Morphometry and Debris-Flow Susceptibility Map in Mountain Drainage Basins of the Vallo di Diano, Southern Italy

Salvatore Ivo Giano,Vincenzo Siervo,Eva Pescatore

doi:10.3390/rs13163254

Salvatore Ivo Giano, Vincenzo Siervo + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13163254

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Journal: Remote sensing	Publication Date: Aug 17, 2021
Citations: 2	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: University of Basilicata

Abstract

In watershed mountain basins, affected in the last decades by strong rainfall events, the role of debris-flow and debris flood processes was investigated. Morphometric parameters have proven to be useful first-approximation indicators in discriminating those processes, especially in large areas of investigation. Computation of morphometric parameters in 19 watershed mountain basins of the western side valley of the Vallo di Diano intermontane basin (southern Italy) was carried out. This procedure was integrated by a semi-automatic elaboration of the potential susceptibility to debris flows, using Flow-R modelling. This software, providing an empirical model of the preliminary susceptibility assessment at a regional scale, was applied in many countries of the world. The implementation of Flow-R modelling requires a GIS application and some thematic base maps extracted using DEMs analysis. A 5-meter-resolution DEM has been used in order to produce the susceptibility maps of the whole study area, and the results are compared and discussed with the real debris flow/flood events that occurred in 1993, 2005, 2010, and 2017 in the studied area. The results have provided a good reliability of Flow-R modelling within small catchment mountain basins.

Highlights

The morphological evolution of drainage basins in mountain areas is mainly controlled by fluvial processes and valley slope movements, such as rockfall and debris flow, representing the most important processes in the valley slope evolution
Many studies were devoted to the modelling of debris flow susceptibility at a regional and medium scale analysis, ranging from 1:10,000 to 1:50,000 map scales [6,7], providing preliminary analysis of potentially unstable areas and the down-slope regions probably affected by flows [1]
The interpretation of morphometric parameters is a useful way in discriminating debris flow vs. debris flood processes where scarce information on the depositional pattern of debris successions are available and this procedure is widely applied in many areas of the world [20,21,22,23,24,25,26,27,28]

Summary

Introduction

The morphological evolution of drainage basins in mountain areas is mainly controlled by fluvial processes and valley slope movements, such as rockfall and debris flow, representing the most important processes in the valley slope evolution. Regional case studies, based on empirical or semi-empirical parameters [8,9,10], allowed many authors to calibrate the model into small areas where the inventory of past events existed, applying the better parameters set ([11] and references therein). In this sense, the use of Flow-R software—a GIS-based process for assessing the regional susceptibility of debris flow—for the identification of potential source areas and the corresponding propagation extent in a medium-scale drainage basin, represents an Remote Sens.

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