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| Titel |
Smartphone imagery to analyze animal-induced erosion in riverbanks |
| VerfasserIn |
Giulia Sofia, Roberta Masin, Paolo Tarolli |
| Konferenz |
EGU General Assembly 2016
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| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
en
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| Digitales Dokument |
PDF |
| Erschienen |
In: GRA - Volume 18 (2016) |
| Datensatznummer |
250131845
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 EGU/EGU2016-12291.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| Among the most invasive species, the Coypu (Myocastor coypus) best exemplifies the
widespread damage caused by alien species to ecosystems, with effects on crops, riverine
systems, and hydraulic structures. The extent of the latter impact is still rarely quantified,
despite the increasing economic and social importance. In northern Italy, Coypu damages to
the drainage network have multiple aspects. One main issue is related to the weakening of
earthen structures: burrows significantly reduce the integrity of the banks, and potentially
contribute to the bank failure. A second concern is related to the agricultural activities nearby
the channels. When burrows are present, soil may collapse when subjected to the weight of
heavy objects on the surface (such as vehicles and farm machinery). A third issue is
connected on the impact of burrowing activities on riparian buffer zones. Coypu burrows
create specific flowing paths for the water, delivering water and sediment from the
fields directly to the drainage system, thus possibly reducing the efficiency of these
zones, and improving the risk of surface water contamination. The purpose of this
research is to provide a new perspective, from a geoscience point of view, on Coypu
damages to riverbanks, showing the effectiveness of a low-cost approach to model
surface burrowing damages and to quantify the related erosion. The work is based
on the Structure-from-Motion (SfM) photogrammetric method. To quantify the
damages, high-resolution 3D models of the riverbanks were reconstructed from
imagery acquired with a smartphone (Prosdocimi et al. 2015). From these models, it
was possible to determine the volume of the animal-induced erosion. Proven its
effectiveness, the proposed method could allow the creation of a database of damages.
Researchers could test the flexibility of the approach to determine the distribution
of erosion along the whole drainage system as an index of damage region wide,
and to determine the severity of damage as classified according to Coypu relative
abundance ratings when available. This would offer the basis to compare biomes,
identifying those suffering the most. The quantification of eroded sediment would
also provide a scientific basis to improve the analysis of the impacts of burrowing
animals on riparian habitats and native species as well as on the efficiency of buffer
zones.
Prosdocimi, M., Sofia, G., Dalla Fontana, G., Tarolli, P. (2015). Bank erosion in agricultural
drainage networks: effectiveness of Structure-from-Motion photogrammetry for
post-event analysis, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 40: 1891–1906. doi:
10.1002/esp.3767. |
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