Abstract
The identification of the most rockfall-prone areas is the first step of the risk assessment procedure. In the case of land and urban planning, hazard and risk analyses involve large portions of territory, and thus, preliminary methods are preferred to define specific zones where more detailed computations are needed. To reach this goal, the QGIS-based plugin QPROTO was developed, able to quantitatively compute rockfall time-independent hazard over a three-dimensional topography on the basis of the Cone Method. This is obtained by combining kinetic energy, passing frequency and detachment propensity of each rockfall source. QPROTO requires the definition of few angles (i.e., the energy angle ϕp and the lateral angle α) that should take into account all the phenomena occurring during the complex block movement along the slope. The outputs of the plugin are a series of raster maps reporting the invasion zones and the quantification of both the susceptibility and the hazard. In this paper, a method to relate these angles to some characteristics of the block (volume and shape) and the slope (inclination, forest density) is proposed, to provide QPROTO users with a tool for estimating the input parameters. The results are validated on a series of case studies belonging to the north-western Italian Alps.
Highlights
The assessment of susceptibility and hazard are the most challenging issues in the field of rockfall risk estimation [1]
The results of the parametric analyses are presented on the following, orga different charts with reference to both the energy angle φ and the lateral angle chart refers to the correlation between the angles and the different var11iaobf 2l6es consi the simulations, in order to analyze the effect of each variable
Each chart refers to the correlation between the angles and the different variables considered in the simIunlaatbiosnesn, cineoordf etrretoesanoanlytzheethteraenffescitt ozfoenaech(Fvaigriuabrlee.7, in blue), all the blocks reach of the slope and stop in the stopping zone, for all the geometrical configurations a 4T.1h. eIneflnueenrcgeyof athnegSlleopeφCh, a%racitseri2s6ti°csfor ω = 30°, 33.9° for 45° and 44.2° for 60°
Summary
The assessment of susceptibility and hazard are the most challenging issues in the field of rockfall risk estimation [1]. More simplified models reduce the volume of the block to a dimensionless point (neglecting the effect of block shape and size) within a 2D or 3D framework. These models are generally used on large scales (i.e., site-specific) and local scales, following the recommendations of Corominas et al (2014) [3] for detailed risk analyses or to design protection works. Even more simplified models are used on small scales for territorial planning and preliminary study purposes [2,3,4] In these cases, the runout model should be both simple and reliable in order to overcome the limited availability of data and their epistemic uncertainties.
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