On Tuesday, August 3rd, 2026, the Slovenian pilot team headed into the field for a first-hand look at the two landslide sites at the heart of the ECHO project’s work in Slovenia. The visit was organised by the team from the Kranjska Gora and Jesenice municipalities, who guided us through both locations and shared their deep local knowledge of the terrain, the risks, and the ongoing work to manage them.

Our first stop was the Topolino landslide in the Kranjska Gora municipality, one of the two sites of our pilot scenario. Standing in the area, it became immediately clear why this location was chosen. Roads and other infrastructure serving the valley all pass through the landslide zone, making it a striking example of how a single natural event can trigger a cascade of infrastructure failures across multiple organisations. We walked the area to understand what critical infrastructure is exposed, how different assets relate to each other, and what the consequences of an activation could look like in practice. We also saw the prevention work done in the area and heard about the protective measures planned for the future.

Afterwards, we moved to the Koroška Bela area in the Jesenice municipality, another active landslide zone with a very different character. Here, the focus shifted to risk mitigation and citizen protection. The local team showed us the monitoring and alarm system in place to warn residents living in the endangered zone below. We also assessed the critical infrastructure present in and around the area, continuing the interdependency mapping work that underpins the ECHO technologies.

The visit served an essential purpose, namely moving from diagrams and data to ground truth. Seeing the sites in person allowed the team to ground the piloting scenarios in reality, identify the assets that matter most, understand how they depend on each other, and make informed decisions about how to design exercises that are meaningful for the organisations and communities involved.

For more information about the project, visit https://echo-horizon.eu/.