AERIAL LiDAR TECHNOLOGY IN SUPPORT TO AVALANCHES PREVENTION AND RISK MITIGATION: AN OPERATIVE APPLICATION AT “COLLE DELLA MADDALENA” (ITALY)

The paper discusses the use of rockfall modelling software and photogrammetry applied to images acquired by RPAS to provide support to civil protection agencies during emergency response. The paper focuses on a procedure that was applied to define the residual rockfall risk for a road that was hit by an earthquake-triggered rockfall that occurred during the seismic sequence that hit central Italy on 24 August 2016. Road reopening conditions were decided based on the results of this study.

We present a multiscale and multi-sensor methodology for flood mapping using free or low-cost data. We first mapped flooded areas at basin scale using free satellite data using both SAR and multispectral sensors. At local scale we refine mapping using very high-resolution images from Remotely Piloted Aerial System and terrestrial car camera, then we used these data to create 3-D model with structure from motion (SfM). All these data allowed creating accurate flooded area and water depth maps.

In recent years, the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in civilian/commercial contexts is becoming increasingly common, also for the applications concerning the anthropic and natural disasters. In this paper, we present the first results of a research project aimed at defining a possible methodology for the use of micro-UAVs in emergency scenarios relevant to rockfall phenomena.