This paper represents the result of the IAEG C35 Commission "Monitoring methods and approaches in engineering geology applications" workgroup aimed to describe a general overview of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and their potentiality in several engineering geology applications. The use of UAV has progressively increased in the last decade and nowadays started to be considered a standard research instrument for the acquisition of images and other information on demand over an area of interest. UAV represents a cheap and fast solution for the on-demand acquisition of detailed images of an area of interest and the creation of detailed 3D models and orthophoto. The use of these systems required a good background of data processing and a good drone pilot ability for the management of the flight mission in particular in a complex environment.

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<p>Instabilities occurring on temperate glaciers in the Alps have been the subject of several studies, which have highlighted preliminary conditions and possible precursory signs of break-off events.</p><p>Since 2013, the Planpincieux Glacier, located on the Italian side of Mont Blanc massif (Aosta Valley), has been studied to analyse the dynamics of ice collapses in a temperate glacier.</p><p>These analyses have been conducted for several years, enabling the assessment of surface kinematics on the lower glacier portion and the different instability processes at the glacier terminus. During the period of the study, especially in the summer seasons, increases in velocities of the whole right side of the glacier tongue have been recorded. This fast sliding movement is mainly induced by water flow at the bottom of the glacier.</p><p>In 2019 summer season, the increase of speed coincided with the opening of a large crevasse, which outlined a fast moving ice volume, assessed by photogrammetric techniques as 250.000 m<sup>3</sup>.</p><p>According to the risk scenarios, the collapse of this ice volume from the glacial body would have reached the valley floor, potentially affecting the access road to the Val Ferret valley.</p><p>Considering the potential risk, a civil protection plan has been deployed by the monitoring team of the Aosta Valley Autonomous Region, Fondazione Montagna sicura and CNR-IRPI.</p><p>Glacier displacements, variations in the glacier morphology and environmental variables, such as air temperature, rain and snowfall, have all been taken into account to implement the monitoring plan.</p><p>This work outlines and summarises the steps used to develop the scientific knowledge into an integrated monitoring plan and a closure plan for the Val Ferret valley.</p>

Glacial processes can have a strong impact on human activities in terms of hazards and freshwater supply. Therefore, scientific observation is fundamental to understand their current state and possible evolution. To achieve this aim, various monitoring systems have been developed in the last decades to monitor different geophysical and geochemical properties. In this manuscript, we describe examples of close-range monitoring sensors to measure the glacier dynamics: (i) terrestrial interferometric radar, (ii) monoscopic time-lapse camera, (iii) total station, (iv) laser scanner, (v) ground-penetrating radar and (vi) structure form motion. We present the monitoring applications in the Planpincieux and Grandes Jorasses glaciers, which are located in the touristic area of the Italian side of the Mont Blanc massif. In recent years, the Planpincieux-Grandes Jorasses complex has become an open-air research laboratory of glacial monitoring techniques. Many close-range surveys have been conducted in this environment and a permanent network of monitoring systems that measures glacier surface deformation is presently active.