Landslide Field Mapping: IFFI-Restart Forms for Data Acquisition and Management for the Classification of Landslides in the Municipalities Affected by the 2016 Central Italy Earthquake

Abstract

Over the last few decades, the approach to geological and geomorphological surveys has changed remarkably. The advent of digital tools has allowed significant advances in the acquisition and management of survey data. In this paper, we demonstrate the development and testing of a new and effective digital survey method that allows for the fast acquisition and collaborative storage and management of data and information. This method was tested in collaboration with five universities for the mapping and classification of landslides in 249 survey areas in Central Italy and, more precisely, in the municipalities affected by the 2016 Central Italy Earthquake. Geological and geomorphological surveys were carried out in the field with tablet PCs, GPS, and cameras. The survey project for collecting field data was based on the structure of the Italian Landslide Inventory (IFFI) and the Territorial Resilience Central Apennines Earthquake Reconstruction (ReSTART) projects. The structure of the database and input forms were implemented for these aims. Moreover, the data and information were retrieved and organised in detailed records useful to the administrative entities.

A Low-Cost and Fast Operational Procedure to Identify Potential Slope Instabilities in Cultural Heritage Sites

“…To make everything easier and more immediate during the field survey, a new interface with data acquisition modules was used for rapid data/information storage [23].…”

Applying a Geographic Information System and Other Open-Source Software to Geological Mapping and Modeling: History and Case Studies

“…The field and laboratory work involved 239 survey areas, i.e., slope sectors delimited by morphological features such as watersheds and drainage lines enclosing places with assets needing to be rebuilt, belonging to 138 municipalities. To adopt a common working method for all operators in the field and the laboratory, a GIS with open-source software was developed by the Urbino University working group, redefining and adapting the IFFI database schema to a system that would allow the standardization of the field data collection and the preservation of spatial relations between the mapped features [36].…”

“…Geopackage is a storage format using an SQLite database [38,39] as a container, along with Geopackage encoding standards defining the schema [37]. Tables and fields in the database correspond to the entities derived from the IFFI Project [34,35] and are updated following the criteria adopted by the abovementioned ReSTART project [36].…”

“…The database named restart.gpkg comprises spatial and non-spatial tables, available with detailed text and graphic documentation in [36] (Figure 5). It is behind a GIS implemented with the QGIS software [30] The QGIS project file is configured with layer relations based, in turn, on the database table relationships.…”

“…Detailed form configuration and descriptions of how they are used are available in [36]. Among others, a form page named "Photographic Documentation" was set up to facilitate the rapid storage of the points representing the photographic shots taken in the field and of the other form attributes simultaneously with the point digitization [36] (Figure 6a,b). After opening the form page and digitizing the point, the Photo QGIS widget allows the photo file to be loaded and the other attribute boxes to be filled in.…”