Opportunities and Challenges from High Resolution Topography for Understanding Earth Surface Processes

In recent years, new remotely-sensed technologies, such as airborne and terrestrial laser scanner, have improved the detail and the quality of topographic information over larger areas (Tarolli et al., 2009). A new generation of high-resolution (~ 1 m) digital terrain models (DTMs) is now available, and it is widely used by researchers, offering new opportunities for the scientific community. These data call for the development of a new generation of methodologies for an objective extraction of geomorphic features, such as channel heads, channel networks, bank geometry, debris-flow channel, debris-flow deposits, scree slope, landslide and erosion scars, etc. (Sofia et al., 2011; Tarolli et al. 2012). This talk start with an overview of the state of the art of the recent developed tools, algorithms, and analysis of high resolution topography for the understanding of earth surface processes, with particular attention to landsliding processes analysis. Then, more in detail, a methodology for an objective extraction of geomorphic features (landslide crowns) is described (Tarolli et al., 2012). The proposed methodology is based on the detection of thresholds of landform curvature derived by statistical analyses. Giving a procedure that automatically recognizes landslide features can offer a strategic tool to ease the correct delineation of such phenomena, and to map natural hazard in densely populated regions.