Geomorphometry complements the traditional qualitative description of landforms with a quantitative approach based on the analysis of Digital Terrain Models, which are numerical representations of the topography.

For the purpose, geomorphometry develops and exploits new algorithms in GIS (Geographical Information System) environments.

The scope of the analysis is to derive parameters (e.g., terrain slope, surface roughness), or combinations of parameters, capable of characterizing the spatial variability of specific hydro-geomorphological processes (e.g., sediment connectivity, erosion and deposit).

The rapid development of modern technologies for the accurate measurement of topographic data at increasingly high resolution and covering large portions of the territory, such as LiDAR, has increased the interest in geomorphometry and its applications.

Results

During the years, we have developed a number of geomorphometric indices and simplified topography-based models for the characterization of surface roughness and texture, sediment dynamics and connectivity, and the potential trigger and runout of debris flows.

We implemented our methods in freely available stand-alone software, and as GIS open source software packages.