The following work discusses the influence of Global Change on fast gravitational movements (rock-fall, landslide, ice-fall). For most people and scientists Global Change is similar to Global Warming, although two aspects have to be considerated: - On the one hand climate change can influence the different natural dangers; the main question is whether the danger will increase or decline. Depending on this the available space for landuse will decrease or increase. - On the other hand the way of life has changed: more space was used by society - specially in the Alps: tourist resorts in 2000 m or higher, skiing resorts on glaciers, importance of traffic has increased; ...; so we moved towards the natural dangers! The climate effects of Global Change are going to influence fast gravitational movements because of the following effects: - decreasing glaciers: steep slopes because of glacial erosion and slopes loose the pressure of the glaciers, rock-wheathering because of lost pressure, - Permafrost moves higher: more areas loose the "cement-effect" of Permafrost, more water is available - more water infiltrates into the rock and decreases stability (pore-water pressure increases); slide-layers can be activated by the water because of friction loss. - more heavy rainfalls are expected in the Alps - because of in general higher temperatures more rain (instead of snow) will fall in high mountain areas: an increase of pore-water pressure and a deacrease of stability follows. Many mass movements and slope failures are due to abnormally high pore-water pressures (ABBOT)! - more available water and an increasing frequency between forst and no frost causes a higher rate of frost-wheatering. All the reasons above (and some more) are so called external factors for fast mass movements and can be influenced. Of grater importance are the internal factors (long-term processes): geology, tectonics, mineralogy, ... The internal factors can hardly be influenced (geologic times), but have to be seen as more importance than the external factors for a possible slope failure! In summary it can be saind, that the effects (climate effects) of global change will hardly increase the number of fast gravitational movements, especially big movements will not be influenced. Landuse-planning has to react actively and has to call for a more future orientated dealing with natural dangers.
