In South Tyrol, mountain meadows and pastures are an essential element of the traditional cultural landscape with multiple socio-economic and ecological benefits (ecosystem services). They are affected by shallow erosion processes characterized by displacement of vegetation together with unconsolidated material, often resulting in a considerable loss of soil for affected slopes. These processes have negative impacts on mountain agriculture, natural hazards and landscape aesthetics. Therefore, mountain grasslands need to be protected from degradation.
The aim of the project EroDyn, financed by the Province of Bolzano through the Legge 14 programme, is the monitoring and process analysis of shallow erosion areas on mountain grasslands in South Tyrol, to gain a more profound and solid understanding of the phenomenon and its dynamics.

The participation of Eurac is on the one hand giving experience and getting new know-how on remote and proximal sensing topics for automated information extraction techniques (pattern recognition, machine learning and object-based image analysis) and on the other, using a novel set of tools that will exploit the full potential of modern remote sensing data from different instruments (e.g. multispectral cameras, laser scanning) and platforms (airborne, unmanned aerial vehicles and terrestrial).
Therefore, the main expected outputs are the detection and mapping of shallow erosion areas in a regional inventory as well as the monitoring and multi-temporal analysis.

Contact person: Abraham Mejia-Aguilar

abraham.mejia@eurac.edu

http://erodyn.mountainresearch.at/