Experimental Landslide Monitoring Site of Poggio Baldi Landslide (Santa Sofia, N-Apennine, Italy)

Abstract

On 19th March 2010, a 4 million m 3 landslide was re-activated in Poggio Baldi. The landslide severely damaged some private houses, a regional road and dammed the Bidente River. The landslide can be classified as a complex movement started as a rotational slide and then evolved into an earthflow. The 2010 event was a re-activation of an ancient landslide, whose previous catastrophic activation is dated back to March 1914. Starting from 2010, the landslide has been monitored by permanent inclinometers, piezometers and extensometers. Then, from 2015 an Experimental Landslide Monitoring Site has been developed mainly for research purposes and several multi-temporal surveys have been performed by using different remote sensing techniques, such as Terrestrial Laser Scanning, Global Positioning System, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles Photogrammetry, Digital Image Correlation, Terrestrial Interferometric SAR. The Experimental Landslide Monitoring site demonstrated to be a great opportunity for both research and training purposes, as well as a place where monitoring instrument can be tested and calibrated.

Combining Ground Based Remote Sensing Tools for Rockfalls Assessment and Monitoring: The Poggio Baldi Landslide Natural Laboratory

“…The first activation dates to 25 March 1914, whereas the last reactivation of the landslide deposit took place on 18 March 2010, and it was triggered due to the increase of water pressure in the pores of the paleo-landslide’s body following the melting of the snow blanket caused by a sudden increase in temperatures. The landslide has an estimated volume of about 4 × 10 6 m 3 [ 56 ], and it is currently active in its upper scarp due to frequent rockfall events [ 47 ].…”

“…Thanks to its distinctive features, which are representative of many landslides worldwide in terms of material involved, type of movement and triggering factors, the PBL was established in 2015 [ 56 ] with the aim of testing innovative remote sensing technologies in such a characteristic environment [ 47 , 97 ].…”

“…The slope involved in the Poggio Baldi landslide is a part of the hanging-wall of a major thrust system (i.e., San Benedetto in Alpe) and is composed by the Marnoso-Arenacea Formation (Miocene), involving an alternation of claystone, siltstone and sandstone, arranged in a monoclinal dip slope sequence ( Figure 5 ) [ 56 , 97 , 98 , 99 , 100 , 101 ]. Landslides involving Flysch sequences, which are characterized by geo-lithological complexity and heterogeneity, are widely diffused in the northern Apennines as well as in other mountain chains [ 102 , 103 , 104 , 105 ].…”

“…A slight bending of the strata occurs in the lower part of the slope: the bedding attitude, dipping at about 45° upslope, progressively decreases reaching dip angles of about 15–20° downstream. A set of high angle, normal faults oriented roughly perpendicular to the main thrust geared NW-SE complete the structural frame [ 56 , 97 , 99 , 106 ]. The geomorphology of this sector is strongly controlled by the structural setting and the recent tectonic activity.…”

“…In this context, this work shows the field activities performed at the Poggio Baldi Landslide Natural Laboratory (hereafter referred as PBL) with the aim to combine data acquired from different ground-based remote sensing sensors for rockfalls assessment and monitoring. The PBL, developed since 2015 by the joint effort of the Department of Earth Sciences of “Sapienza” University of Rome” and NHAZCA Srl [ 56 ], is today an ideal environment for testing the potential of different remote sensing technologies thanks to the frequent rockfall activity of its scarp.…”