Stima dei danni da vento ai soprassuoli forestali in Regione Toscana a seguito dell'evento del 5 marzo 2015

Il vento è uno dei maggiori fattori di disturbo per le foreste europee e i cambiamenti climatici hanno provocato un aumento di eventi estremi negli ultimi anni. La regione Toscana tra il 4 e il 5 marzo 2015 è stata colpita da una tempesta di vento che ha provocato notevoli danni ai soprassuoli forestali. L’obiettivo di questo lavoro è di sviluppare una metodologia speditiva per la mappatura delle aree danneggiate in termini di superfici interessate, numero di piante atterrate e volume legnoso a terra. Il contributo illustra a tal fine l’utilizzo di dati telerilevati e in particolare le potenzialità dei dati Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS)

Influence of Scan Density on the Estimation of Single-Tree Attributes by Hand-Held Mobile Laser Scanning

Nowadays, forest inventories are frequently carried out using a combination of field measurements and remote sensing data, often acquired with light detection and ranging (LiDAR) sensors. Several studies have investigated how three-dimensional laser scanning point clouds from different platforms can be used to acquire information traditionally collected with forest instruments, such as hypsometers and callipers to detect single-tree attributes like tree height and diameter at the breast height. The present study has tested the performances of the ZEB1 instrument, a type of hand-held mobile laser scanner, for single-tree attributes estimation in pure Castanea sativa Mill. stands cultivated for fruit production in Central Italy. In particular, the influence of walking scan path density on single-tree attributes estimation (number of trees, tree position, diameter at breast height, tree height, and crown base height) was investigated to test the efficiency of field measures. The point clouds were acquired by walking along straight lines drawn with different spacing: 10 and 15 m apart. A single-tree scan approach, which included walking with the instrument around each tree, was used as reference data. In order to evaluate the efficiency of the survey, the influence of the walking scan path was discussed in relation to the accuracy of single-tree attributes estimation, as well as the time and cost needed for data acquisition, pre-processing, and analysis. Our results show that the 10 m scan path provided the best results, with an omission error of 6%; the assessment of single-tree attributes was successful, with values of the coefficient of determination and the relative root mean square error similar to other studies. The 10 m scan path has also proved to decrease the costs by about €14 for data pre-processing, and a saving of time for data acquisition and data analysis of about 37 min compared to the reference data

Assessing forest windthrow damage using single-date, post-event airborne laser scanning data

One of many possible climate change effects in temperate areas is the increase of frequency and severity of windstorms; thus, fast and cost efficient new methods are needed to evaluate wind-induced damages in forests. We present a method for assessing windstorm damages in forest landscapes based on a two-stage sampling strategy using single-date, post-event airborne laser scanning (ALS) data. ALS data are used for delineating damaged forest stands and for an initial evaluation of the volume of fallen trees. The total volume of fallen trees is then estimated using a two-stage model-assisted approach, where variables from ALS are used as auxiliary information in the difference estimator. In the first stage, a sample of the delineated forest stands is selected, and in the second stage the within-stand damages are estimated by means of line intercept sampling (LIS). The proposed method produces maps of windthrown areas, estimates of forest damages in terms of the total volume of fallen trees, and the uncertainty of the estimates. A case study is presented for a large windstorm that struck the Tuscany Region of Italy the night of the 4th and the 5th of March 2015 and caused extensive damages to trees in both forest and urban areas. The pure field-based estimates from LIS and the ALS-based estimates of stand-level fallen wood were very similar. Our positive results demonstrate the utility of the single-date approach for a fast assessment of windthrow damages in forest stands which is especially useful when pre-event ALS data are not available

Measurement of D0−overlineD0D^0-overline{D}^0 mixing parameters using D^0 \to K_S^0 \pi^ \pi^- and D^0 \to K_S^0 K^ K^- decays

We report a direct measurement of D{sup 0}-{bar D}{sup 0} mixing parameters through a time-dependent amplitude analysis of the Dalitz plots of D{sup 0} {yields} K{sub S}{sup 0}{pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup -} and, for the first time, D{sup 0} {yields} K{sub S}{sup 0}K{sup +}K{sup -} decays. The low-momentum pion {pi}{sub s}{sup +} in the decay D*{sup +} {yields} D{sup 0}{pi}{sub s}{sup +} identifies the flavor of the neutral D meson at its production. Using 468.5 fb{sup -1} of e{sup +}e{sup -} colliding-beam data recorded near {radical}s = 10.6 GeV by the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy collider at SLAC, we measure the mixing parameters x = [1.6 {+-} 2.3 (stat.) {+-} 1.2 (syst.) {+-} 0.8 (model)] x 10{sup -3}, and y = [5.7 {+-} 2.0 (stat.) {+-} 1.3 (syst.) {+-} 0.7 (model)] x 10{sup -3}. These results provide the best measurement to date of x and y. The knowledge of the value of x, in particular, is crucial for understanding the origin of mixing

Study of B to X \gamma Decays and Determination of |V_{td}/V_{ts}|

Using a sample of 471 million B{bar B} events collected with the BABAR detector, we study the sum of seven exclusive final states B {yields} X{sub s(d){gamma}}, where X{sub s(d)} is a strange (non-strange) hadronic system with a mass of up to 2.0 GeV/c{sup 2}. After correcting for unobserved decay modes, we obtain a branching fraction for b {yields} d{gamma} of (9.2 {+-} 2.0(stat.) {+-} 2.3(syst.)) x 10{sup -6} in this mass range, and a branching fraction for b {yields} s{gamma} of (23.0 {+-} 0.8(stat.) {+-} 3.0(syst.)) x 10{sup -5} in the same mass range. We find {Beta}(b{yields}d{gamma})/{Beta}(b{yields}s{gamma}) = 0.040 {+-} 0.009(stat.) {+-} 0.010(syst.), from which we determine |V{sub td}/V{sub ts}| = 0.199 {+-} 0.022(stat.) {+-} 0.024(syst.) {+-} 0.002(th.)

Measurement of the branching fraction for τ→ηKντ\tau\to\eta K\nu_\tau and a search for second-class currents in τ→ηπντ\tau\to\eta\pi\nu_\tau with \eta\to\pi^ \pi^-\pi0

The authors report on analyses of tau lepton decays {tau}{sup -} {yields} {eta}K{sup -}{nu}{sub {tau}} and {tau}{sup -} {yields} {eta}{pi}{sup -}{nu}{sub {tau}}, with {eta} {yields} {pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup -}{pi}{sup 0}, using 470 fb{sup -1} of data from the BABAR experiment at PEP-II, collected at center-of-mass energies at and near the {Upsilon}(4S) resonance. They measure the branching fraction for the {tau}{sup -} {yields} {eta}K{sup -}{nu}{sub {tau}} decay mode, {Beta}({tau}{sup -} {yields} {eta}K{sup -}{nu}{sub {tau}}) = (1.42 {+-} 0.11(stat) {+-} 0.07(syst)) x 10{sup -4}, and report a 95% confidence level upper limit for the second-class current process {tau}{sup -} {yields} {eta}{pi}{sup -}{nu}{sub {tau}}, {Beta}({tau}{sup -} {yields} {eta}{pi}{sup -}{nu}{sub {tau}}) < 9.9 x 10{sup -5}

Search for B+ meson decay to a1+ K*0

We present a search for the decay B{sup +} --> {alpha}{sup +}{sub 1}(1260)K*{sup 0}(892). The data, collected with the BABAR detector at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, represent 465 million B{anti B} pairs produced in e{sup +}e{sup -} annihilation at the energy of the {Upsilon}(4S). We find no significant signal and set an upper limit at 90% confidence level on the product of branching fractions B(B{sup +} --> {alpha}{sup +}{sub 1}(1260)K*{sup 0}(892)) x B({alpha}{sup +}{sub 1}(1260) --> {pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup -}{pi}{sup +}) of 1.8 x 10{sup -6}