The objective of SBB’s natural hazard strategy is to provide integrated protection against natural hazards and climate change. The protective measures implemented by SBB are cost-efficient yet effective at ensuring maximum risk reduction.

It is difficult to forecast how risks posed by natural hazards will alter in the wake of climate change. This is why SBB is banking on forward-looking natural hazard management that thinks in hazard scenarios and anticipates potential consequences. With the aid of new and innovative technologies such as ground-penetrating radar and satellite data, experts at SBB can detect and closely monitor changes in terrain or rock displacement at particularly exposed locations.

Protective forest as a protective shield.

Effective protective forests are valuable assets to SBB. Along a total track length of some 340 km, forests protect railway tracks against avalanches, rockfall and other natural hazards. Of some 8,000 hectares of protective forest, 1,600 ha belong to SBB. Yet, the condition of such protective forest is highly important to ensuring its full effectiveness. Only thick, biologically diverse forest housing a mixture of deciduous and coniferous trees offers adequate protection against rockfall. And only dense forest with no large gaps can effectively prevent landslides and avalanches. However, this protective effect comes at a cost. SBB invests some CHF 2 million annually in regular care and maintenance for these protective forests.

At particularly exposed locations where protective forest cannot grow, specialised structures are erected to provide added protection. Such measures include high steel nets and alarm systems as well as inspectors to assess situations at site. All told, SBB invested CHF 30 million in 2011 to guard against natural hazards. This figure includes expenditure on caring for protective forest, erecting and maintaining protective structures, monitoring natural hazards, and looking after the wooded areas in the safety zones along railway lines.