The National Platform for Natural Hazards

PLANAT was created in 1997 by the Swiss Federal Council and made responsible for coordinating concepts in the field of prevention against natural hazards. The main objective of the extra-parliamentary commission is a paradigm change from pure protection against hazards to the management of risk.

The national platform for natural hazards consists of twenty specialists coming from all regions of Switzerland. The Federal Council appoints them for periods of four years. The Confederation, the cantons , research, professional associations, the economy and insurances are all represented in PLANAT. The commission wants to avoid a duplication of efforts in the area of protection against natural hazards and make better use of existing synergies. PLANAT ’s opinion is that protection against natural hazards may not be limited any longer to the protection of individual values within some limited scopes of responsibility against certain kinds of hazards. Therefore a paradigm change from the protection against hazards to a new risk culture is needed.

naturgefahren.ch - an initiative of PLANAT
With naturgefahren.ch PLANAT presents a forum, in which knowledge is available over the entire range of topics concerning natural hazards. The platform aims to serve as a central place, where literature, pictures and presentations can be found as well as lists of existing sites of the federal administration, cantonal authorities, research institutes and international organizations.

Partners wanted
PLANAT offers to all non-profit organizations with an emphasis on the prevention of natural hazards to present themselves on naturgefahren.ch and bring in their own contribution.The site’s management is made available free of charge by PLANAT.

Contact:
National Platform for Natural Hazards PLANAT
c/o Risk Prevention Division
Federal Office for the Environment FOEN
CH-3003 Bern
Switzerland
Tel: +41 (0)31 324 17 81