Review article: A scoping review of human factors in avalanche decision-making

Abstract

The interest in understanding the human aspects of avalanche risk mitigation has steadily grown over the past few decades. Between 2001–2011, 11 research papers on decision-making in avalanche terrain were published in peer-reviewed journals. Between 2012–2022, this number rose to 55. These papers have been authored by researchers from various disciplines and publications in journals across different fields. Despite the field’s nascent stage, to guide future research it is pertinent to provide an overview of the insights from existing research literature.

This paper offers a systematic overview of peer-reviewed research on human factors in avalanche decision-making. The overview is based on a systematic literature search covering research published up until the end of 2022. The search was conducted across six databases, including Scopus and Web of Science, using a set of keywords related to avalanche decision-making (e.g., “decision-making,” “backcountry skiing,” “avalanche terrain,” “avalanche accident”). Out of nearly 13,000 articles containing at least one of the key search terms, 70 had a research question related to avalanche decision-making and were published in peer-reviewed academic journals. Additionally, 100 relevant papers were published as ISSW (International Snow Science Workshop) proceedings.

We coded all identified papers based on major and minor research questions, control variables, population covered, and methodology. 12 concepts described the different research themes (e.g., avalanche accidents, avalanche education, decision-making strategies). We applied the concepts to the 70 peer-reviewed papers and present them by their main concept.