Become a member
The core of ecorisQ is made of its members. By joining ecorisQ you will expand your professional network and profit from transparent tools in the field of natural hazard risks. Being an ecorisQ member demonstrates that you are willing to increase the transparancy and reproducibility of natural hazard analyses and that you promote sustainable protection against natural hazards.
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Firstly, we wish you all the best for the year 2020. As every year, you will need to install a new licence file to make sure your ecorisQ tools are operational in 2020. The licence files for 2020 are now online in the “tools” menu (only accessible after login).
In 2019, we developed 64-bit windows versions for Rockyfor3D and SOSlope, so that larger datasets can be treated more efficiently by the software. As a result, you’ll need to install licence files for these 64-bit versions. The other ecorisQ tools will be transformed in 64-bit versions in the coming year. For now, they are stil available in 32-bit versions and for these, a 32-bit licence file is required.
Secondly, from 13 - 19 June 2020, we organise our seventh general assembly parallel to the 5th International Conference on Soil, Bio- and Eco-Engineering at the Bern University of Applied Sciences BFH-HAFL in Zollikofen (15 min. from the centre of Bern, Switzerland). The preliminary programme and call for abstract submission can be found here. Training courses on Rockyfor3D and SOSlope will be organised in the frame of this conference.
Lastly, an additional training course on Rockyfor3D will be organised in Bergen (Norway) on the 15th of May 2020, directly after the Interpraevent 2020 congress. Detailed information on this training course will follow in March 2020.
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New in SOSlope version 1.5.0 (November 2019)
- Changed TWI input to Contributing Area (CA)
- TWI calculated internally using sin(slope)
- Added new GIS outputs and renamed files for better readability
- Added one tree specie: Populus nigra (Black poplar)
New in SOSlope version 1.4.0 (April 2019):
- Added input for user-defined output directory name
- Added inputs for soil depth parameters (Depth_min, Depth_max, Slope_min,
Slope_max) for calculating soil depth as a function of slope using a linear
equation - Added checkbox for basal root reinforcement
- Added three new tree species: Ailanthus altissima (Tree of heaven, Ailanthus),
Quercus pubescens (Pubescent Oak), Thrychiocarpus fortunei (Chinese windmill
Palm) - Updated values for Pinus radiata
New in SOSlope version 1.3.9 (July 2018):
- Added new tree specie: Betula pendula (Birch)
- Added display of soil USCS parameters in drop-down menu
- Fixed bugs in some tree specie implementation
- Removed message log during run for increased speed performance
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EcorisQ organizes a SOSlope training course in the USA at the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, California, on the 7th of December 2019. In this course we will present an updated version of SOSlope and will use case studies to illustrate the use of the software for modeling shallow landslide hazards and for quantitative evaluation of soil bio-engineering measures. The participation is cost-free and limited to a total of 25 participants. The program can be found here. An additional course will be orgsanized on the 8th of December if there is a high demand. For registration please write an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
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Last thursday, the 26th of September 2019, the Working Party on the Management of Mountain Watersheds (WPMMW), a technical body under the umbrella of the European Forestry Commission (EFC), established in 1950, met in Innsbruck to discuss "Protective Functions of Forests in a Changing Climate". The meeting was organised by the Austrian Federal Ministry for Sustainability and Tourism, the Province of Tyrol and FAO. The program of the meeting can be found here. The main take home messages were:
- Forests reduce natural hazard risks, they do not provide 100% protection (the same accounts for human made structural measures)
- Forests should be an integral part of risk management strategies
- Legal frameworks for implementing protection forests are largely available / in force - it just has to be done and not only in the Alps
- Major challenges for protection forests are:
- regeneration of forests (ensuring establishment and growth of young trees that overtake the proecrive role of older ones in the future)
- climate change (i.e., changing regimes in insect outbreaks, pests and diseases, forest fires and windthrow, drought stress)
- manpower and financial resources to ensure long-term sustainable management