HiResAlp

The HiResAlp project addresses the important problem of improving the spatio-temporal knowledge of water budget variables in a strongly managed Alpine environment at local and regional scales.
The attention is focused on two strategic hydrological parameters, namely the Soil Moisture Content (SMC) and the Evapo-Transpiration (ET). They quantify two important aspects of the water cycle, i.e. the status of the soil and the exchange of water with the atmosphere, thus they have a direct and fundamental implication on many climatic and hydrological applications as well as agriculture, forestry and other economic activities. In the Alps, spatial and temporal scales reduce and all climatic and hydrologic dynamics enhance significantly.
Accurate, reliable and frequent mapping of SMC and ET in this challenging environment becomes thus imperative for a clear understanding of the trends for the next years as well as for early response in case of emergency.
In order to address this challenging problem, the project aims at developing a novel integrated approach that exploits the fusion of different advanced estimation approaches based on: the retrieval from Earth Observation (EO) satellite imagery, the simulation according to hydrological theoretical modeling and in-situ measurement strategies. The term "integration" represents the core of this project.
The project will activate regional and international collaborations with the Institute for Alpine Environment at EURAC, the University of Trento (Italy), the University of Innsbruck and the Technische Universität of Wien (Austria), the United States Department of Agriculture - USDA (USA), and the Hydrographic Office of the Province of Bolzano.