Ice avalanche risk management from the Planpincieux glacier (Courmayeur - Italy)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Perret ◽  
Fabrizio Troilo ◽  
Simone Gottardelli ◽  
Luca Mondardini ◽  
Niccolò Dematteis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Summer Season ◽  
Civil Protection ◽  
Integrated Monitoring ◽  
Monitoring Plan ◽  
Ice Volume ◽  
Glacier Terminus ◽  
Access Road ◽  
The Alps ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Avalanche Risk Management

<p>Instabilities occurring on temperate glaciers in the Alps have been the subject of several studies, which have highlighted preliminary conditions and possible precursory signs of break-off events.</p><p>Since 2013, the Planpincieux Glacier, located on the Italian side of Mont Blanc massif (Aosta Valley), has been studied to analyse the dynamics of ice collapses in a temperate glacier.</p><p>These analyses have been conducted for several years, enabling the assessment of surface kinematics on the lower glacier portion and the different instability processes at the glacier terminus. During the period of the study, especially in the summer seasons, increases in velocities of the whole right side of the glacier tongue have been recorded. This fast sliding movement is mainly induced by water flow at the bottom of the glacier.</p><p>In 2019 summer season, the increase of speed coincided with the opening of a large crevasse, which outlined a fast moving ice volume, assessed by photogrammetric techniques as 250.000 m<sup>3</sup>.</p><p>According to the risk scenarios, the collapse of this ice volume from the glacial body would have reached the valley floor, potentially affecting the access road to the Val Ferret valley.</p><p>Considering the potential risk, a civil protection plan has been deployed by the monitoring team of the Aosta Valley Autonomous Region, Fondazione Montagna sicura and CNR-IRPI.</p><p>Glacier displacements, variations in the glacier morphology and environmental variables, such as air temperature, rain and snowfall, have all been taken into account to implement the monitoring plan.</p><p>This work outlines and summarises the steps used to develop the scientific knowledge into an integrated monitoring plan and a closure plan for the Val Ferret valley.</p>

Research of plastic ice, mineral formations and air of multi-frozen karst cave Heetey in Transbaikalia

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (7) ◽  
pp. 33-43
Author(s):  
I. Zheleznyak ◽  
◽  
S. Tsyrenzhapov ◽  
А. Gurulev ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Radon Concentration ◽  
Maximum Level ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
Geochemical Background ◽  
Karst Cave ◽  
Ice Volume ◽  
Internal Cavities ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Microwave Radiometers ◽  
Physical And Chemical

Heetey caves (“cold” and “warm”) which are located in the southern part of the permafrost in the Transbaikal Region have been chosen as the object of the research in the article. The subject is the physical and chemical parameters of the object. The results of the research in the “cold” Heetey cave are given in more detail. The following methods of this object research were chosen: study of the chemical composition of cave air using a chromatograph; radar survey of the cave grotto in the centimeter range; measurement of its own radio-thermal radiation using microwave radiometers. As a result of the research, the following results were obtained. The article provides information on the natural conditions that determine the dependence of the state of natural environments in the Heetey karst caves. The characteristics of occurrence and composition conditions of the natural environments of a karst cave (geological, cryogenic, atmospheric, groundwater) are given, taking into account the cryogenesis of their formation, transformation and influence on the cave air composition. A description of a rare low-temperature mineral, aragonite, which was first discovered in the cave and which is transformed into calcite over time is described. It is shown that the ice cover at the bottom of the cave has a layered structure, which is due to the seasonal ingress of surface water into the cave. The results of measurements of the surface air composition above the rocks’ surface and in caves, namely the content of oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, explosive gases – methane and hydrogen, mercury vapors are presented. A previously unknown fact of an increased geochemical background of radon concentration has been established. The most probable reasons for the formation and increased background of radon concentration are indicated. Microwave radiometric measurements have shown that there has been warming inside the cave over the past decade. This fact is associated with a general warming of the climate in Transbaikalia, as well as with an increase in the number of visits to caves by unorganized tourists. With the use of a 10 GHz nanosecond radar, hidden internal cavities were discovered in the roof of the cave, which can further lead to its destruction. The prints on the walls of the cave (in its lower part) show that the level of the ice sheet in 2015 is lower than its maximum level (1990) by 10 cm, which corresponds to a loss of ice volume of 12...15 m3 per year

ZADRZEWIENIA PRZYDROŻNE W NADLEŚNICTWIE KALISKA

2019 ◽  
Vol XII ◽  
pp. 1-1
Author(s):  
Urszula Nawrocka-Grześkowiak ◽  
Krzysztof Frydel
Keyword(s):  
Legal Protection ◽  
The State ◽  
Important Criterion ◽  
Access Road ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Near Future ◽  
Forest District

The subject of dendrological inventory and the state of preservation of oak avenue in Bartel Wielki. The alley is the access road from Kaliska to Bartel in Kaliska forest district. The second avenue is the avenue of mixed trees in Wirty near Borzechowo. The inventory covered a total of 154 trees. The dimensions of the trees have become an important criterion taken into account when selecting trees for legal protection. In these lanes there were selected 48 trees that should be legally protected. The avenues described in this article should be protected in the near future.

Time Framing Early Medieval Stone Building North of the Alps—A Discussion of Recent Challenging Results

Radiocarbon ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 59 (6) ◽  
pp. 1657-1675 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie Hueglin
Keyword(s):  
Organic Material ◽  
Standard Procedure ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Roman Period ◽  
Historical Events ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Sampling Process ◽  
The Alps ◽  
The Subject ◽  
City Walls

AbstractEarly Medieval stone building began earlier and was more widespread than previously thought. This conclusion is the result of scientific dating that challenges traditional views of the “petrification” process in architecture north of the Alps after the Roman period. Radiocarbon (14C) dating is not precise enough to answer detailed questions connected to historical contexts, but recently there have been a number of surprising dates: “Roman” city walls have now Early Medieval phases or meter-high, obscure “dark earth” strata were subdivided and dated. Results not in line with clients’ expectations can be the subject of heated debates, or worse, tend to remain unpublished. To the archaeologist, who is trying to connect scientific dates with historical events, usually is not clear, that mortar dating is a methodology still being developed, while dating organic material like charcoal from mortar is a standard procedure. But even the latter has downfalls like the possible “old-wood-effect,” if such complications are not carefully considered and avoided during the sampling process. Drawing on examples from Switzerland, Germany, Austria, and France, recent challenging results will be discussed from an archaeologist’s point of view.

scholarly journals Numerical modeling of a gravity-driven instability of a cold hanging glacier: reanalysis of the 1895 break-off of Altelsgletscher, Switzerland

2011 ◽  
Vol 57 (205) ◽  
pp. 817-831 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jérome Faillettaz ◽  
Didier Sornette ◽  
Martin Funk
Keyword(s):  
Numerical Modeling ◽  
Active Phase ◽  
Rate Of Change ◽  
Restricted Area ◽  
Velocity Increase ◽  
Ice Volume ◽  
Basal Friction ◽  
Gravity Driven ◽  
The Alps ◽  
General Lesson

AbstractThe Altels hanging glacier in Switzerland broke off on 11 September 1895. The ice volume of this catastrophic rupture was estimated as 4 × 106 m3, the largest icefall event ever observed in the Alps. However, the causes of this collapse are not entirely clear. Based on previous studies, we reanalyzed this break-off event, with the help of a new numerical model, initially developed by Faillettaz and others (2010) for gravity-driven instabilities. The simulations indicate that a break-off event is only possible when the basal friction at the bedrock is reduced in a restricted area, possibly induced by the storage of infiltrated water within the glacier. Further, our simulations reveal a two-step behavior: (1) a first quiescent phase, without visible changes, with a duration depending on the rate of change in basal friction; (2) an active phase with a rapid increase of basal motion over a few days. The general lesson obtained from the comparison between the simulations and available observations is that detectable precursors (crevasse formation and velocity increase) of the destabilization process of a hanging glacier, resulting from a progressive warming of the ice/bed interface towards a temperate regime, will appear only a few days prior to the break-off.

scholarly journals Alpinizm, turystyka, literatura na przełomie XIX i XX wieku — związki i zależności. Wstępny zarys problematyki

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 15-38
Author(s):  
Jacek Kolbuszewski
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Arthur Schopenhauer ◽  
Lake District ◽  
Mountain Climbing ◽  
Mountain Ranges ◽  
Grade 5 ◽  
The Alps ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The 19Th Century

Mountaineering, tourism and literature at the turn of the 20th century — links and relations.A preliminary outlineThe second half of the 19th and the early 20th century were marked by extremely significant changes in mountaineering, tourism and literature, changes which can be described metaphorically as the vanguard of 20th-century modernity. Of great importance to the development of both mountaineering and mountain tourism was the creation of associations bringing together tourists and mountaineers, mountain lovers. The associations focused mainly on promoting mountain tourism, making the mountains more accessible building paths, trails, hostels and trying to protect the mountains against the effects of human impact and other civilisational processes — economic, social and technological. The increasingly evident division into mountaineering exploring the mountains by climbing them and tourism, and the spread of this tourism in all mountain ranges in Europe made mountaineering aspecialised form of communing with the mountains, requiring special qualifications and equipment. At the same mountain tourism became amulti-layered phe­nomenon, as it encompassed, in addition to the “classic” tourism “with backpacks”, resort tourism involving walks, atype of tourism playing an important role in socialising and styles of behaviour, completely different from the models characteristic of tourism in the first half of the 19th century. This led to the emergence of characteristic styles of this tourism, which was becoming an important element of bourgeois popular culture, aprocess that immediately resonated in literature. In the second half of the 19th and the first decade of the 20th century the substantial growth in the number of tourists arriving in mountain villages led to their rapid civilisational and economic development. However, the concept of building mountain railways that were to bring people closer to the most precious asset of the mountains — their intact primeval nature — was asimple extension of the sedentary lifestyle. The development of mountaineering consisted in traversing increasingly difficult routes. This involved not just the ordinary climbing of peaks, but traversing mountain walls. In 1880 and 1881, Albert Frederick Mummery, climbing Grands Charmoz 3,455 m and Grépon 3,482 m, became the first man to traverse extremely difficult routes Grade 5 in the Welzenbach scale. In 1884 Walter Parry Haskett Smith decided to traverse agrade 3 difficult route on his own and two years later he climbed the twenty-metre Lapes Needle in the Lake District, England, which gave rise to competitive climbing, adiscipline distinct from mountaineering. Mountaineers also produced literary works Eugčne Rambert. The so-called “Alpine literature” “la littérature alpestre” encompassed, as its unique variety, par excellence Alpine literature providing an image of the mountains from the point of view of mountaineering and way of approaching mountaineering. Its leading exponents were Edward Whymper and Leslie Stephen; Albert Frederic Mummery 1855–1895 won considerable renown as the author of My climbs in the Alps and Caucasus 1895 as did Henry Russel-Killough 1834–1909 regarded as excellent writer and aman who made a great contribution to the exploration of the Pyrenees Souvenirs d’un Montagnard, 1908. On the other hand, the ideological motivation of Polish mountaineering echoed with the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, Arthur Schopenhauer and Henri Bergson, introducing the subject of mountain climbing into highbrow literature.

scholarly journals Integrated monitoring plan of soil quality as an environmental quality indicator in Novi Sad

Tehnika ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 74 (2) ◽  
pp. 309-316
Author(s):  
Vuk Gajić ◽  
Ivana Jelić ◽  
Tanita Đumić ◽  
Aleksandar Kostić ◽  
Boris Vakanjac
Keyword(s):  
Soil Quality ◽  
Environmental Quality ◽  
Quality Indicator ◽  
Integrated Monitoring ◽  
Monitoring Plan ◽  
Novi Sad

The Origin and Growth of the Cities of Southern Gaul to the Third Century A.D.: An Assessment of the Most Recent Archaeological Discoveries

1973 ◽  
Vol 63 ◽  
pp. 1-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul-Albert Février
Keyword(s):  
Third Century ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Alps ◽  
The Subject

There is scarcely a region of the Roman west which can claim, superficially, to be better known than southern Gaul. There can be no lover of antiquities who has not visited Arles or Nîmes, studied the arch of Orange or the Pont du Gard, devoted some interest to the monuments of Fréjus, the sculptures of Nîmes, or the mosaics of Vienne, not to mention the houses of Glanum or Vaison which have been recovered from the earth by the dedication of Henri Rolland and Canon Sautel. And yet many of these famous monuments have had to wait until very recent years before becoming the subject of detailed monographs: so, the trophy of the Alps, the arch of Orange, or the mausoleum of Glanum. Others, without having received exhaustive publication, have only in recent decades been properly dated (the amphitheatres of Arles and Nîmes) or adequately described: I am thinking of the Maison Carrée.

Improving the reliability of the decision-making process in a rockslide Early Warning procedure

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Davide Bertolo
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Early Warning ◽  
Early Warning Systems ◽  
Direct Perception ◽  
Economic Losses ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Civil Protection ◽  
Integrated Monitoring ◽  
Italian Economy ◽  
Protection Measures

<p>During the last decades, the progresses in rock slope monitoring improved the reliability of the Early Warning Systems (EWS) all over the world. Among their features, EWS are designed to provide to the decision makers objective tools in order to support their decisions in activating emergency plans.</p><p>The choice to design an EW System, if only based on displacement or rainfall thresholds, may not be sufficient to support the decision-making process, when the monitored rockslide is threatening high value targets, both in terms of exposed human lives and potential economic losses.</p><p>As a matter of fact, the integrated monitoring systems usually installed on active rock slopes provide many different data about the behaviour of these phenomena. Most of these data are worth to be weighted in the decisional process, as they are relevant to confirm a specific event scenario.</p><p>In addition, experts and EWS managers are facing an increasing demand by the stakeholders and the population, to effectively communicate in a user-friendly way the decision-making process, as well as the uncertainty degree associated with each decisional step.</p><p>That is a necessity which becomes critical in the moment when the population and the stakeholders have no direct perception of a potential catastrophic event and the civil protection measures are preventively activated before the emergency.</p><p>The aim of this work is to present the Early Warning procedure elaborated by the regional Geological survey of the Aosta Valley Autonomous Region (Italy), which is based on the experience derived from the emergency management of the Mont de La Saxe rockslide in 2013. </p><p>The new EW procedure has been successfully tested for the first time during the rockslide activation in spring 2014 and it has been refined and improved during the following years.</p><p>The potential collapse of the Mont de La Saxe rockslide threatens a part of the important touristic resort of Courmayeur and the E25 Motorway, one the most important national communication axes, connecting the industrial areas of the Northern Italy with France and Switzerland.</p><p>In such a sensitive situation, a not sufficiently motivated alert could have led to impacting civil protection measures like the evacuation of two villages and the traffic interruptions, damaging the Italian economy and the regional tourism.</p><p>Therefore, the EW managers have decided to strengthen the existing EW procedure, based on displacement thresholds, in order to achieve the maximum amount of confidence in the decisional process. The new procedure is based on a Bayesian inferential process, combining the available data provided by the monitoring system.</p><p>Thanks to this approach a quantitative degree of confidence can be assigned to each decisional step, increasing the warning levels up to the declaration of the emergency condition.</p><p>At the same time, the new EW procedure provides a transparent and replicable decisional process, where the confidence degree associated to the civil protection alert can be declared in the alert bulletins.</p>

scholarly journals REINFORCEMENT OF LAMINATED GLASS FACADES AGAINST THE BLAST LOAD

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (8) ◽  
pp. 1085-1097 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jalal Nakhaei ◽  
Saeed Forghani ◽  
Mahdi Bitarafan ◽  
Shahin Lale Arefi ◽  
Jonas Šaparauskas
Keyword(s):  
Numerical Simulation ◽  
Blast Wave ◽  
Laminated Glass ◽  
Civil Protection ◽  
Part Versus ◽  
Ahp Method ◽  
Ahp Model ◽  
Finite Element Software ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Financial Losses

The first defensive element of the building against the explosion is the façade. On the condition that façade is not resistant against explosion and encounters the damage, the blast wave will enter the construction and increases financial losses and casualties. With respect to that glass facades do not possess adequate strength under the explosion; the major aim of the study is to examine variety of the reinforcement practices of glazing facades with the laminated glass subjected to the blast wave. The investigation has been done by two descriptive and simulation approaches with the finite element software of AutoDyn and eight simulations has been represented in the subject of laminated glasses. In addition, through AHP method, related questionnaires were designed so that some experts including 31 people possessing the activity and investigation background of two to thirty years in the civil protection scope answered them. Considered indexes in AHP model consist of resistance against explosion, passed light rate, expenditure, complexity and difficulty of accomplishment so that in the resistance part versus explosion, the results of numerical simulation have been benefited. Outcomes demonstrate the best function in laminated glass models belongs to the overlapped louvered opening model. Afterwards, the model of two-layer laminated glass with the spring is laid. Furthermore, the most economical model which supplies the most light as well as the most safety is the model of one-layer laminated glass with spring.

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