Full cOveRage, Multi-scAle and multi-sensor geomorphological map: a practical tool for TerrItOrial plaNning

Progetto PRIN 2022 Prot. 2022C2XPK7- CUP B53D23007010006, (PNRR Missione 4 Istruzione e Ricerca - Componente C2 – Investimento 1.1, Fondo per il Programma Nazionale di Ricerca e Progetti di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale PRIN) Finanziato dall’Unione Europea – Next Generation EU presso il CNR-IRPI Sede secondaria di Torino (FORMATION)

Background

Italy is an extremely fragile territory, widely exposed to hydrogeological hazards affecting anthropic infrastructures and the natural environment. In this scenario, geomorphological maps, including the representation of the spatial distribution of landforms, have been used for a long time for the description of processes acting on the Earth’s surface. Geomorphological maps should represent the basic tool for the assessment of geomorphological hazards and the initiation of any management and mitigation strategy. Unfortunately, suffering from temporal and scale resolution, traditional geomorphological maps are rarely used either for risk management and mitigation processes or territorial zonation and planning. The use of external datasets, such as those including recognition of ground deformation phenomena or those containing erosion features, partially oriented the geomorphological maps towards a quantitative description of landforms.

Purpose

The project aims to promote the implementation of new approaches for the description of geomorphological processes and the representation of landforms, as a useful tool for surveying the areas most affected by geological hazards for land use planning purposes. Nowadays, the available geomorphological maps are configured as ‘static’ tools that suffer from the problem of the representativeness of phenomena in terms of temporal resolution and scale. The main aim is to implement new paradigms for geomorphological mapping, in which the results of traditional geomorphological survey models are integrated with several Remote Sensing technologies, useful for the classification of landforms and the creation of digital geomorphological maps.

Methods

Implementation of new paradigms for geomorphological mapping, in which the results of traditional geomorphological survey models are integrated with multi-band, multi-sensor satellite analyses and the analysis of products derived from LiDAR and UAV acquisitions, converging in a Web-GIS environment for the classification of landforms and the creation of digital geomorphological maps. The objective is to analyze and assess the evolution of landforms and in particular landslide phenomena and surface deformation processes in different physiographic contexts, distributed across the Alpine and Apennine environments.

Results

The final objective of the project corresponds to the production of multi-scale digital cartographic models, obtained from the integration of models with different hierarchical levels, functional for a complete and flexible representation of the complexity of the physical evolution of the landscape (including geology, landforms and active processes), considered as a useful tool for actions and decisions in land planning and civil engineering applications.

Products

Geomorphological mapping and web publication to collect and harmonize all the information previously detected in a dynamic, qualitative and quantitative full-coverage geomorphological map and to publish the data in an open-source WEB GIS. Through the WEB GIS integration, the single-layer representing single landforms as well as data derived by satellite and morphometrical analysis as soil erosion modeling will be integrated into the GIS environment. The hierarchical approach allows us to represent the entire topographic surface as well as the active processes on it. The procedure will facilitate the storage, visualization and updating of the data and their database attributes. Leveraging on WEB GIS platform data and information will meet the needs and requirements of any environmental applications, having appropriate standardization required by current legislation, in terms of the possibility of interchange and interoperability.