The Project Partner Italy France De Glaciologie D Glacial and Periglacial Action Produced by Adv Impacting the Stability
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http://dbirpi.to.cnr.it/db_cgi/english/index.php The Project Partner Italy - Fondazione Montag na Sicura (Project coordina tor ), ARPA Valle d’Aosta, CNR -IRPI Torino France - Université de Savoie (Laboratoire LISTIC), C NRS France (Laboratoires LGGE, Laboratoire de Glaciologie de Grenoble, GIPSA, EDYT EM) Glacial and periglacial areas evolve quickly in relation to climate variations, because of the morphogenetic action produced by advancing and receding glaciers. As a consequence, ongoing climate change is heavily impacting the stability of high altitude en vironments. Main effects are a reduced stability of rock slopes and moraines, growth of glacial lakes, outcrop of large quantities of unconsolidated and unvegetated glacial sediments, which can lead to ice and rock falls and avalanches, glacial outburst fl oods and debris flows. In this context, the Alcotra 2007 -2013 project n.56 GLARISKALP (“Glacial Risks in Western Alps”) has been promoted. Its focus is on past, present and potential instability phenomena in glacial and periglacial areas of Western Alps. I n the framework of the project, the contribution of CNR -IRPI refers to the Piedmont Region. The areas considered in the study are the main mountain groups of Marittime Alps (Clapièr, Corburant, Argentera), Cozie Alps (Monviso, Ambin) and Graie Alps(Rocciam elone, Levanne, and Piedmont side of Gran Paradiso). Traditional investigation techniques along with well -established and innovative geomatic technologies have been used. The CNR -IRPI contribution to the project, is: 1) a regional study of localisation and characterisation of glacial and periglacial areas, aimed to point out instability prone areas and typologies of expected natural instabilities; 2) a close examination of some sites, chosen according to problems and critical situations found in the previou s phase of the work. The results of the project will improve and enrich the knowledge about the impacts of climate change in high mountains and also supply methodologies for studying and moni toring alpine glacial and periglacial areas. Outcomes of this work will help public administrations to manage natural hazard assessment related to climate change. The Italian Glacier Inventory Glaciers are among the best terrestrial indicators of climate change and thus glacier inventories have attracted a growing, worldwide interest in recent years. In Italy, the first official glacier inventory was completed in 1925 and 774 glacial bodies were identified. As the amount of data continues to increase, and new techniques become available, there is a growing demand for computer tools that can efficiently manage the collected data. The Research Institute for Geo-hydrological Protection of the National Research Council, in cooperation with the Departments of Computer Science and Earth Sciences of the University of Turin, created a database that provides a modern tool for storing, processing and sharing glaciological data. The database was developed according to the need of storing heterogeneous information, which can be retrieved through a set of web search queries. The Database’s architecture is server-side, and was designed by means of open source software . The website interface, simple and intuitive, was intended to meet the needs of a distributed public: through this interface, any type of glaciological data can be managed, specific queries can be performed, and the results can be exported in a standard format. The use of a relational database to store and organize the large variety of information about Italian glaciers collected over the last hundred years constitutes a significant step forward in ensuring the safety and accessibility of such data. Moreover, the same benefits also apply to the enhanced operability for handling information in the future, including new and emerging types of data formats, such as geographic and multimedia files. info: [email protected] web: http://www.irpi.to.cnr.it/?page=server Torino, June, 19 2012 .