Abstract

In response to emerging problems or opportunities, such as avalanche incidents or tech-nological advances, avalanche safety service providers face decisions about what risk reduction inter-vention is needed and how it should be designed. Interventions may include avalanche forecasts, edu-cation programs, operational protocols, and decision-support tools. These decisions are often made with limited resources or evidence to guide them, amid growing expectations for responsive and effective services. These circumstances call for a systematic process for designing and evaluating interventions, yet avalanche safety service providers lack a structured approach. To address this gap, we synthesized and adapted approaches from risk research, environmental management, and public health program planning and evaluation into a theoretically grounded and practice-focused framework. The framework’s eight steps guide practitioners through defining the scope, engaging affected populations, and diagnos-ing the risk problem; identifying feasible targets for change; designing and implementing an intervention; and evaluating its implementation, intended changes, and effects on risk. The process is iterative and can be adapted across service contexts and scales, from individual products and programs to broader service systems. For service providers, this process helps direct limited resources toward meaningful opportunities to influence risk and makes intervention reasoning explicit and testable. For researchers, it provides a common structure for connecting findings across studies to build cumulative knowledge about what works, for whom, and under what conditions, including when findings may be transferable.

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