands-on activities in the field on active debris-flow fans and rockfall talus deposits in Qaarsut and the surrounding settlements. The training programme was very much appreciated by the highly motivated participants and was a very rewarding experience for the instructors. The spatial planners also expressed a clear desire for an institutionalisation of the training and an expansion of activities to other regions of Greenland.
