It is investigated whether a GIS-based distributed model developed for rockfall assessment at slope scale, which uses data with a support of 2.562.5 m, could be used for rockfall assessment at the regional scale, using input data with a support of 25625 m and of poorer quality. It was anticipated that in the latter case the model error would increase. Three types of simulations were applied to ...

Forests situated on slopes in mountainous areas can provide protection against natural hazards such as avalanches and rockfall. Quantifying this mitigating effect requires accurate mapping of forest stands and estimation of their dendrometric characteristics. However, steep terrain and lack of accessibility hamper field surveys. Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS) is a remote sensing technique whose ...

Seepage into drifts in unsaturated tuff is an important issue for the long-term performance of the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Drifts in which waste packages will be emplaced are subject to degradation in the form of rockfall from the drift ceiling, induced by stress-relief, seismic, or thermal effects. The objective of this study is to calculate seepage rates, ...

Since the collapse of the Dolomieu crater floor at Piton de la Fournaise Volcano (la Réunion) in 2007, hundreds of seismic signals generated by rockfalls have been recorded daily at the Observatoire Volcanologique du Piton de la Fournaise (OVPF). To study rockfall activity over a long period of time, automated methods are required to process the available continuous seismic records. We present ...

Rockfall protection barriers are connected to the ground using steel cables fixed with anchors and foundations for the steel posts. It is common practice to measure the forces in the cables, while to date measurements of forces in the foundations have been inadequately resolved. An overview is presented of existing methods to measure the loads on the post foundations of rockfall protection barr...

[1] The seismic signals of hundreds of rockfalls within Dolomieu crater, Piton de la Fournaise volcano, Réunion Island, have been analyzed to investigate a possible link between physical rockfall-generating processes and associated seismic signal features. Moreover, indirect observation of rockfalls via the seismic signals they generate can provide useful data for studying volcanoes and the tem...

After mechanical wounding, callus tissue and tangential rows of traumatic resin ducts (TRDs) are formed in many conifer species. This reaction can be used to date past events of geomorphic processes such as rockfall, debris flow and snow avalanches. However, only few points are known about the tangential spread or the timing of callus tissue and TRD formation after wounding. We analyzed 19 Lari...

[1] Exogenous growth of Peléean lava domes involves the addition of lava from a central summit vent and mass wasting on the flanks as rockfalls and pyroclastic flows. These processes were investigated at the Soufrière Hills Volcano, Montserrat, between 30 March and 10 April 2006, using a ground-based imaging millimeter-wave radar, AVTIS, to measure the shape of the dome and talus surface and ro...

Rockfall simulations are often performed at various levels of detail depending on the required safety margins rockfall-hazard-related assessments. As a pseudo benchmark, simulation results from different models can be put side-by-side and compared with reconstructed rockfall trajectories, mapped deposited block fragments real events. This allows for assessing objectivity, predictability, sensit...