ALPMON FINAL REPORT - ARC systems research

Contract ENV4-CT96-0359 ALPMON
Table 20: Synthesis of the customer evaluation for erosion risk.
Item Strong Points Weak Points
ALPMON Land
Cover mapping
from Remote
Sensing
Auxiliary data
acquisition and
harmonisation
(geology,
geomorphology)
� Demonstrates the feasibility of
realisation of an up-to-date land
cover mapping over the whole
regional Alpine area.
� Thematic content and accuracy is
generally compatible with the
fundamental requirements of
erosion risk assessment.
� The implementation of the erosion
risk model has pushed the
acquisition and harmonisation of
auxiliary data until now spread
among several administrations
and very heterogeneous. The
harmonised data will turn out to be
very useful also for other land
planning applications of the
Customer.
� The auxiliary data, once scanned
and georeferenced, have been
delivered to the local
administrations which previously
supplied the original information
on printed format, allowing them to
put the information in their GIS.
Erosion model � The FSTAB model is particularly
interesting for planning purposes
because: 1) it accounts for several
erosion phenomena; 2) unlike
other models, it gives a measure
of the erosion risk instead of the
predicted amount of removed soil.
� The sub-model DA, built over a
statistical analysis of ground
surveys and extrapolated to the
whole test site area using
distributed data (including land
cover) seems a promising
approach to the zoning on the
basis of soil static conditions.
3.3 Technical Project Evaluation
� The geometric resolution of the
employed satellites is not enough
detailed to detect the presence on
the surface of potentially unstable
incoherent materials (e.g. debris
flows). In other words, while the
satellite sensors used in ALPMON
are suitable for land cover
mapping, they are still not
satisfactory for geomorphological
mapping. Pixel resolution of 1
metre should be required.
� The quantitative verification of a
potential risk index is rather
difficult.
� In displaying the MEHI erosion risk
index, the choice of the right
slicing levels of the index is very
critical for the correct interpretation
of the map.
� The correct choice of the threshold
precipitation event for the submodel
SCS-CN is rather difficult.
In the following the technical aspects of the projects sub-tasks as well as the feasibility studies are
evaluated from the project teams point of view.
JR, RSDE, ALU, LMU, Seibersdorf, WSL 74