The effectiveness of protection measures is of pivotal significance in risk management. Its assessment may be arranged in a similar way for different processes such as avalanches or debris flows and for different control structures. The general procedure consists of five main steps: basics, analysis of processes, analysis of control structures, assessment of effectiveness and practical implementation. The assessment of effectiveness is then shown using two examples: the example of torrent check-dams for the case of already existing measures, and the example of snow supporting structures for the case of new measures.