The Calatabiano landslide (southern Italy): preliminary GB-InSAR monitoring data and remote 3D mapping

Abstract

On 24 October 2015, following a period of heavy rainfall, a landslide occurred in the Calatabiano Municipality (Sicily Island, Southern Italy), causing the rupture of a water pipeline supplying water to the city of Messina. Following this event, approximately 250,000 inhabitants of the city suffered critical water shortages for several days. Consequently, on 6 November 2015, a state of emergency was declared (O.C.D.P. 295/2015) by the National Italian Department of Civil Protection (DPC). During the emergency management phase, a provisional by-pass, consisting of three 350-m long pipes passing through the landslide area, was constructed to restore water to the city. Furthermore, on 11 November 2015, a landslide remote-sensing monitoring system was installed with the following purposes: (i) analyse the landslide geomorphological and kinematic features in order to assess the residual landslide risk and (ii) support the early warning procedures needed to ensure the safety of the personnel involved in the by-pass construction and the landslide stabilization works. The monitoring system was based on the combined use of Ground-Based Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (GB-InSAR) and terrestrial laser scanning (TLS). In this work, the preliminary results of the monitoring activities and a remote 3D map of the landslide area are presented

Spaceborne, UAV and ground-based remote sensing techniques for landslide mapping, monitoring and early warning

“…Given the relative short distances at which GB-InSAR apparatuses usually operate (typically less than 3 km), they work in Ku band (1.67-2.5 cm). The main research applications of GB-InSAR soon became focused on slope monitoring Pieraccini et al, 2002;, for civil protection purposes (Del Ventisette et al, 2011;Bardi et al, 2014;2016;Lombardi et al, 2016) and, more recently, for mining safety (Farina et al, 2011;Severin et al, 2014). Other fields include volcanoes monitoring Intrieri et al, 2013;Nolesini et al, 2013;Calvari et al, 2016), cultural heritage sites (Tapete et al, 2013;Pratesi et al, 2015;Nolesini et al, 2016;Frodella et al, 2016), glaciers and snowpack sinkholes (Intrieri et al, 2015).…”

Landslide Mapping and Characterization through Infrared Thermography (IRT): Suggestions for a Methodological Approach from Some Case Studies

“…This event caused a considerable lack in water supplies for many of the city inhabitants. In this context, an integrated monitoring network was implemented in order to assess the residual risk by analyzing the landslide's geomorphological and kinematic features, and to support the early warning procedures needed to ensure the safety of the personnel involved both in the realization of the aqueduct by-pass and the long-term landslide stabilization works [78,79]. The landslide, characterized by a roto-translational movement, involved a few meters in thickness of detrital slope deposits and developed for about 110 m in length and 65 m in width (Figure 16a).…”

Big data managing in a landslide early warning system: experience from a ground-based interferometric radar application

“…The use of this tool to monitor structures, landslides, volcanoes and sinkholes is widely documented (Calvari et al, 2016;Di Traglia, 2014;Intrieri et al, 2015;Bardi et al, 2016Bardi et al, , 2017Martino and Mazzanti, 2014;Severin et al, 2014;Tapete et al, 2013), as well as for early warning and forecasting (Intrieri et al, 2012;Carlà et al, 2016a, b;Lombardi et al, 2016).…”