News

SLAM User Workshop was organised by the ESA and the Italian Ministry of Environment; “EO in support to the management of the hydro-geological risk”, 5th May 2005 at ESRIN establishment, Frascati(RM).

The objective of the workshop was to present the results of the SLAM project (Service for Landslide Monitoring) to the Italian public and private organisations involved in the management of the hydro-geological risk.

The main objective of the SLAM project was to develop and qualify a complete service chain that supplies products, mainly derived from satellite data, which can facilitate the operational activities of those Institutions in charge of the hydro-geological risk management. In particular, SLAM was designed to realise three types of products: (i) Landslide Motion Survey, (ii) Landslide Displacement Monitoring and (iii) Landslide Susceptibility Mapping.

The Landslide Motion Survey identifies the areas affected by landslides over a complete hydro-graphic basin, or a significant portion of it. This large-scale product is a useful support for the geological risk service agencies in their activities related to the update of landslide inventories and the planning of structural interventions.

The Landslide Displacement Monitoring allows the monitoring of the areas of interest on a reduced scale basis. The objective is to accurately quantify the deformation velocity of unstable areas through the measurement of the displacement rate of some points/areas located within identified landslides. The product is used to monitor the areas characterized with high hydro-geological risk, and to test the effectiveness of structural interventions.

The Landslide Susceptibility Mapping classifies an area of interest with respect to different classes of landslide risk. The product is realized through the integration of motion information concerning the millimetric ground displacements, resulting from the two products above, with the thematic maps of land use, slope, geomorphology, and more. The Landslide Susceptibility Mapping can support geological hazard mapping and is to be considered as an important tool for land use planning and environmental impact assessment.

The SLAM project has involved three users organizations working at national level in Switzerland and in Italy: the Swiss Federal Office for Water and Geology (FOWG), the Italian Ministry of Environment and the Italian National Research Council Group for Hydro-geological Disaster prevention (GNDCI), which is the operating group of the Italian Civil Protection Department for issues related to hydro-geological disasters. At the level of local organizations, the project has benefited from the participation of the basin authority of Arno, the Campania region and the geological services of Swiss Cantons (Bern, Fribourg, Ticino, Wallis, Vaud).

The project has been realized by an international consortium lead by Planetek Italia in collaboration with Tele-Rilevamento Europa (I), Firenze university (I), Gamma Remote Sensing (CH), Geotest (CH) and Spacebel (B).

More information on the project can be obtained on the SLAM web site: http://www.slamservice.info/

The workshop took place in the Italian language and was open to all Italian private and public organizations involved in landslides risk mapping and monitoring. Participants were registered through the internet site http://www.slamservice.info/workshop.asp where an on-line registration form was available.