An ArcGIS Geo-Morphological Approach for Snow Avalanche Zoning and Risk Estimation in the Province of Bergamo

This paper describes the results of a study developed, with a GIS approach, at the University of Bergamo, about snow avalanche zoning and risk assessment in the Province of Bergamo. The adoption of a simplified estimation model, presented here, nonetheless allowed achieving results in good accordance with those provided by previous, more rigorous studies at the Province of Bergamo. A following analysis has also been performed to estimate ski lifts, urban areas, power lines, highways, railroads and roads at possible risk. This is a work in progress, since further development has already been taken into account to enrich the risk model with more parameters describing land morphology and meteorology. These results will then be used to simulate accidents and to estimate the shortest routes for rescuers. Finally, the development of a geo-app for mobile devices could become a very useful and fast tool for avalanche risk areas information.

A Green GIS Solution against Air Pollution in the Province of Bergamo: The Paulownia Tree

The paper describes a GIS approach to identify the most suitable areas for growing the Paulownia tree in the Province of Bergamo;this work will become the subject of a dissertation thesis at the School of Engineering of the University of Bergamo. Paulownia is quite an ancient tree, well known especially in the far east countries, for its wonderful flowers and the quality of the wood which is a source of certain profit. The paper is focused on the employment of the Paulownia tree against air pollution, since its big leaves absorb high amounts of CO2 in the atmosphere and can capture the small particles of pollutants in the air ten times more than any other tree species. First, the analysis identifies the most favourable areas for its growth in the Province of Bergamo. Secondly, among the latter, the analysis detects the strategic areas for its growth near the most polluted zones. Finally, a quantitative evaluation is carried out about the trees contribution against pollutants in the atmosphere.

A Simplified ArcGIS Approach for Landslides Risk Assessment in the Province of Bergamo

The paper describes a simplified GIS approach, for landslides risk assessment in the Province of Bergamo, developed for a GIS degree thesis at the faculty of Engineering of the University of Bergamo. The subject has been and still is largely studied by many researchers with the aid of rigorous mathematical/statistical analysis tools. This work follows some procedures carried out by other studies, but at the end it has been decided to adopt a simple, fast and not rigorous way to find a solution. A following analysis, on the higher risk areas identified, has also been performed to test their reliability, allowing achieving satisfactory results. It has been planned to study the risk model more thoroughly, by taking into account other triggering causes for landslide susceptibility and to try also a rigorous approach, so as to get a better idea of the results achieved so far and how to improve them.

GIS Analyses and Maps Creation of a Naturalistic Area: The Carengione Oasis

This paper describes the experience carried out with the aim to provide a technical and geo-referenced contribution to a project, submitted to the Common of Peschiera Borromeo in the Province of Milan in Lombardy. The promoter is a group of local associations;the aim is the valorisation and fruition of a green area, named Carengione Oasis. At first a GIS pre-analysis of the area has been performed to achieve a thorough knowledge of the area object of study. Then, a handheld GSP navigator has been employed to collect the data to be processed in a GIS software. This device choice has pros (a fast and very easy survey has been carried out) and cons (the acquired data have a precision of 3 to 5 meters). These data have been processed with the aid of the GIS software ArcMap release 10.4.1 by Esri. Also some free aerial images have been employed to edit features inaccessible on site. The achieved results are some thematic, metric and georeferenced maps and also a 3D virtual tour for a realistic visit of this area. They fulfil the project requirements. Anyway, due to their low precision, they have not been uploaded to enrich the official Lombardy cartography (DBTR);for this reason, part of them has been donated to the free data interchange OpenStreetMap. This work could be considered as a first step for future more precise surveys which would allow adding the acquired results to the DBTR;it has also been planned to create a story map describing the experience illustrated in this paper.

A GIS Pre and Post Processing Contribution to a Multi Techniques Test Survey for an Ancient Railway Restoration in the Brembana Valley

Stemming from the renewed desire to requalify the former Brembana Valley railway route (inside one of the valleys of the Province of Bergamo and close to the important city of Milan), from Bergamo to Villa d’Almè, in 2017, the Bergamo Transport Company and other partners have signed a memorandum of understanding. They have also entrusted a project company to develop a technical and economic viability study, which would be an update of a preliminary one presented in 2009. A private proposal for the realization of a test survey, useful for the required engineering project, has been submitted to the project company and accepted. For this reason, a team, comprising different companies, and among them also the Geomatics group at the University of Bergamo, was formed so as to perform this task and develop it in a degree thesis. The aim of the test survey is to evaluate a joint use of the new available technologies, so as to possibly get faster, more economic and thorough results, by performing a 3D metric analysis over two sub-areas selected along the route. The paper describes this experience and the achieved results. In particular, the areas of interest in the test project have been analyzed first thing with a GIS software and then surveyed with a multi-sensor approach, i.e. terrestrial laser scanner, GNSS techniques and UAV. The final integrated results allowed providing a metric model of the morphological and urban aspect for the territorial layout, useful also for further advanced GIS analyses. The analysis of the reached precisions has provided satisfactory results which agree with the metric requirements of the project. Further meaningful considerations can be derived from this test survey: the implementation of different techniques has helped to overcome problems due to hidden parts in complex objects, it has allowed to provide a faster survey and to test different technologies and software packages. The results have been quite satisfactory.