Joint Terrestrial and Aerial Measurements to Study Ground Deformation: Application to the Sciara Del Fuoco at the Stromboli Volcano (Sicily)

The 2002–2003 Stromboli eruption triggered the failure of part of the Sciara del Fuoco slope, which generated a tsunami that struck the island and the northern coastline of Sicily. The Sciara del Fuoco is a very steep slope where all lava flows from the craters’ emplacement; most lateral eruptions usually take place from fissures propagating in this sector of the volcano. The eruption went on to produce a lava field that filled the area affected by the landslide. This in turn led to further instability, renewing the threat of another slope failure and a potentially related tsunami. This work describes a new joint approach, combining surveying data and aerial image correlometry methods, to study the motion of this unstable slope. The combination has the advantage of very precise surveying measurements, which can be considered the ground truth to constrain the very-high-resolution aerial photogrammetric data, thereby obtaining highly detailed and accurate ground deformation maps. The joint use of the two methods can be very useful to obtain a more complete image of the deformation field for monitoring dangerous and/or rather inaccessible places. The proposed combined methodology improves our ability to study and assess hazardous processes associated with significant ground deformation.