Spiral Project Unveils Advances in Pyrenees Landslide Forecasting at Cross-Border Event

Researchers from Andorra, Spain, and France presented advances in the Spiral project at a POCTEFA Connecta event on Tuesday in the Sergi Mas room of Sant Julià de Lòria's former town hall. The gathering, organized by Andorra Recerca + Innovació (AR+I) alongside the Institut Cartogràfic i Geològic de Catalunya, highlighted cross-border efforts to address natural hazards in the Pyrenees amid climate change.

Education and Institutional Relations Minister Ladislau Baró welcomed attendees. AR+I researcher Anna Echevarría detailed Spiral's work on terrain movements and landslides, aiming to forecast likely locations and timing. The team is building a susceptibility map based on geology, topography, slope angles, firefighter reports, incident logs, and media coverage to pinpoint high-risk areas. While a definitive map is pending, early analysis identifies key influences.

The project will define dynamic rainfall thresholds—accounting for rain or snow—to trigger early warnings during heavy precipitation, adapting to shifting extreme weather patterns driven by climate change. Echevarría emphasized that more rain heightens landslide risks, a concern amplified in mountainous regions like the Pyrenees, including Andorra. The country sees routine small-scale events, such as rocks falling onto roads that require daily clearance, but it is no more vulnerable than neighboring areas. A rainy winter likely boosted incidents locally, as in surrounding regions, though exact numbers are unavailable.

Currently, no automated detection alerts for individual rockfalls exist beyond routine inspections in prone spots. Government monitoring of major shifts relies on satellite interferometry, inclinometers, and extensometers. Spiral's Pyrenees-wide landslide inventory will feed into Andorra's ARGOS civil protection platform.

The event covered other POCTEFA initiatives on natural risks: Riskrapid and Solpyr for wildfires and floods; Desbosiguem! for sustainable forest management and combating climate-driven encroachment; Permapyrenees for permafrost degradation awareness and monitoring in high-traffic zones. A roundtable explored shared challenges, synergies, and collaboration opportunities in mountain risk management.