Abstract
Abstract. This study focuses on the quantification and analysis of geomorphic processes on the barely vegetated slopes of a recultivated iron ore mine on the Italian island of Elba using photographs from terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) and digital photogrammetry by an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) over a period of 5 1/2 years. Beside this, the study tried to work out the potential and the limitations of both methods to detect surface changes by geomorphic process dynamics within a natural environment. Both UAV and TLS show the pattern of the erosion and accumulation processes on the investigated slope quite well, but the calculated amounts differ clearly between the methods. The reasons for these differences could be found in the different accuracies (variable level of detections) of the methods and the different viewing geometries. Both effects have an impact on the detectable process dynamics over different timescales on the slope and their calculated amounts, which in both cases can lead to an underestimation of erosion and accumulation by fluvial processes.
Highlights
Fluvial erosion plays a major role in the geomorphic formation of steep slopes (Bryan, 2000) in agricultural (Diodato and Bellocchi, 2000; Auerswald et al, 2000) as well as in natural landscapes of the Alps (Wetzel, 1992; Haas, 2008) or the Mediterranean region (Clarke and Rendell, 2006; Mathys et al, 2005)
Both unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) show the pattern of the erosion and accumulation processes on the investigated slope quite well, but the calculated amounts differ clearly between the methods
Both effects have an impact on the detectable process dynamics over different timescales on the slope and their calculated amounts, which in both cases can lead to an underestimation of erosion and accumulation by fluvial processes
Summary
Fluvial erosion plays a major role in the geomorphic formation of steep slopes (Bryan, 2000) in agricultural (Diodato and Bellocchi, 2000; Auerswald et al, 2000) as well as in natural landscapes of the Alps (Wetzel, 1992; Haas, 2008) or the Mediterranean region (Clarke and Rendell, 2006; Mathys et al, 2005). Mining sites in hilly or mountainous regions can show steep and mostly anthropogenically created slopes ( due to a recultivation) without natural soils and changed hydrological conditions influencing surface hydrology, flow paths, and groundwater level (Osterkamp and Joseph, 2000). F. Haas et al.: Geomorphic processes on a recultivated iron ore mine heavy metal polluted sediments with harsh conditions for stabilizing vegetation. Due to the rapid change of topography, such nonequilibrium landscapes (Hancock et al, 2008) can provide sediments for subsequent geomorphic processes (e.g., mass movements or debris flows) and act as a source of heavy metal pollutants (Servida et al, 2009; Benvenuti et al, 1999) influencing e.g., the quality of drinking water. As recultivated landscapes were set back, geomorphic processes start at “time zero” and can be analyzed ab initio (cf. Hancock et al, 2008)
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