scholarly journals Taking Advantage of the ESA G-POD Service to Study Ground Deformation Processes in High Mountain Areas: A Valle d’Aosta Case Study, Northern Italy

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. 852 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martina Cignetti ◽  
Andrea Manconi ◽  
Michele Manunta ◽  
Daniele Giordan ◽  
Claudio De Luca ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ground Deformation ◽  
Northern Italy ◽  
High Mountain ◽  
Mountain Areas ◽  
Deformation Processes

scholarly journals Integrating dark diversity and functional traits to enhance nature conservation of epiphytic lichens: a case study from Northern Italy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diego Pires Ferraz Trindade ◽  
Meelis Pärtel ◽  
Carlos Pérez Carmona ◽  
Tiina Randlane ◽  
Juri Nascimbene
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Nature Conservation ◽  
Functional Traits ◽  
Growth Form ◽  
Northern Italy ◽  
Epiphytic Lichens ◽  
Mountain Areas ◽  
High Elevations ◽  
Harsh Conditions

AbstractMountains provide a timely opportunity to examine the potential effects of climate change on biodiversity. However, nature conservation in mountain areas have mostly focused on the observed part of biodiversity, not revealing the suitable but absent species—dark diversity. Dark diversity allows calculating the community completeness, indicating whether sites should be restored (low completeness) or conserved (high completeness). Functional traits can be added, showing what groups should be focused on. Here we assessed changes in taxonomic and functional observed and dark diversity of epiphytic lichens along elevational transects in Northern Italy spruce forests. Eight transects (900–1900 m) were selected, resulting in 48 plots and 240 trees, in which lichens were sampled using four quadrats per tree (10 × 50 cm). Dark diversity was estimated based on species co-occurrence (Beals index). We considered functional traits related to growth form, photobiont type and reproductive strategy. Linear and Dirichlet regressions were used to examine changes in taxonomic metrics and functional traits along gradient. Our results showed that all taxonomic metrics increased with elevation and functional traits of lichens differed between observed and dark diversity. At low elevations, due to low completeness and harsh conditions, both restoration and conservation activities are needed, focusing on crustose species. Towards high elevations, conservation is more important to prevent species pool losses, focusing on macrolichens, lichens with Trentepohlia and sexual reproduction. Finally, dark diversity and functional traits provide a novel tool to enhance nature conservation, indicating particular threatened groups, creating windows of opportunities to protect species from both local and regional extinctions.

scholarly journals An Open-Source Web Platform to Share Multisource, Multisensor Geospatial Data and Measurements of Ground Deformation in Mountain Areas

2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 4
Author(s):  
Martina Cignetti ◽  
Diego Guenzi ◽  
Francesca Ardizzone ◽  
Paolo Allasia ◽  
Daniele Giordan
Keyword(s):  
Open Source ◽  
Spatial Data ◽  
Ground Deformation ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Heterogeneous Data ◽  
Geospatial Data ◽  
High Mountain ◽  
Mountain Areas ◽  
Data Infrastructure

Nowadays, the increasing demand to collect, manage and share archives of data supporting geo-hydrological processes investigations requires the development of spatial data infrastructure able to store geospatial data and ground deformation measurements, also considering multisource and heterogeneous data. We exploited the GeoNetwork open-source software to simultaneously organize in-situ measurements and radar sensor observations, collected in the framework of the HAMMER project study areas, all located in high mountain regions distributed in the Alpines, Apennines, Pyrenees and Andes mountain chains, mainly focusing on active landslides. Taking advantage of this free and internationally recognized platform based on standard protocols, we present a valuable instrument to manage data and metadata, both in-situ surface measurements, typically acquired at local scale for short periods (e.g., during emergency), and satellite observations, usually exploited for regional scale analysis of surface displacement. Using a dedicated web-interface, all the results derived by instrumental acquisitions and by processing of remote sensing images can be queried, analyzed and downloaded from both expert users and stakeholders. This leads to a useful instrument able to share various information within the scientific community, including the opportunity of reprocessing the raw data for other purposes and in other contexts.

scholarly journals Brief communication "Ground failure and liquefaction phenomena triggered by the 20 May 2012 Emilia-Romagna (Northern Italy) earthquake: case study of Sant'Agostino–San Carlo–Mirabello zone"

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 3177-3180 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Caputo ◽  
G. Papathanassiou
Keyword(s):  
Main Shock ◽  
Ground Deformation ◽  
Lateral Spreading ◽  
Northern Italy ◽  
Field Observations ◽  
Secondary Effects ◽  
Large Area ◽  
Po Plain ◽  
Ground Failure

Abstract. The basic aim of this study was to observe and report the earthquake-induced ground deformation of the MW = 6.1 Emilia-Romagna (Northern Italy) event that occurred on the 20 May 2012. The event caused widespread structural damages in a large area of the Po Plain, while the most characteristic geological effects were ground failure, lateral spreading and liquefaction. This post-earthquake reconnaissance report focuses on secondary effects within the area between the villages of Sant'Agostino, San Carlo and Mirabello located along a former reach of the Reno River. Our field observations started just few hours after the main shock until the 28 May 2012.

scholarly journals Predictions of changes of glacier mass balance in the Nepal Himalaya and Tibetan Plateau: a case study of air temperature increase for three glaciers

1992 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 89-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yutaka Ageta ◽  
Tsutomu Kadota
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Equilibrium State ◽  
Mass Balance ◽  
Air Temperature ◽  
High Mountain ◽  
Glacier Mass Balance ◽  
Mountain Areas ◽  
Nepal Himalaya ◽  
Ice Cap

Annual mass exchange differs between maritime and continental glaciers. A common characteristic of these glaciers in Asian high-mountain areas is that most of the annual accumulation occurs in summer. Since variations in mass balance of a summer-accumulation type of glacier are quite sensitive to variations in summer air temperature, shrinkages of such glaciers due to climate warming are predicted by the use of simplified experimental relations between air temperature and mass balance, disregarding variation of other climatic variables such as cloudiness and precipitation. The results predict that both small and large maritime glaciers are more sensitive to warming than a continental ice cap. A small glacier would disappear in a few decades if the air temperature persisted a few degrees above that of an equilibrium state of mass balance.

scholarly journals Climate change over the high-mountain versus plain areas: Effects on the land surface hydrologic budget in the Alpine area and northern Italy

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudio Cassardo ◽  
Seon Ki Park ◽  
Marco Galli ◽  
Sungmin O
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Climate Model ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Northern Italy ◽  
Future Climate ◽  
High Mountain ◽  
Transfer Scheme ◽  
Mountain Areas ◽  
Alpine Area

Abstract. Climate change may intensify during the second half of the current century. Changes in temperature and precipitation can exert a significant impact on the regional hydrologic cycle. Because the land surface serves as the hub of interactions among the variables constituting the energy and water cycles, evaluating the land surface processes is essential to detail the future climate. In this study, we employ a trusted Soil-Vegetation-Atmosphere Transfer scheme, called the University of Torino model of land Processes Interaction with Atmosphere (UTOPIA), in offline simulations to quantify the hydrologic components changes in the Alpine area and northern Italy, on the basis of regional future climate (FC) conditions produced by the Regional Climate Model version 3 (RegCM3) via the IPCC A2 and B2 scenarios. In FCs, the evapotranspiration generally increases, especially over the plain areas, and consequently the surface soil moisture decreases during summer, falling below the wilting point threshold for one more month compared to present climate. In the high-mountain areas, due to the earlier snow melting, the land surface becomes snowless for an additional month. The annual mean number of dry (wet) days increase remarkably (slightly) in FCs; thus increasing the risk of severe droughts, and slightly increasing the risk of floods coincidently. Our results have serious implications on human life, including agricultural production, water sustainability and general infrastructures, and can be used to plan the managements of water resources, floods, irrigation, forestry, hydropower, and many other relevant activities.

scholarly journals Predictions of changes of glacier mass balance in the Nepal Himalaya and Tibetan Plateau: a case study of air temperature increase for three glaciers

1992 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
pp. 89-94 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yutaka Ageta ◽  
Tsutomu Kadota
Keyword(s):  
Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Equilibrium State ◽  
Mass Balance ◽  
Air Temperature ◽  
High Mountain ◽  
Glacier Mass Balance ◽  
Mountain Areas ◽  
Nepal Himalaya ◽  
Ice Cap

Annual mass exchange differs between maritime and continental glaciers. A common characteristic of these glaciers in Asian high-mountain areas is that most of the annual accumulation occurs in summer. Since variations in mass balance of a summer-accumulation type of glacier are quite sensitive to variations in summer air temperature, shrinkages of such glaciers due to climate warming are predicted by the use of simplified experimental relations between air temperature and mass balance, disregarding variation of other climatic variables such as cloudiness and precipitation. The results predict that both small and large maritime glaciers are more sensitive to warming than a continental ice cap. A small glacier would disappear in a few decades if the air temperature persisted a few degrees above that of an equilibrium state of mass balance.

scholarly journals Remote Monitoring of Ground Motion Hazards in High Mountain Terrain Using InSAR: A Case Study of the Lake Sarez Area, Tajikistan

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (18) ◽  
pp. 8738
Author(s):  
Stephen Grebby ◽  
Andrew Sowter ◽  
David Gee ◽  
Ahmed Athab ◽  
Betsabé De la Barreda-Bautista ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ground Motion ◽  
Remote Monitoring ◽  
Land Surface ◽  
Significant Proportion ◽  
High Mountain ◽  
Mountain Areas ◽  
Sar Data ◽  
Small Baseline ◽  
Mountain Terrains

High mountain terrains, with steep slopes and deep valleys, are generally challenging areas to monitor using satellite earth observation techniques since the terrain creates perspective distortions and differences in illumination that can occlude or obfuscate a significant proportion of the land. This is particularly prominent in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data, where the oblique geometry can result in large areas of layover and shadow, which must be excluded from any analysis. Interferometric SAR (InSAR) is an established technique for monitoring ground motion and this study assesses its potential for geohazard monitoring in mountainous areas using Lake Sarez in Tajikistan as a case study, applying SAR data from the Sentinel-1 mission. It is shown that, although the effect of layover and shadow is severe, a judicious combination of ascending and descending satellite passes is still capable of surveying 88% of the land surface. It is also demonstrated that, through the use of an advanced InSAR technique (the APSIS™ Intermittent Small Baseline Subset technique), near-complete coverage of ground motion measurements is possible, despite intermittent snow cover. Moreover, this is achieved without the need for ground control, which can be hazardous to establish in such areas. It is concluded that a combination of satellite passes and advanced InSAR techniques greatly facilitates the remote monitoring of ground motion hazards in high mountain areas.

scholarly journals Formation Patterns of Mediterranean High-Mountain Water-Bodies in Sierra-Nevada, SE Spain

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 438
Author(s):  
Jose Luis Diaz-Hernandez ◽  
Antonio Jose Herrera-Martinez
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Unknown Origin ◽  
Slope Instability ◽  
Water Bodies ◽  
High Mountain ◽  
Mountain Areas ◽  
Glacial Processes ◽  
The Mediterranean ◽  
Water Volumes

At present, there is a lack of detailed understanding on how the factors converging on water variables from mountain areas modify the quantity and quality of their watercourses, which are features determining these areas’ hydrological contribution to downstream regions. In order to remedy this situation to some extent, we studied the water-bodies of the western sector of the Sierra Nevada massif (Spain). Since thaw is a necessary but not sufficient contributor to the formation of these fragile water-bodies, we carried out field visits to identify their number, size and spatial distribution as well as their different modelling processes. The best-defined water-bodies were the result of glacial processes, such as overdeepening and moraine dams. These water-bodies are the highest in the massif (2918 m mean altitude), the largest and the deepest, making up 72% of the total. Another group is formed by hillside instability phenomena, which are very dynamic and are related to a variety of processes. The resulting water-bodies are irregular and located at lower altitudes (2842 m mean altitude), representing 25% of the total. The third group is the smallest (3%), with one subgroup formed by anthropic causes and another formed from unknown origin. It has recently been found that the Mediterranean and Atlantic watersheds of this massif are somewhat paradoxical in behaviour, since, despite its higher xericity, the Mediterranean watershed generally has higher water contents than the Atlantic. The overall cause of these discrepancies between watersheds is not connected to their formation processes. However, we found that the classification of water volumes by the manners of formation of their water-bodies is not coherent with the associated green fringes because of the anomalous behaviour of the water-bodies formed by moraine dams. This discrepancy is largely due to the passive role of the water retained in this type of water-body as it depends on the characteristics of its hollows. The water-bodies of Sierra Nevada close to the peak line (2918 m mean altitude) are therefore highly dependent on the glacial processes that created the hollows in which they are located. Slope instability created water-bodies mainly located at lower altitudes (2842 m mean altitude), representing tectonic weak zones or accumulation of debris, which are influenced by intense slope dynamics. These water-bodies are therefore more fragile, and their existence is probably more short-lived than that of bodies created under glacial conditions.

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