Climate anomalies associated with the occurrence of rockfalls at
high-elevation in the Italian Alps

Paranunzio, Roberta; Laio, Francesco; Chiarle, Marta; Nigrelli, Guido; Guzzetti, Fausto

doi:10.5194/nhess-16-2085-2016

Cited by 53 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…Rockfalls are one of the most common instability processes in high mountain slopes. They represent a relevant and topical issue, both for the risks they pose to high mountain structures, infrastructures, and frequentation (Ravanel et al 2013;Macciotta et al 2017;Mourey et al 2019), and for their potential role as terrestrial indicators of climate change (Huggel et al 2012;Paranunzio et al 2016;Gallach et al 2018;Hock et al 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An integrated approach to investigate climate-driven rockfall occurrence in high alpine slopes: the Bessanese glacial basin, Western Italian Alps

et al. 2020

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Rockfalls are one of the most common instability processes in high mountains. They represent a relevant issue, both for the risks they represent for (infra) structures and frequentation, and for their potential role as terrestrial indicators of climate change. This study aims to contribute to the growing topic of the relationship between climate change and slope instability at the basin scale. The selected study area is the Bessanese glacial basin (Western Italian Alps) which, since 2016, has been specifically equipped, monitored and investigated for this purpose. In order to provide a broader context for the interpretation of the recent rockfall events and associated climate conditions, a cross-temporal and integrated approach has been adopted. For this purpose, geomorphological investigations (last 100 years), local climate (last 30 years) and near-surface rock/air temperatures analyses, have been carried out. First research outcomes show that rockfalls occurred in two different geomorphological positions: on rock slopes in permafrost condition, facing from NW to NE and/or along the glacier margins, on rock slopes uncovered by the ice in the last decades. Seasonal thaw of the active layer and/or glacier debutressing can be deemed responsible for slope failure preparation. With regard to timing, almost all dated rock falls occurred in summer. For the July events, initiation may have been caused by a combination of rapid snow melt and enhanced seasonal thaw of the active layer due to anomalous high temperatures, and rainfall. August events are, instead, associated with a significant positive temperature anomaly on the quarterly scale, and they can be ascribed to the rapid and/or in depth thaw of the permafrost active layer. According to our findings, we can expect that in the Bessanese glacierized basin, as in similar high mountain areas, climate change will cause an increase of slope instability in the future. To fasten knowledge deepening, we highlight the need for a growth of a network of high elevation experimental sites at the basin scale, and the definition of shared methodological and measurement standards, that would allow a more rapid and effective comparison of data.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An integrated approach to investigate climate-driven rockfall occurrence in high alpine slopes: the Bessanese glacial basin, Western Italian Alps

et al. 2020

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“…Usual approaches to build catalogues are based on chronicles and observations of past events; however, catalogues may lack completeness, as the information is often qualitative and constrained to limited time windows and/or specific locations. This is especially true for smallto medium-size rockfall events (Paranunzio et al, 2016). For this reasons there is an increasing focus on more quantitative monitoring approaches, which can provide accurate and unbiased datasets.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Short Communication: Monitoring rockfalls with the Raspberry Shake

et al. 2018

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Abstract. We evaluate the performance of the low-cost seismic sensor Raspberry Shake to identify and monitor rockfall activity in alpine environments. The test area is a slope adjacent to the Great Aletsch Glacier in the Swiss Alps, i.e. the Moosfluh deep-seated instability, which has recently undergone a critical acceleration phase. A local seismic network composed of three Raspberry Shake was deployed starting from May 2017 in order to record rockfall activity and its relation with the progressive rock-slope degradation potentially leading to a large rock-slope failure. Here we present a first assessment of the seismic data acquired from our network after a monitoring period of 1 year. We show that our network performed well during the whole duration of the experiment, including the winter period in severe alpine conditions, and that the seismic data acquired allowed us to clearly discriminate between rockfalls and other events. This work also provides general information on the potential use of such low-cost sensors in environmental seismology.

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“…However, while there is a theoretical understanding that gravitational hazards respond to changing climate conditions, it is still difficult to detect changes over mountainous regions in the observational records 13,14 , and often the results are contradictory or uncertain 9 . Some researchers 5,[15][16][17] have attempted to analyse the relationship between climatic variables and gravitational hazards (mostly, rock falls and debris flows) in the Alps, particularly in the Italian Alps, mentioning limitations due to complex mountainous systems and incompleteness of records.…”

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Changes in climate patterns and their association to natural hazard distribution in South Tyrol (Eastern Italian Alps)

Schlögel

Kofler

Gariano

et al. 2020

Sci Rep

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In Alpine regions changes in seasonal climatic parameters, such as temperature, rainfall, and snow amount have already been observed. Specifically, in the South Tyrol area, meteorological observations indicate that temperatures are increasing and the number of snow days has generally diminished over time with perennial snow line now observed at higher elevations. Changes in rainfall have also been observed with more events associated with higher temperatures in the summer season. Natural hazards-mainly debris and mud flows, landslides, avalanches, rock falls, and (flash) floods-that affect this area every year, damaging population and infrastructures, are either weather or cryosphere-related. While these events have been recorded sporadically since the beginning of the 20th century, a systematic approach of their inventory has been done by local authorities since the 1990s. So far, Earth observation data has not been exploited to complete or complement existing inventories nor have they been used to investigate the influence of climate perturbation on potentially dangerous natural phenomena. The research presented here thus has three objectives: (i) analyse long time series of climate data and hazard occurrence in South Tyrol to examine if these records exhibit a coherent response of hazards to changes in climate; (ii) measure the spatio-temporal evolution of climatic and natural hazard events recorded, and (iii) explore potential relations between meteorological conditions and the hazard occurrence. In this context, in-situ and satellite-based climate data are exploited to study natural hazard triggers while the potential of Earth observation data is evaluated as a complement to the existing historical records of natural hazards. Specifically, Copernicus Sentinel-1 images are used to detect the spatio-temporal distribution of slow earth surface deformations and the results used for checking the completeness of the actual slow-moving landslide inventories. Hazard-related changes in the South tyrolian landscape have also been analysed in relation to particular meteorological events at a regional scale, assessing trends and anomalies. Results show that: (i) satellite data are very useful to complement the existing natural hazard inventories; (ii) in-situ and satellite-based climate records show similar patterns but differ due to regional versus local variability; (iii) even in a data-rich region such as the analysed area, the overall response of natural hazard occurrence, magnitude, and frequency to change in climate variables is difficult to decipher due to the presence of multiple triggers and locally driven ground responses. However, an increase in the average annual duration of rainfall events and debris flow occurrence can be observed. Mountains have been acknowledged as "sentinels of environmental change" because they have physical dynamics that are readily identifiable and respond more rapidly than other geographical entities to environmental change 1 .

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Climate anomalies associated with the occurrence of rockfalls at high-elevation in the Italian Alps

Cited by 53 publications

References 35 publications

An integrated approach to investigate climate-driven rockfall occurrence in high alpine slopes: the Bessanese glacial basin, Western Italian Alps

An integrated approach to investigate climate-driven rockfall occurrence in high alpine slopes: the Bessanese glacial basin, Western Italian Alps

Short Communication: Monitoring rockfalls with the Raspberry Shake

Changes in climate patterns and their association to natural hazard distribution in South Tyrol (Eastern Italian Alps)

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