Fabio Villa

Imageo Srl

In order to assess the climate–glacier relationship in the Southern European Alps, two small glaciers in Lombardy, Suretta Sud and Lupo, have been chosen for investigation. GPS profiling in 2016 allowed the determination of elevation changes since 2007 and thus the determination of the glacier mass balance using the geodetic method. Older maps have...

The Ciardoney Glacier (southern side of Gran Paradiso range, Piedmont, Italy) has been continuously monitored though frontal variations measurements since 1986 and mass balance since 1992. As other alpine glaciers it is rapidly retreating: its front retired by 430 m in 1971-2016 period, and mass losses increased from -103 m/yr w.e. in 1992-2002 to...

Thanks to the improvement of surveying equipments, i.e. Terrestrial Laser Scanners (TLS) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), dense point clouds and very precise 3D models of inaccessible rock cliffs can be obtained. Both commercial and self-developed data processing software packages allow the extraction of some parameters regarding discontinuity s...

The article illustrates an environmentally sustainable urban project developed in the city of Vigevano (Italy), example of a new form of planning which tends to restrict the territorial development that involves soil consumption and reduction of natural areas, especially in the fringes where the city faces to open areas. The goal is the sustainable...

The Monte Rosa east face (Macugnaga, Italian Alps) is one of the highest flanks in the Alps. Steep hanging glaciers and permafrost cover large parts of the wall. Since the end of the Little Ice Age (about 1850) the Monte Rosa east face is undergoing a progressive reduction of its ice cover; moreover new instability phenomena related to permafrost d...

Negli ultimi decenni la geografia del glacialismo montano del nostro pianeta è drasticamente mutata. Come accade un po’ ovunque, anche per i ghiacciai lombardi è in corso un rapido adattamento a condizioni climatiche che, sempre più negative, ne mettono a repentaglio la stessa sopravvivenza. Decine di unità glaciali estinte, forti contrazioni areal...

The regional mass balance project aims to estimate the mass balance of Lombardy glaciers (Central Alps, Italy) over the survey period 2007-2011. A network of 52 stakes was established, where measurements were taken yearly. The network was designed to cover 15 of the largest glaciers within the region, as well as to inspect all the glaciarized mount...

The aim of this project is to estimate the total amount of meltwater produced yearly by Lombardy glaciers. In 2007 a 48-ablatometric-stake network has been positioned on 15 glaciers, which are intended to be representative of 8 ranges of elevation. The total amount of meltwater released by every glacial sector was measured for the years 2007, 2008...

The results of a dGPS assisted Ground Penetrating Radar survey made on Rutor Glacier (Aosta Valley, Italy) are discussed in this paper. The aim of the survey was to quantify the ice thickness and estimate the total glacier volume. The upper part of the basin was surveyed in 1996; in July 2006 this Survey was completed in the lower part too. After t...

Glaciers are an important economic and natural resource to be protected. It is important to develop new techniques for surveying and monitoring glacial bodies that are generally and rapidly retreating due to present climate conditions linked to global warming. Terminus variations in Italian Alpine Glaciers are traditionally determined yearly by mea...

Alpine glaciers dynamics may serve as an indicator of Climate Change. In the Alps glaciers are strongly related to environmental and economic factors, but also to touristic ones. Since some years, a geodatabase containing data related to some test glaciers evolution since Little Ice Age to present day in the Western Italian Alps, is being developed...