The recent Sentinel-1 mission, started by ESA in April 2014, provides to the scientific community new capabilities for the continuous monitoring of the Earth. In particular, the Terrain Observation by Progressive Scans (TOPS) imaging technique used in the Interferometric Wide swath (IW) acquisition mode, allow us to acquire data over very wide areas (250 km swath) at 20m spatial resolution, with 12 days revisit time, making it suitable for ground displacement monitoring applications. With more than one year of SAR images available, it is now possible to carry out monitoring activities of slow moving phenomena such as landslides at both regional and local scales. In this work, we test the potential of Sentinel-1 InSAR for the monitoring of shallow landslides occurring in a densely vegetated area in the North-Eastern Italian Pre-Alps. The test area of about 25km2, is located in the Province of Vicenza (Veneto Region, NE Italy) and is characterized by elevations up to 700m a.s.l., low slope angles, and the outcropping of volcanic deposits (lavas, pyroclastites and ignimbrites) overlaid by eluvial and colluvial deposits. The entire area is affected by a large number of different instabilities, such as shallow soil slips, flows and rotational/translational slides that mainly occur after heavy rain. The landslides are damaging the buildings and the infrastructure, in particular the road network, causing high economic loss for the Municipality. The landslides monitoring activity is performed exploiting the available Sentinel-1 SAR images using both Small Baseline Subset (SBAS) and Persistent Scatterer (PS) techniques. Furthermore, we use the same techniques to process another SAR dataset made of 22 COSMO-SkyMed (CSK) X-band images acquired over the study area in the period March 2011 - September 2012. A first comparison of the results is performed in order to assess the landslides detection capabilities of the Sentinel-1 C-band in respect to the CSK X-band. Finally, the Sentinel- 1 results are cross-validated with the ERS-1/2 and ENVISAT PSI database available from "Portale Geografico Nazionale" allowing us to assess the quality of the obtained results in terms of data density and accuracy. The presented work shows the potential of the new Sentinel-1 TOPS mode interferometry in the monitoring of local scale ground instabilities in low urbanized territories pointing out what strengths and weaknesses emerged during the study activity.

Proactive management is particularly important to deal with the increasing occurrence of hydro-meteorological hazards in mountain areas were threats are often caused by multiple and sudden onset hazards such as debris flows. Citizen volunteers can be involved in supporting technicians on inspecting the structures' functional status. Such collaborative effort between managing organizations and local volunteers becomes more important under limited resources. To consider volunteers' information in support of proactive inspection of hydraulic structures, we developed a methodology applicable in day-to-day risk management. At first, in collaboration with technicians-in-charge, a data collection approach was developed for first level or pre-screening visual inspections that can be performed by volunteers. Methods comprise of a data collection exercise, an inspection forms and a learning session based on existent procedures in the FVG region and neighbouring regions. To systematically evaluate the individual inspection reports, we designed a support method by means of a multi-criteria method with fuzzy terms. The method allows the technicians-in-charge to categorize the reports in one of three levels, each corresponding with a course of action. To facilitate the evaluation of inspection reports, we transformed the decision support method into a prototype Web-GIS application. The design process of the Web-GIS framework followed a user-centred approach. The conceptual design incorporates four modules for managing the inspection reports_ 1) Registered users, 2) Inspection planning; 3) Available reports and 4) Evaluation of reports. The development of the prototype focused on the evaluation module and was implemented based on standard and interoperable open source tools. Finally, we organized a workshop with technicians in the study area to test the decision support method and get insights about the usefulness of the Web-GIS framework. Participants that took part of the workshop included technicians that were not involved in previous research activities. The involvement of new technicians was important due to their fresh perspectives. We looked at the effect of the quality of the input reports on the output of the decision support method. In addition, we compared the differences in the participants' advice during the inspection and the output from the decision support method. Participants' feedback led to a set of suggested improvements in the decision support method and the web-GIS application. We hope that the knowledge, theory and concept behind this decision support method can be developed into a full-scale web-GIS application. The advantage of using this decision support method is that it allows inspections to be carried out by either skilled volunteers or technicians while ensuring technicians-in-charge that they can systematically evaluate the collected reports. Volunteers can become skilled inspectors by teaming up with technicians for the inspection of hydraulic structures. Technicians can become more aware about local impacts and changes in the structures' status by teaming up with volunteers.

Within natural processes responsibilities from central authorities to local levels as first actors of civil protection is a changing pattern. Prevention and preparedness in natural hazards are long-term goals based on capacities of professional volunteers, and improving the awareness of the citizens as local inhabitants. Local people have impacts on their lives but training and involvement towards specific techniques change their role within risk communication and emergency preparedness. A collaborative user environment is useful for emergency response and support in the wake of disasters, feeding updated information on the ground directly to on-site responders. MAppERS (Mobile Application for Emergency Response and Support) is a funded project (2013-2015 Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection, ECHO A5) based on human role as "crowd-sourced mappers" through smart phone application able to share GPS-localised and detailed parameters. The feedback from testing and the training courses aim to raising public awareness and participation in a networked disaster response. The project implies design and test of smart phone linked with a real-time dashboard platform for rescue services citizens and volunteers of civil protection. Two pilot sites, including trainings on modules functioning control usability and quality of the product. The synchronized platform offers the activity of cloud data collection with a central data dashboard. Information is collected in a context of floods processes, with crowdsourcing action from local population, for proper awareness with own personal flood plan and long-term preparedness. A second context tested pre-emergency actions on field with rescue team, collecting state-of-art and condition of hazards.

We have applied a commercial optical frequency domain reflectometer with high spatial resolution to measure the strain exerted on an aluminum specimen under tensile strength (open hole) test. The strain profile has been measured until failure by means of an optical fiber and by ten standard electric strain gauges. The matching between the measurement data provided by the two techniques at the strain gauges positions is excellent, except in the proximity of the hole, where the strain gradient is maximum. Due to that, a precise correspondence between optical fiber and strain gauges position near the hole is mandatory in order to measure the same strain value. The resolution attainable by the optical system, that has not counterpart in any electrical systems, enables an unprecedented spatial sampling, thus allowing a much better characterization of the strain profile along the sample.

In this work a quasi-distributed optical fiber load sensor based on a semi-auxetic structure is presented. By concatenating sections with positive Poisson's ratio to sections with negative one it is possible to precisely encode the distributed load into a strain exerted on a fiber. The sensor is described and a simple proof of concept is built and tested. The fiber is interrogated by means of optical frequency domain reflectometry. The proposed sensor represents just one example of the potential applications of auxetic and semi-auxetic structures and materials in optical fiber sensors development.

Il monitoraggio delle colate detritiche in bacini attrezzati Finalità Strumentazione e variabili rilevate Alcune aree di monitoraggio Cenno ai sistemi di allarme Il monitoraggio post-evento in aree interessate da colate detritiche e non provviste di strumentazione Conclusioni

The occurrence of flash flooding is of concern in hydrologic and natural hazards science due to the top ranking of such events among natural disasters in terms of both the number of people affected globally and the proportion of individual fatalities. On the average, these events cause more casualties worldwide than any other natural disaster, with an average rate of 5000 deaths per year (Douben, 2006). The potential for flash flood casualties and damages is also increasing in many regions due to the social and economic development bringing pressure on land use. Furthermore, evidence of increasing heavy precipitation at continental (Groisman et al., 2004) and global scales (Groisman et al., 2005) supports the view that the global hydrological cycle is intensifying as the planet warms. As a consequence, the flash flood hazard is expected to increase in frequency and severity in many areas, through the impacts of global change on climate, storm-weather systems and river discharge conditions. This work aims to provide a characterisation of flash flood events in the Mediterranean basin over various time and spatial scales, in order to characterise these events in terms of flood generating rainfall, peak discharges, runoff coefficient and response time, and to use the insight gained with this analysis to identify implications for flash flood risk management. High-resolution data enabling identification and analysis of the hydrometeorological causative processes of flash floods have been collected and analysed for 20 extreme flash floods occurred in Mediterranean countries. Criteria for flood selection were high intensity of triggering rainfall and flood response and availability of high-resolution reliable data. Hydrometeorological data collected and collated for each event were checked by using a hydrological model. The derivation and analysis of summarising variables based on the data archive has made it possible to outline specific characteristics of flash floods in the Mediterranean basin. Peak discharge data for more than 75% of the studied watersheds derive from post-flood surveys in ungauged streams. This stresses both the significance of post-flood surveys in building and extending flash flood data bases, and the need to continue developing methods for flash-flood hazard assessment able to take into account data from post-event analysis. Examination of data shows a peculiar seasonality effect on flash flood occurrence, revealing different climatic forcing. Consistently with this seasonality effect, spatial extent and duration are also varying. The runoff coefficients of the studied flash floods are usually rather low (less than 0.5 in most of the cases). Antecedent saturation conditions have a significant impact on event runoff coefficients, showing the influence of initial soil moisture status even on extreme flash flood events and stressing the importance of accounting soil moisture for operational flash flood forecasting. These results challenge the common wisdom that antecedent soil moisture is of little importance in determining the magnitude of extreme flash floods. Hence, accounting for antecedent soil moisture conditions is paramount for operational flash flood forecasting. The runoff response displays short lag times (mostly < 6 hours). The analysis of the response time provides information on the time resolution and the spatial density of the networks required for monitoring the storms that generate flash floods.

I nostri obiettivi nello studio della piena del settembre 2015 oAmpliare il database sulle piene improvvise in Europa e nella regione Mediterranea (quantità e distribuzione delle piogge, portate unitarie di picco, coefficienti di deflusso, tempi di ritardo...) oStudiare le variazioni morfologiche degli alvei indotte dalla piena in relazione alle forzanti idrauliche (ad esempio_ potenza della corrente), alle condizioni morfologiche (ad esempio_ confinamento degli alvei) ed ai processi di erosione e di instabilità delle sponde oAnalizzare le interazioni fra la vegetazione, il trasporto di legname e l'evoluzione morfologica degli alvei Analisi idrometeorologica_ attività in corso e previste oDeterminazione delle piogge dell'evento (radar meteorologici di Monte Settepani e Gattatico): merging dei due strumenti e bias-adjustment oAnalisi dell'incertezza delle stime indirette di portata oConfronto con i dati di portata lungo le aste fluviali principali oModellazione afflussi-deflussi e confronto con la ricostruzione delle portate di picco dalle tracce dell'evento oIntegrazione con lo studio delle variazioni morfologiche degli alvei e della dinamica del sedimento