Landslide Mapping in Austria

Landslides are a major natural hazard in hilly and mountainous regions of Austria. The delineation and characterisation of landslide hazard areas in the whole country using a harmonized approach is of the utmost importance to the implementation of risk reduction strategies, including also land use planning and mitigation measures, as suggested in the EU Thematic Strategy for Soil Protection. To this end, a study of landslide maps and ancillary data available mainly at national and regional (federal state) mapping organisations and research institutes in Austria has been carried out. The results show that, although not exhaustive, a great deal of information on landslides exists in Austria. Such information is mainly available in the form of landslide inventories and susceptibility maps, often making part of digital databases. These data are however widely spread in different administrations, mainly because of the federal structure of the country. Primarily as a result of this, these maps and databases show significant differences concerning the mapping approach used, landslide classification criteria, representation scale, legend and symbology, data format, etc. Accessibility to most of these data is at the moment restricted to public administrations, although there are currently initiatives to make them publicly accessible via webGIS. Finally, some recommendations to improve landslide risk management in the country are provided.JRC.H.7-Land management and natural hazard

Risk Data Hub – web platform to facilitate management of disaster risks

The management of disaster risks of different kinds (manmade, natural) is ruled at European level by a number of policies covering various sectors (e.g. environmental, industrial, civil protection, security, health), scales (EU wide, regional, national) and operational actions (preparedness, prevention, response and recovery). A range of research and technological developments, are motivated to support the implementation of these policies and actions across various scales reaching local level. However, the effectiveness of Disaster Risk Management (DRM) depends greatly on the efficiency of managing relevant information. Complex forms of decision-making needs technological support for achieving DRM objective of reducing risk. Disaster Risk Management Knowledge Centre (DRMKC) is currently developing a web-based geographical information system (WebGIS) aiming to support the implementation of international actions for DRM from global or regional level to local-national level. With this study, we present the DRMKC Risk Data Hub, a tool that improves the access and share of curated EU-wide disaster risk information relevant for DRM related actions. We also identify the key characteristics of a WebGiS platform needed to address in the most efficient way aspects of disaster risk management. Risk Data Hub acts as a knowledge hub, links policy and practice through geospatial technology and mapping, combines top-down strategies with bottom-up methodological approaches and sets the bases for science-based information for DRM polices. Currently, Risk Data Hub structures the information into three modules that covers the Exposure Analysis – as one of the main drivers of risk, Historic Events – as an EU-wide loss and damage database and Risk Analysis module - as collection of good or existing practices.JRC.E.1-Disaster Risk Managemen

Quality assessment of a landslide inventory map and its application to land‐use planning. A case study in the Northern Apennines (Emilia‐Romagna region, Italy)

Landslide hazard and risk are growing as a consequence of climate change and demographic pressure. Land‐use planning represents a powerful tool to manage this socio‐economic problem and build sustainable and landslide resilient communities. Landslide inventory maps are a cornerstone of land‐use planning and, consequently, their quality assessment represents a burning issue. This work aimed to define the quality parameters of a landslide inventory and assess its spatial and temporal accuracy with regard to its possible applications to land‐use planning. In this sense, I proceeded according to a two‐steps approach. An overall assessment of the accuracy of data geographic positioning was performed on four case study sites located in the Italian Northern Apennines. The quantification of the overall spatial and temporal accuracy, instead, focused on the Dorgola Valley (Province of Reggio Emilia). The assessment of spatial accuracy involved a comparison between remotely sensed and field survey data, as well as an innovative fuzzylike analysis of a multi‐temporal landslide inventory map. Conversely, long‐ and short‐term landslide temporal persistence was appraised over a period of 60 years with the aid of 18 remotely sensed image sets. These results were eventually compared with the current Territorial Plan for Provincial Coordination (PTCP) of the Province of Reggio Emilia. The outcome of this work suggested that geomorphologically detected and mapped landslides are a significant approximation of a more complex reality. In order to convey to the end‐users this intrinsic uncertainty, a new form of cartographic representation is needed. In this sense, a fuzzy raster landslide map may be an option. With regard to land‐use planning, landslide inventory maps, if appropriately updated, confirmed to be essential decision‐support tools. This research, however, proved that their spatial and temporal uncertainty discourages any direct use as zoning maps, especially when zoning itself is associated to statutory or advisory regulations

Remote sensing contributing to assess earthquake risk: from a literature review towards a roadmap

Remote sensing data and methods are widely deployed in order to contribute to the assessment of numerous components of earthquake risk. While for earthquake hazardrelated investigations, the use of remotely sensed data is an established methodological element with a long research tradition, earthquake vulnerability–centred assessments incorporating remote sensing data are increasing primarily in recent years. This goes along with a changing perspective of the scientific community which considers the assessment of vulnerability and its constituent elements as a pivotal part of a comprehensive risk analysis. Thereby, the availability of new sensors systems enables an appreciable share of remote sensing first. In this manner, a survey of the interdisciplinary conceptual literature dealing with the scientific perception of risk, hazard and vulnerability reveals the demand for a comprehensive description of earthquake hazards as well as an assessment of the present and future conditions of the elements exposed. A review of earthquake-related remote sensing literature, realized both in a qualitative and quantitative manner, shows the already existing and published manifold capabilities of remote sensing contributing to assess earthquake risk. These include earthquake hazard-related analysis such as detection and measurement of lineaments and surface deformations in pre- and post-event applications. Furthermore, pre-event seismic vulnerability–centred assessment of the built and natural environment and damage assessments for post-event applications are presented. Based on the review and the discussion of scientific trends and current research projects, first steps towards a roadmap for remote sensing are drawn, explicitly taking scientific, technical, multi- and transdisciplinary as well as political perspectives into account, which is intended to open possible future research activities

OGRS2012 Symposium Proceedings

Do you remember the Open Source Geospatial Research and Education Symposium (OGRS) in Nantes? "Les Machines de l’Île", the Big Elephant, the "Storm Boat" with Claramunt, Petit et al. (2009), and "le Biniou et la Bombarde"? A second edition of OGRS was promised, and that promise is now fulfilled in OGRS 2012, Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland, October 24-26, 2012. OGRS is a meeting dedicated to sharing knowledge, new solutions, methods, practices, ideas and trends in the field of geospatial information through the development and the use of free and open source software in both research and education. In recent years, the development of geospatial free and open source software (GFOSS) has breathed new life into the geospatial domain. GFOSS has been extensively promoted by FOSS4G events, which evolved from meetings which gathered together interested GFOSS development communities to a standard business conference. More in line with the academic side of the FOSS4G conferences, OGRS is a rather neutral forum whose goal is to assemble a community whose main concern is to find new solutions by sharing knowledge and methods free of software license limits. This is why OGRS is primarily concerned with the academic world, though it also involves public institutions, organizations and companies interested in geospatial innovation. This symposium is therefore not an exhibition for presenting existing industrial software solutions, but an event we hope will act as a catalyst for research and innovation and new collaborations between research teams, public agencies and industries. An educational aspect has recently been added to the content of the symposium. This important addition examines the knowledge triangle - research, education, and innovation - through the lens of how open source methods can improve education efficiency. Based on their experience, OGRS contributors bring to the table ideas on how open source training is likely to offer pedagogical advantages to equip students with the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed in tomorrow’s geospatial labor market. OGRS brings together a large collection of current innovative research projects from around the world, with the goal of examining how research uses and contributes to open source initiatives. By presenting their research, OGRS contributors shed light on how the open-source approach impacts research, and vice-versa. The organizers of the symposium wish to demonstrate how the use and development of open source software strengthen education, research and innovation in geospatial fields. To support this approach, the present proceedings propose thirty short papers grouped under the following thematic headings: Education, Earth Science & Landscape, Data, Remote Sensing, Spatial Analysis, Urban Simulation and Tools. These papers are preceded by the contributions of the four keynote speakers: Prof Helena Mitasova, Dr Gérard Hégron, Prof Sergio Rey and Prof Robert Weibel, who share their expertise in research and education in order to highlight the decisive advantages of openness over the limits imposed by the closed-source license system

Semantic location extraction from crowdsourced data

Crowdsourced Data (CSD) has recently received increased attention in many application areas including disaster management. Convenience of production and use, data currency and abundancy are some of the key reasons for attracting this high interest. Conversely, quality issues like incompleteness, credibility and relevancy prevent the direct use of such data in important applications like disaster management. Moreover, location information availability of CSD is problematic as it remains very low in many crowd sourced platforms such as Twitter. Also, this recorded location is mostly related to the mobile device or user location and often does not represent the event location. In CSD, event location is discussed descriptively in the comments in addition to the recorded location (which is generated by means of mobile device's GPS or mobile communication network). This study attempts to semantically extract the CSD location information with the help of an ontological Gazetteer and other available resources. 2011 Queensland flood tweets and Ushahidi Crowd Map data were semantically analysed to extract the location information with the support of Queensland Gazetteer which is converted to an ontological gazetteer and a global gazetteer. Some preliminary results show that the use of ontologies and semantics can improve the accuracy of place name identification of CSD and the process of location information extraction

Applications of Photogrammetry for Environmental Research

ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information: special issue entitled "Applications of Photogrammetry for Environmental Research

Sustainable Agriculture and Advances of Remote Sensing (Volume 1)

Agriculture, as the main source of alimentation and the most important economic activity globally, is being affected by the impacts of climate change. To maintain and increase our global food system production, to reduce biodiversity loss and preserve our natural ecosystem, new practices and technologies are required. This book focuses on the latest advances in remote sensing technology and agricultural engineering leading to the sustainable agriculture practices. Earth observation data, in situ and proxy-remote sensing data are the main source of information for monitoring and analyzing agriculture activities. Particular attention is given to earth observation satellites and the Internet of Things for data collection, to multispectral and hyperspectral data analysis using machine learning and deep learning, to WebGIS and the Internet of Things for sharing and publishing the results, among others