Das Projekt "NELAK" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Zürich, Geographisches Institut durchgeführt. Glaciers in high-mountain regions are rapidly shrinking. As a consequence, a considerable number of new lakes form in closed depressions of glacier-bed topography and existing lakes tend to grow larger. The transdisciplinary research project NELAK within the National Research Programme 61 on sustainable water management treats the questions where and when new lakes are likely to form in the Swiss Alps, what their characteristics (depth, volume, moraine/bedrock) are likely to be and how the related potentials (tourism, energy production, flood protection) and risks (outbursts, impact waves from slope instabilities) can best be assessed and managed in an integrative way. Legal questions are also treated (who owns the new lakes, who is responsible for them, who can use them under what conditions, etc.). A special study is devoted to questions of realistically dealing with risks from impact waves - a risk involving the combination of large damage potential and low but increasing probability.