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A regional rockfall database: the Eastern Alps test site

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Abstract

Landslide databases are essential tools for risk assessment. In the Italian portion of the South-Eastern Alps these archives are managed by the Veneto Region and by the provinces of Bolzano and Trento, as part of the Italian Inventory of Landslides. About 750 rockfall events recorded in these archives were checked, put together and completed to create a new integrated database. Information on 24 new rockfalls were added from different research sources. Descriptive statistic shows that the most affected slopes with the highest frequency of rockfall are the southern ones. The distribution of rockfalls during the year presents three peaks in March, June and November. The most commonly affected lithologies are massive dolomites, effusive rocks and mica schists. Roads proved to be the most commonly involved feature. The hypsographic curves obtained from the DEMs of the provinces of Belluno, Bolzano and Trento have shown that the different areas potentially affected by periglacial processes experience rockfalls during summer and autumn, thus representing a risk to tourists and hikers. This study is the first attempt to collate and extend the available information in the various rockfall databases in the Eastern Italian Alps, with the aim at creating uniform data collection for the whole Alpine range.

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Acknowledgments

The research was funded by the University of Padova in the framework of the Strategic projet “GHP-MMI”—geological and hydrological processes: monitoring, modelling and impact in the North-Eastern Italy (GEO RISCS) (coordinator of Research Unit: A. Carton; code STPD08RWBY-2008). Davide Corò was supported with a research contract to build the database and to carry out data analyses. The authors want to thank Luciano Arziliero (Veneto Region), Silvia Tagnin (Bolzano Province) and Riccardo Campana (Trento Province) for supplying the rockfall data. The authors are in debt to Elisa Destro for GIS support and with Alberto De Luca and Roberto Seppi for their help in managing and processing geological and topographical information. The notes and comments of the anonymous reviewers contributed to increase the quality of the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geosciences, University of Padova, via G. Gradenigo, 6, 35131, Padua, Italy

    Davide Corò, Antonio Galgaro, Alessandro Fontana & Alberto Carton

  2. CNR-IGG Institute for Geosciences and Earth Resources, via G. Gradenigo, 6, 35131, Padua, Italy

    Antonio Galgaro & Alberto Carton

Authors
  1. Davide Corò
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  2. Antonio Galgaro
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  3. Alessandro Fontana
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  4. Alberto Carton
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Correspondence to Davide Corò.

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Corò, D., Galgaro, A., Fontana, A. et al. A regional rockfall database: the Eastern Alps test site. Environ Earth Sci 74, 1731–1742 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-015-4181-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-015-4181-5

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