Windstorms represent one of the main large-scale disturbances that shape the European landscape a... more Windstorms represent one of the main large-scale disturbances that shape the European landscape and influence its forest structure, so post-event restoration activities start to gain a major role in mountainous forest management. After a disturbance event, biological legacies may enhance or maintain multiple ecosystem services of mountain forests such as protection against natural hazards, biodiversity conservation, or erosion mitigation. However, the conservation of all these ecosystem services after stand-replacing events could go against traditional management practices, such as salvage logging. Thus far, the impact of salvage logging and removal of biological legacies on the protective function of mountain stands has been poorly studied. Structural biological legacies may provide protection for natural regeneration and may also increase the terrain roughness providing a shielding effect against gravitational hazards like rockfall. The aim of this project is to understand the dyn...
Large wood (LW) represents one of the main problem for risk prediction in Alpine streams mostly b... more Large wood (LW) represents one of the main problem for risk prediction in Alpine streams mostly because of its potential to clog bridges, culverts and narrow sections during flood events. To prevent wood from reaching critical sections, since long time wood-trapping structures, along with the periodic removal of mature riparian vegetation and in-channel wood, have been built in the European Alps and in Japan (Lange and Bezzola, 2006). However, the overall efficiency and thus the “success” of such structural measures depend on many factors which include LW volumes and rates, timing of LW transport during the flood, individual LW size, interaction between bed, LW and sediment in the proximity of the structure, structure location and orientation with respect to the flow, structure geometry, and local flow characteristics (Rimbock, 2004). It is thus evident how designing an efficient system for wood retention is not an easy task. The main goal of the paper is to describe a rational proc...
This research project aims to compare and evaluate different survey methods for the data collecti... more This research project aims to compare and evaluate different survey methods for the data collection targeted to the characterization of a rockfall protection forest. The types of survey analyzed are: i) a traditional forest survey; ii) a mobile laser scanner survey; and (iii) a UAV photogrammetric survey. The results show how the examined remote sensing techniques can be a valuable tool to support data collection, because less time-consuming than traditional techniques, and for the improvement of the personnel safety conditions otherwise operating in critical areas affected to natural hazards (falling rocks in the case study considered).
As a consequence of climate change, the impact of pluvial flooding is expected to increase in the... more As a consequence of climate change, the impact of pluvial flooding is expected to increase in the next decades. Despite citizens’ poor knowledge, several types of stormwater infrastructure can be implemented to mitigate the impact of future events. This paper focuses on the implementation of green and grey stormwater interventions (i.e., with or without vegetation) on private properties. Framed by the Protection Motivation Theory, a survey-based case study analysis, carried out in a pluvial flooding-prone area of the Veneto Region (Italy), highlights the main factors driving people’s willingness to implement these interventions. The analysis shows that the implementation of grey stormwater infrastructures is driven by the perceived threat and the amount of past pluvial flooding damage (i.e., the direct experience as a proxy of prior knowledge) while the implementation of green stormwater infrastructures is driven also by additional factors (awareness of these interventions, age and ...
Different mitigation measures with vegetation have been proposed to sustainably manage rainwater,... more Different mitigation measures with vegetation have been proposed to sustainably manage rainwater, among which green roofs have demonstrated to be a valid solution in urbanized areas. Green roofs have gained interest also in Italy, but their spreading is generally based on application of ready-to-use packages, poorly tested in the specific climate conditions. A study was carried out to evaluate the green roof solution most suitable in the humid, subtropical climate context of Veneto Plain (north-eastern Italy) to reduce outflow volumes from building roofs into the urban drainage systems. Twelve different microcosm combinations of extensive green roof (three plant mixtures × two substrates × two storage/drainage layers) were tested and compared with gravel (considered as a conventional flat roof with gravel ballast). The tested drainage/storage layers were a preformed layer in recycled HDPE (PL) and an expanded perlite mineral layer (ML), and the growth medium layers were recycled bri...
Worldwide, mountain forests represent a significant factor in reducing rockfall risk over long pe... more Worldwide, mountain forests represent a significant factor in reducing rockfall risk over long periods of time on large potential disposition areas. While the economic value of technical protection measures against rockfall can be clearly determined and their benefits indicated, there is no general consensus on the quantification of the protective effect of forests. Experience shows that wherever there is forest, the implementation of technical measures to reduce risk of rockfall might often be dispensable or cheaper, and large deforestations (e.g. after windthrows, forest fires, clear-cuts) often show an increased incidence of rockfall events. This study focussed on how the protective effect of a forest against rockfall can be quantified on an alpine transregional scale. We therefore estimated the runout length, in terms of the angle of reach, of 700 individual rockfall trajectories from 39 release areas from Austria, Germany, Italy and Slovenia. All recorded rockfall events passed...
Debris flows are one of the most common geomorphic processes in steep mountainous areas. The cont... more Debris flows are one of the most common geomorphic processes in steep mountainous areas. The control of their propagation on alluvial fans is fundamental; valley bottoms are usually characterised by high damage potential because they contain concentrations of inhabitants and infrastructure. It is well known that forests have a protective function in that they reduce the triggering of debris flows, as well as hinder their motion and promote deposition, but a quantitative assessment of these effects is still lacking. Using laboratory experiments that simulate debris-flow depositional processes, this research investigated the ability of forests to reduce debris-flow runout and depositional area. The experiments considered two different forest types, high forests and coppice forests, and four volumetric concentrations of sediment (0.50, 0.55, 0.60, and 0.65). The results confirmed that the sediment concentration of the flow is a key factor in determining the geometry of the deposits. On...
The role of green roofs in reducing drainage fluxes is known, but despite extensive analysis in t... more The role of green roofs in reducing drainage fluxes is known, but despite extensive analysis in the literature, methods to predict the hydrologic performance for a given green roof composition are scarce. These methods are useful for the hydraulic design and for planning regulations that impose specific hydrological responses. This research investigates on the prediction of the drainage fluxes produced below a green roof with initial water content equal to its water retention capacity (worst-case scenario). Laboratory tests were performed to analyse the rainfall-drainage relationship for green-roof and single components (growing media and drainage storage layers) under specific rainfall intensities. Two types of largely used drainage/storage layers and growth media were analysed, both singularly and in combination. The experiments consider two rainfall events lasting 10 min with constant intensity. The results indicate that the Curve Number (CN) method (U.S. Soil Conservation Servic...
Abstract A key objective in debris-flow hazard mitigation is the reduction of the potential depos... more Abstract A key objective in debris-flow hazard mitigation is the reduction of the potential depositional area in the fan. From this point of view, forested areas are able to provide a protective function hindering the flow motion and promoting the surge deposition. Despite extensive research on Alpine forests and their protective functions, relatively few studies in the literature have quantitatively focused on the relationship between debris-flow depositional features and vegetation. In light of the above, our research investigates how vegetation characteristics in the fan area interact with debris-flow deposition. Field investigations were carried out in two Alpine fans where debris-flow events occurred in the summer of 2012. By recording the characteristics of 1567 involved trees and the associated deposit thicknesses, this paper provides a data set that contributes to the improvement of the knowledge of these interaction processes. The integration of literature findings and the analysis of the collected dataset adds insights into the relationships between tree characteristics and the dynamics of debris flow during the runout path. The main results prove the capacity of the forest of uniformly promoting flow-energy dissipation, presence of high species diversity in debris-flow deposits when comparing disturbed and undisturbed forest stands, tree mortality largely affecting small diameters
This research focuses on small scale laboratory tools to characterize the rheological behavior of... more This research focuses on small scale laboratory tools to characterize the rheological behavior of the matrix (maximum diameter of sediment analyzed equal to 19 mm) of real debris flows affecting Eastern Italian Alps. The main aim is to define novel, easily reproducible and low-cost procedures that make available to a wider audience, in particular to the end users of numerical models, this kind of information. The research seeks therefore to delineate a connection between the laboratory data and the numerical models because, as mentioned by Calligaris and Zini (2012), the current main objective of debris-flow modeling is to clearly describe the input variables in order to better understand the formation of debris flow fans and to predict, mitigate or control the hazard posed by these phenomena to communities situated into the mountain areas. This research takes into account monophasic numerical models because of their widespread and proven efficiency (Rickenmann et al., 2006; Bisantino et al., 2009; Calligaris and Zini, 2012). Summarizing, the detailed aims of this research are: - Debris-flow behavior investigation through small scale laboratory tools and original and easily reproducible procedures; - Identify methodologies for applying the laboratory data to the numerical modeling and to calibrate the rheological parameters; - Verify the methodologies identified through a performance analysis of numerical simulations of real and well documented debris flows. Initially, the objectives have been pursued through a literature review focused, in particular, on the methodologies for analyzing debris-flow behaviors. In the following laboratory investigation, the results of two different tools are displayed: the vane spindle rheometer Brookfield DVIII Ultra and the tilting plane rheometer of the Institute for Hydrological and Geological Protection of the Italian Research Council (CNR IRPI) (D’Agostino and Cesca, 2009-a; D’Agostino et al., 2010). Moreover, a standard and easily repeatable procedure, based on the two-dimensional simplification suggested by Hungr (1995), is proposed to estimate the mean basal shear stress, which develops during the runout phase. Interesting considerations about flow regime and depositional features have been achieved thanks to the velocity recorded in the tilting plane laboratory test. Considering the definition of procedures to calibrate the rheological parameters, two approaches have been proposed. The first is based on the tilting plane rheometer results while the second uses the relation between magnitude and debris-flow mobility (Rickenmann, 1999; Lorente et al., 2003) and a specifically-shaped index. In the last part of the research work, a performance analysis about two monophasic numerical models is presented. The compared models are FLO-2D (O’Brien et al., 1993) and RAMMS (Rapid Mass MovementS, Christen et al. 2010). The models have been tested in the simulation of some debris flows with heterogeneous characteristics: different rheological behavior, magnitude and topographic situation. The efficiency of the laboratory tests in the calibration of the rheological parameters of the model has been also investigated through this performance analysis. The output of the model has been assessed through two indexes: the first analyzes the positive accuracy (Scheidl e Rickenmann, 2010), whereas the second expresses the model efficiency quantifying the excess deposit simulation.
Abstract A laboratory device is proposed to assess the basal shear stresses generated by debris-f... more Abstract A laboratory device is proposed to assess the basal shear stresses generated by debris-flow mixtures during their runout phase. The device consists of an inclinable box with a gate facing a deposition plane. The box is filled with a selected debris-flow mixture, and after sudden opening of the gate, the features of the dam-break deposit can be measured. Based on some simplified assumptions of the energy balance, a methodology is proposed to assess basal shear stresses. The device has been tested using sediment samples from debris-flow deposits generated by two catchments of the Dolomites (Cortina d'Ampezzo, Belluno, Italy) by carrying out runout tests for different sediment concentrations by volume. The results show how the static Coulomb friction law is valid in the runout phase, with friction angles on the order of the angle of repose of the same material in dry conditions. The data elaboration also yields an innovative constitutive equation for shear stresses. This relation merges the Coulomb mixture approach with the concept of a one-phase flow with a certain rheology. This integration offers a useful insight into the weaknesses of the rheological approach if it is not properly scaled up to the ambient pressure of interest.
Debris flow is a gravity-driven process, which is characterized by a travelling dense surge inclu... more Debris flow is a gravity-driven process, which is characterized by a travelling dense surge including large boulders, and it is followed by a more fluid tail. These characteristics make difficult the measurement of the mean flow velocity by means of common hydraulic techniques. Different methods can be used at real scale and small-scale to measure the front velocity but a dedicate comparison between available methods is still lacking. This research aims to compare the front velocity measurements in the transport zone of a miniature debris flow using three devices: i) a common digital video camera (29 frames per second); ii) a high speed thermo camera (60 fps); and iii) a laser photoelectric sensors system. The statistical analysis of data has highlighted no significant differences exist between front velocities obtained by means of the video camera and the thermo camera, whereas photocells data statistically differ from those achieved via the other systems. Some lack of data recorde...
Windstorms represent one of the main large-scale disturbances that shape the European landscape a... more Windstorms represent one of the main large-scale disturbances that shape the European landscape and influence its forest structure, so post-event restoration activities start to gain a major role in mountainous forest management. After a disturbance event, biological legacies may enhance or maintain multiple ecosystem services of mountain forests such as protection against natural hazards, biodiversity conservation, or erosion mitigation. However, the conservation of all these ecosystem services after stand-replacing events could go against traditional management practices, such as salvage logging. Thus far, the impact of salvage logging and removal of biological legacies on the protective function of mountain stands has been poorly studied. Structural biological legacies may provide protection for natural regeneration and may also increase the terrain roughness providing a shielding effect against gravitational hazards like rockfall. The aim of this project is to understand the dyn...
Large wood (LW) represents one of the main problem for risk prediction in Alpine streams mostly b... more Large wood (LW) represents one of the main problem for risk prediction in Alpine streams mostly because of its potential to clog bridges, culverts and narrow sections during flood events. To prevent wood from reaching critical sections, since long time wood-trapping structures, along with the periodic removal of mature riparian vegetation and in-channel wood, have been built in the European Alps and in Japan (Lange and Bezzola, 2006). However, the overall efficiency and thus the “success” of such structural measures depend on many factors which include LW volumes and rates, timing of LW transport during the flood, individual LW size, interaction between bed, LW and sediment in the proximity of the structure, structure location and orientation with respect to the flow, structure geometry, and local flow characteristics (Rimbock, 2004). It is thus evident how designing an efficient system for wood retention is not an easy task. The main goal of the paper is to describe a rational proc...
This research project aims to compare and evaluate different survey methods for the data collecti... more This research project aims to compare and evaluate different survey methods for the data collection targeted to the characterization of a rockfall protection forest. The types of survey analyzed are: i) a traditional forest survey; ii) a mobile laser scanner survey; and (iii) a UAV photogrammetric survey. The results show how the examined remote sensing techniques can be a valuable tool to support data collection, because less time-consuming than traditional techniques, and for the improvement of the personnel safety conditions otherwise operating in critical areas affected to natural hazards (falling rocks in the case study considered).
As a consequence of climate change, the impact of pluvial flooding is expected to increase in the... more As a consequence of climate change, the impact of pluvial flooding is expected to increase in the next decades. Despite citizens’ poor knowledge, several types of stormwater infrastructure can be implemented to mitigate the impact of future events. This paper focuses on the implementation of green and grey stormwater interventions (i.e., with or without vegetation) on private properties. Framed by the Protection Motivation Theory, a survey-based case study analysis, carried out in a pluvial flooding-prone area of the Veneto Region (Italy), highlights the main factors driving people’s willingness to implement these interventions. The analysis shows that the implementation of grey stormwater infrastructures is driven by the perceived threat and the amount of past pluvial flooding damage (i.e., the direct experience as a proxy of prior knowledge) while the implementation of green stormwater infrastructures is driven also by additional factors (awareness of these interventions, age and ...
Different mitigation measures with vegetation have been proposed to sustainably manage rainwater,... more Different mitigation measures with vegetation have been proposed to sustainably manage rainwater, among which green roofs have demonstrated to be a valid solution in urbanized areas. Green roofs have gained interest also in Italy, but their spreading is generally based on application of ready-to-use packages, poorly tested in the specific climate conditions. A study was carried out to evaluate the green roof solution most suitable in the humid, subtropical climate context of Veneto Plain (north-eastern Italy) to reduce outflow volumes from building roofs into the urban drainage systems. Twelve different microcosm combinations of extensive green roof (three plant mixtures × two substrates × two storage/drainage layers) were tested and compared with gravel (considered as a conventional flat roof with gravel ballast). The tested drainage/storage layers were a preformed layer in recycled HDPE (PL) and an expanded perlite mineral layer (ML), and the growth medium layers were recycled bri...
Worldwide, mountain forests represent a significant factor in reducing rockfall risk over long pe... more Worldwide, mountain forests represent a significant factor in reducing rockfall risk over long periods of time on large potential disposition areas. While the economic value of technical protection measures against rockfall can be clearly determined and their benefits indicated, there is no general consensus on the quantification of the protective effect of forests. Experience shows that wherever there is forest, the implementation of technical measures to reduce risk of rockfall might often be dispensable or cheaper, and large deforestations (e.g. after windthrows, forest fires, clear-cuts) often show an increased incidence of rockfall events. This study focussed on how the protective effect of a forest against rockfall can be quantified on an alpine transregional scale. We therefore estimated the runout length, in terms of the angle of reach, of 700 individual rockfall trajectories from 39 release areas from Austria, Germany, Italy and Slovenia. All recorded rockfall events passed...
Debris flows are one of the most common geomorphic processes in steep mountainous areas. The cont... more Debris flows are one of the most common geomorphic processes in steep mountainous areas. The control of their propagation on alluvial fans is fundamental; valley bottoms are usually characterised by high damage potential because they contain concentrations of inhabitants and infrastructure. It is well known that forests have a protective function in that they reduce the triggering of debris flows, as well as hinder their motion and promote deposition, but a quantitative assessment of these effects is still lacking. Using laboratory experiments that simulate debris-flow depositional processes, this research investigated the ability of forests to reduce debris-flow runout and depositional area. The experiments considered two different forest types, high forests and coppice forests, and four volumetric concentrations of sediment (0.50, 0.55, 0.60, and 0.65). The results confirmed that the sediment concentration of the flow is a key factor in determining the geometry of the deposits. On...
The role of green roofs in reducing drainage fluxes is known, but despite extensive analysis in t... more The role of green roofs in reducing drainage fluxes is known, but despite extensive analysis in the literature, methods to predict the hydrologic performance for a given green roof composition are scarce. These methods are useful for the hydraulic design and for planning regulations that impose specific hydrological responses. This research investigates on the prediction of the drainage fluxes produced below a green roof with initial water content equal to its water retention capacity (worst-case scenario). Laboratory tests were performed to analyse the rainfall-drainage relationship for green-roof and single components (growing media and drainage storage layers) under specific rainfall intensities. Two types of largely used drainage/storage layers and growth media were analysed, both singularly and in combination. The experiments consider two rainfall events lasting 10 min with constant intensity. The results indicate that the Curve Number (CN) method (U.S. Soil Conservation Servic...
Abstract A key objective in debris-flow hazard mitigation is the reduction of the potential depos... more Abstract A key objective in debris-flow hazard mitigation is the reduction of the potential depositional area in the fan. From this point of view, forested areas are able to provide a protective function hindering the flow motion and promoting the surge deposition. Despite extensive research on Alpine forests and their protective functions, relatively few studies in the literature have quantitatively focused on the relationship between debris-flow depositional features and vegetation. In light of the above, our research investigates how vegetation characteristics in the fan area interact with debris-flow deposition. Field investigations were carried out in two Alpine fans where debris-flow events occurred in the summer of 2012. By recording the characteristics of 1567 involved trees and the associated deposit thicknesses, this paper provides a data set that contributes to the improvement of the knowledge of these interaction processes. The integration of literature findings and the analysis of the collected dataset adds insights into the relationships between tree characteristics and the dynamics of debris flow during the runout path. The main results prove the capacity of the forest of uniformly promoting flow-energy dissipation, presence of high species diversity in debris-flow deposits when comparing disturbed and undisturbed forest stands, tree mortality largely affecting small diameters
This research focuses on small scale laboratory tools to characterize the rheological behavior of... more This research focuses on small scale laboratory tools to characterize the rheological behavior of the matrix (maximum diameter of sediment analyzed equal to 19 mm) of real debris flows affecting Eastern Italian Alps. The main aim is to define novel, easily reproducible and low-cost procedures that make available to a wider audience, in particular to the end users of numerical models, this kind of information. The research seeks therefore to delineate a connection between the laboratory data and the numerical models because, as mentioned by Calligaris and Zini (2012), the current main objective of debris-flow modeling is to clearly describe the input variables in order to better understand the formation of debris flow fans and to predict, mitigate or control the hazard posed by these phenomena to communities situated into the mountain areas. This research takes into account monophasic numerical models because of their widespread and proven efficiency (Rickenmann et al., 2006; Bisantino et al., 2009; Calligaris and Zini, 2012). Summarizing, the detailed aims of this research are: - Debris-flow behavior investigation through small scale laboratory tools and original and easily reproducible procedures; - Identify methodologies for applying the laboratory data to the numerical modeling and to calibrate the rheological parameters; - Verify the methodologies identified through a performance analysis of numerical simulations of real and well documented debris flows. Initially, the objectives have been pursued through a literature review focused, in particular, on the methodologies for analyzing debris-flow behaviors. In the following laboratory investigation, the results of two different tools are displayed: the vane spindle rheometer Brookfield DVIII Ultra and the tilting plane rheometer of the Institute for Hydrological and Geological Protection of the Italian Research Council (CNR IRPI) (D’Agostino and Cesca, 2009-a; D’Agostino et al., 2010). Moreover, a standard and easily repeatable procedure, based on the two-dimensional simplification suggested by Hungr (1995), is proposed to estimate the mean basal shear stress, which develops during the runout phase. Interesting considerations about flow regime and depositional features have been achieved thanks to the velocity recorded in the tilting plane laboratory test. Considering the definition of procedures to calibrate the rheological parameters, two approaches have been proposed. The first is based on the tilting plane rheometer results while the second uses the relation between magnitude and debris-flow mobility (Rickenmann, 1999; Lorente et al., 2003) and a specifically-shaped index. In the last part of the research work, a performance analysis about two monophasic numerical models is presented. The compared models are FLO-2D (O’Brien et al., 1993) and RAMMS (Rapid Mass MovementS, Christen et al. 2010). The models have been tested in the simulation of some debris flows with heterogeneous characteristics: different rheological behavior, magnitude and topographic situation. The efficiency of the laboratory tests in the calibration of the rheological parameters of the model has been also investigated through this performance analysis. The output of the model has been assessed through two indexes: the first analyzes the positive accuracy (Scheidl e Rickenmann, 2010), whereas the second expresses the model efficiency quantifying the excess deposit simulation.
Abstract A laboratory device is proposed to assess the basal shear stresses generated by debris-f... more Abstract A laboratory device is proposed to assess the basal shear stresses generated by debris-flow mixtures during their runout phase. The device consists of an inclinable box with a gate facing a deposition plane. The box is filled with a selected debris-flow mixture, and after sudden opening of the gate, the features of the dam-break deposit can be measured. Based on some simplified assumptions of the energy balance, a methodology is proposed to assess basal shear stresses. The device has been tested using sediment samples from debris-flow deposits generated by two catchments of the Dolomites (Cortina d'Ampezzo, Belluno, Italy) by carrying out runout tests for different sediment concentrations by volume. The results show how the static Coulomb friction law is valid in the runout phase, with friction angles on the order of the angle of repose of the same material in dry conditions. The data elaboration also yields an innovative constitutive equation for shear stresses. This relation merges the Coulomb mixture approach with the concept of a one-phase flow with a certain rheology. This integration offers a useful insight into the weaknesses of the rheological approach if it is not properly scaled up to the ambient pressure of interest.
Debris flow is a gravity-driven process, which is characterized by a travelling dense surge inclu... more Debris flow is a gravity-driven process, which is characterized by a travelling dense surge including large boulders, and it is followed by a more fluid tail. These characteristics make difficult the measurement of the mean flow velocity by means of common hydraulic techniques. Different methods can be used at real scale and small-scale to measure the front velocity but a dedicate comparison between available methods is still lacking. This research aims to compare the front velocity measurements in the transport zone of a miniature debris flow using three devices: i) a common digital video camera (29 frames per second); ii) a high speed thermo camera (60 fps); and iii) a laser photoelectric sensors system. The statistical analysis of data has highlighted no significant differences exist between front velocities obtained by means of the video camera and the thermo camera, whereas photocells data statistically differ from those achieved via the other systems. Some lack of data recorde...
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Papers by Francesco Bettella