3D Model Predicts Landslides in Swiss Alps

19th November 2025

It is being developed by researchers at the Swiss Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research, SLF.

The instrument, while still in the development phase, correctly determined the extent of the one that buried the village of Blatten last May.

• Swiss village destroyed by landslide as glacier collapses

Now scientists are using it to simulate possible landslides at a dozen other locations in Switzerland.

The great strength of the new model is that, unlike those previously used, it generates simulations that are not only two-dimensional.

“Rock slides are complex 3D processes and, with our model, this complexity naturally emerges from the physics of the simulation,” said a researcher from SLF.

Two-dimensional tools are unable to detect when the sliding mass detaches from the ground or how exactly it reacts to steep and changing topography.

The new technology could also be used to help predict avalanches in the winter.

See more on Swiss Info

• Fibre optic cables could predict glacier collapses
• Another Swiss village evacuated due to landslide threat
• Monitoring rock falls in the Alps