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The highest rock wall in the Alps – the Monte Rosa East Face on the border between Italy and Switzerland – has for the first time been surveyed three-dimensionally with high precision. An international research team from the universities of Milan, Prague and Heidelberg has taken more than 3,000 high-resolution photos from a helicopter. Using a special method, a detailed 3D model is now emerging. With its assistance, the researchers want to understand changes of the Belvedere Glacier situated below the steep face and to investigate the impacts of climate change on the rock face and hanging glaciers.
Press Release
Heidelberg, 24. September
3D Model of Highest Steep Face in the Alps
International research team with Heidelberg participation surveys the Monte Rosa East Face with high-resolution helicopter images
The highest rock wall in the Alps – the Monte Rosa East Face on the border between Italy and Switzerland – has for the first time been surveyed three-dimensionally with high precision. An international research team from the universities of Milan, Prague and Heidelberg has taken more than 3,000 high-resolution photos from a helicopter. Using a special method, a detailed 3D model is now emerging. With its assistance, the researchers want to understand changes of the Belvedere Glacier situated below the steep face and to investigate the impacts of climate change on the rock face and hanging glaciers. Starting with glacier studies, the range of topics extends from exploring landscape development to examining geomorphological forms to analyzing potential natural hazards.
“Using GPS devices, along with images taken from satellites, planes and drones, we were able to survey and map the middle and lower part of the debris-covered Belvedere Glacier in the valley. But this had not yet been possible in the area of Monte Rosa’s eastern face due to its extreme steepness,” explains Prof. Dr Marcus Nüsser from the South Asia Institute (SAI) of Heidelberg University. That is why the researchers opted for the method of “structure from motion” photogrammetry. Overlapping photos are taken from differing perspectives – in multi-view stereo. A high-resolution 3D model of the terrain is emerging from this data with the aid of photogrammetry software. “Photos taken from a helicopter are particularly suited to that method because they enable us to document even largely inaccessible rock areas and hanging glaciers in detail,” says the Heidelberg geographer.
The scientists have been studying the Belvedere Glacier below the eastern face of the Monte Rosa massif for some years now. “Major and recurrent events such as rockfall, mudslides and flooding have recently shown how dynamic this high mountain region is. As the glaciers retreat and permafrost melts, the risks continue to increase in the course of climate change,” Prof. Nüsser explains. With the 3D terrain model, the glacier dynamics and impacts of climate change can now be mapped out with high precision. Using a professional camera system, Marcus Nüsser took the helicopter photos with his SAI colleague Dr Susanne Schmidt and Prof. Dr Jan Kropáček from Charles University in Prague. In addition, Kushagra Metha, a master’s student at the South Asia Institute, recorded the flight with a video camera.
The current studies are being funded by the 4EU+ European University Alliance. The Alliance has allocated resources for the research from its SEED4EU+ program, which finances cross-university projects at the eight partner universities. In the context of the whole project, led by Prof. Dr Lukáš Brodský (Prague), Prof. Dr Irene Maria Bollati (Milan) and Prof. Dr Marcus Nüsser, joint field studies and regular project meetings have taken place in the last few years on the topic of glacier development and natural hazards. In that context, they also produced an issue of the journal AUC Geographica on the topic of the Belvedere Glacier.
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https://www.sai.uni-heidelberg.de/de/node/598
https://karolinum.cz/en/journal/auc-geographica/year-59/issue-2
More than 3,000 high-resolution photos of the Monte Rosa East Face were taken from a helicopter. Usi ...
Source: Marcus Nüsser
Copyright: Marcus Nüsser
Criteria of this press release:
Journalists
Environment / ecology, Geosciences, Oceanology / climate
transregional, national
Research projects, Research results
English
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