Federico Raspini

University of Florence | UNIFI · Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra

The Massarosa wildfire, which occurred in July 2022 in Northwestern Tuscany (Italy), burned over 800 hectares, leading to significant environmental and geomorphological issues, including an increase in soil erosion rates. This study applied the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) model to estimate soil erosion rates with a multi-temporal a...

Spaceborne-based monitoring for environmental purposes has become a well-established practice. The recent progress of synthetic aperture radar (SAR) sensors, including through the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Sentinel-1 constellation, has enabled the scientific community to identify and monitor several geohazards, including subsidence ground defor...

Tajikistan is an area characterized by several lakes created after rockfalls and moraine deposits collapsed due to its geographic position on the collisional area of the Euro-Asian and Indian tectonic plates. In 1911, a violent earthquake generated the Usoi dam, which led to the creation of Lake Sarez. The purpose of the article is to provide an ov...

Steep alpine rock slopes undergoing deformation may give rise to concurrent landslide hazards of different type and magnitude. The underlying mechanisms of instability are often challenging to investigate due to their inherent complexity; furthermore, they can occur on poorly accessible terrain, preventing the collection of data by means of traditi...

A continuous monitoring system of ground deformation, based on radar images acquired by ESA (European Space Agency) Sentinel-1 constellation, is active over the Tuscany Region (Central Italy). The potential of repeat-pass satellite SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) interferometry has been exploited to investigate spatial patterns and temporal evolutio...

The redaction of landslide inventory is a fundamental task for risk management and territorial planning activities. The availability of synthetic aperture radar imagery, especially after the launch of Sentinel-1 mission, enables to systematically update landslide inventories covering wide areas in a reduced time frame and at different scales of ana...

Landslides are widespread occurrences that can become catastrophic when they occur near settlements and infrastructure. Detection, monitoring and prediction are fundamental to managing landslide risks and often rely on remote-sensing techniques (RSTs) that include the observation of Earth from space, laser scanning and ground-based interferometry....

The problem of soil erosion is a current issue, especially in hilly and mountainous areas where the driving force is surface runoff, able to mobilize large amounts of sediment that may be delivered to rivers. This process must be considered in a context of climate change, where the number of extreme rainfall events is observed to increase, and thei...

The results of multi-interferometric processing applied to radar images acquired by the European Space Agency (ESA) Sentinel-1 constellation, obtained in the framework of the IPL (International Programme on Landslides) project n.221, are presented in this manuscript. The target area is the Hunza-Nagar River valley, a remote area in northern Pakista...

Landslides are a worldwide natural hazard that cause more damage and casualties than other hazards. Therefore, social and economic losses can be reduced through a landslide quantitative risk assessment (QRA). In the last two decades, many attempts of quantitative analysis on various scales have been performed; nevertheless, the major difficulty of...

This paper includes a critical review of the existing literature on the use of satellite SAR imagery for subsidence analysis. Land subsidence, related to multiple natural and human-induced processes, is observed globally in an increasing number of areas. Potentially leading to severe impacts on economics and the environment, subsidence has attracte...

Wide-area ground motion monitoring is nowadays achievable via advanced Differential Interferometry SAR (A-DInSAR) techniques which benefit from the availability of large sets of Copernicus Sentinel-1 images. However, it is of primary importance to implement automated solutions aimed at performing integrated analysis of large amounts of interferomet...

The rising availability of satellite-based multi-temporal interferometric datasets covering large areas of the Earth surface constitutes a huge asset in the context of operational workflows aimed at improving land risk assessment and management. In order to cost-effectively handle huge amount of data, we design a semi-automatic procedure to quickly...

Under the influence of climate change, permafrost landforms are sensitive to seasonal heave and contraction, thus exacerbating surface instability and fostering landslides as a consequence. In the pastureland of Zhimei on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (QTP), a typical earthflow has drawn significant attention through social media. However, detailed kno...

Landslides represent a serious worldwide hazard, especially in Italy, where exposure to hydrogeological risk is very high; for this reason, a landslide quantitative risk assessment (QRA) is crucial for risk management and for planning mitigation measures. In this study, we present and describe a novel methodological approach of QRA for slow-moving...

In Italy, three different operational continuous monitoring experiences based on the exploitation of Multi Temporal Synthetic Aperture Radar data (MTInSAR) Sentinel-1 data are here depicted, and the results obtained in one year have been analysed. Tuscany region (Central Italy) has been the first region to implement such service, followed by Valle...

Multi-temporal Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (MTInSAR) is a solid and reliable technique used to measure ground motion in many different environments. Today, the scientific community and a wide variety of users and stakeholders consider MTInSAR a precise tool for ground motion-related applications. The standard product of a MTInSAR analy...

One of the most efficient and cost-effective tools for landslide risk mitigation is often the setup of an early warning system (EWS). Even if the latter encompass both technical-scientific and social-economic topics, the focus of this note is on the monitoring and forecasting components of a slope-scale landslide EWS. In this framework, a landslide...

Landslide risk in Italy is one of the highest worldwide. The strategy to face this problem largely relies on early warning systems. A national early warning system based on weather forecast is regulated by a national law, although each of the twenty regions composing Italy has a high degree of autonomy. For example, in Emilia-Romagna Region, rainfa...

The UNESCO Chair on Prevention and Sustainable Management of Geo-Hydrological Hazards, Department of earth Sciences, University of Florence has been a member of the International Consortium on Landslides (ICL) since 2002 and was designated as one of World Centres of Excellence (WCoE) for Landslide Risk Reduction four times for 2008–2011, 2011–2014,...

On May 25th, 2016, following a massive water leakage from the city water supply pipeline a portion of the urbanized riverbank collapsed along the Arno River in the city centre of Florence (Italy), UNESCO World Heritage site. Understand the dynamics driving the landscape evolution (from the slope up to the riverbank) is useful to know the historical...

The potential of multi-interferometric approach applied to the Sentinel-1 acquisitions for the analysis of slope instabilities is presented and discussed through two different landslides of very different nature. In the first case, Sentinel-1 data, systematically acquired with short revisiting time and promptly processed allows for the quick identi...

A continuous monitoring system of ground deformation, based on radar images acquired by ESA (European Space Agency) Sentinel-1 constellation, is active over the Tuscany Region (Central Italy). The potential of repeat-pass satellite SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) interferometry has been exploited to investigate spatial patterns and temporal evolutio...

Several countries worldwide are funding large-scale programs to mitigate landslide risk by implementing engineering remedial works. However, the overall effectiveness of such measures is rarely monitored, and they are typically performed at the slope scale without fully exploiting the wide-area capabilities of remote sensing technologies. A multi-s...

Loess landslides are a severe engineering geological problem on the Loess Plateau of China. This study relies on interferometric synthetic aperture radar (InSAR) and unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) photogrammetry techniques to characterise a large-scale loess landslide deformation process in Northwest China. First, a total of 85 Sentinel-1 SAR images...

The launch of the medium resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Sentinel-1 constellation in 2014 has allowed public and private organizations to introduce SAR interferometry (InSAR) products as a valuable option in their monitoring systems. The massive stacks of displacement data resulting from the processing of large C-B and radar images can be...

Identification and classification of landslides is a preliminary and crucial work for landslide risk assessment and hazard mitigation. The exploitation of surface deformation velocity derived from satellite synthetic aperture radar interferometry (InSAR) is a consolidated and suitable procedure for the recognition of active landslides over wide are...

Information regarding the shape and depth of a landslide sliding surface (LSS) is fundamental for the estimation of the volume of the unstable masses, which in turn is of primary importance for the assessment of landslide magnitude and risk scenarios as well as in refining stability analyses. To assess an LSS is not an easy task and is generally ti...

Landslides recurrently impact the Italian territory, producing huge economic losses and casualties. Because of this, there is a large demand for monitoring tools to support landslide management strategies. Among the variety of remote sensing techniques, Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) has become one of the most widely applied for l...

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

In the last decade satellite remote sensing has become an effective tool for monitoring geo-hazard-induced ground motions, and has been increasingly used by the scientific community. Direct and indirect costs due to geo-hazards are currently rising, causing serious socio-economics and casualty losses. Therefore, creating a priority list turns out t...

Il presente lavoro è stato svolto nell’ambito dell’accordo “Attività di monitoraggio del rischio idrogeologico nel territorio della regione Toscana” stipulato il 06 dicembre 2017, ai sensi dell’art. 15 della legge 7 agosto 1990, n. 241, e dell’art. 6 della legge 24 febbraio 1992, n. 225, tra la Regione Toscana, il Dipartimento della Protezione Civi...

Il presente lavoro è stato svolto nell’ambito dell’accordo “Attività di monitoraggio del rischio idrogeologico nel territorio della regione Toscana” stipulato il 06 dicembre 2017, ai sensi dell’art. 15 della legge 7 agosto 1990, n. 241, e dell’art. 6 della legge 24 febbraio 1992, n. 225, tra la Regione Toscana, il Dipartimento della Protezione Civi...

We demonstrate the potential of satellite Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) to identify precursors to catastrophic slope failures. To date, early-warning has mostly relied on the availability of detailed, high-frequency data from sensors installed in situ. The same purpose could not be chased through spaceborne monitoring application...

This study aimed at evaluating and mapping Ground Subsidence Susceptibility (GSS) in the Grosseto plain (Tuscany Region, Italy) by exploiting multi-temporal satellite InSAR data and by applying two parallel approaches; a bivariate statistical analysis (Frequency Ratio) and a mathematical probabilistic model (Fuzzy Logic operator). The Grosseto plai...

The results of the continuous monitoring of ground deformation throughout the Tuscany region using radar images acquired by the Sentinel-1 satellite constellation of the European Space Agency (ESA) are presented here. This new monitoring approach, based on systematic imagery processing and analysis of deformation time series, is discussed at region...

Satellite interferometric data are widely exploited for ground motion monitoring thanks to their wide area coverage, cost efficiency and non-invasiveness. The launch of the Sentinel-1 constellation opened new horizons for interferometric applications, allowing the scientists to rethink the way in which these data are delivered, passing from a stati...

This work describes a new procedure aimed to semi-automatically identify clusters of active persistent scatterers and preliminarily associate them with different potential types of deformational processes over wide areas. This procedure consists of three main modules: (i) ADAfinder, aimed at the detection of Active Deformation Areas (ADA) using Per...

Landslides are considered to be one of the main natural geohazards causing relevant economic damages and social effects worldwide. Italy is one of the countries worldwide most affected by landslides; in the Region of Tuscany alone, more than 100,000 phenomena are known and mapped. The possibility to recognize, investigate, and monitor these phenome...

The 6-days repeatability of Sentinel-1 constellation allows building up an interferometric stack with unprecedented velocity. Easily updatable hot-spot analyses, frequently repeated following the update of Sentinel-1 images, represent very useful tools for MTInSAR (Multi-Temporal Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar) data analysis. Mountain reg...

The investigation of large landslides in high alpine environments is often hindered by the difficult accessibility of the mountainous terrain. Efforts are typically concentrated on the remote measurement of the surface displacements, in order to define the general slope dynamics and identify phases of increasing activity. The characterization of su...

Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (InSAR) techniques have been long exploited for detecting and mapping slow-moving ground surface displacements due to their millimeter accuracy, non-invasiveness and wide area coverage. A review on different applications of Persistent Scatterers InSAR approaches, proposed and applied over Tuscany region (Ital...

The use of InSAR (Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar) products has greatly increased in the last years because of the technological advances in terms of both acquisition sensors and processing algorithms. The development of multi-interferogram techniques and the availability of free SAR analysis tools has significantly increased the number of...

Subsidence phenomena, as well as landslides and floods, are one of the main geohazards affecting the Tuscany region (central Italy). The monitoring of related ground deformations plays a key role in their management to avoid problems for buildings and infrastructure. In this scenario, Earth observation offers a better solution in terms of costs and...

In the last decades, ground deformations were investigated, analysed and monitored using several methods. As a consequence of a spreading urbanization, several phenomena, e.g. landslide and subsidence, were emphasized or triggered causing not only socio-economic damages, but, in some cases, also casualties. The investigation and mapping of these ph...

We present the continuous monitoring of ground deformation at regional scale using ESA (European Space Agency) Sentinel-1constellation of satellites. We discuss this operational monitoring service through the case study of the Tuscany Region (Central Italy), selected due to its peculiar geological setting prone to ground instability phenomena. We s...

In this manuscript, an integrated strategy that exploits both phase and amplitude features of satellite SAR (synthetic aperture radar) images and ground data is proposed for deriving the deformation field induced by a complex landslide that affected part of the village of Ponzano (Abruzzi Region, Central Italy). The February 12, 2017, landslide was...

In this work the application of remote sensing for landslide detection and mapping is described. Among Earth Observation (EO) techniques optical and radar images are very effective tools for these applications since very high spatial resolution obtained by optical systems (currently in the order of tens of centimeters) and by the launching of Synth...

Post-event Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) analysis on a stack of 45 C-band SAR images acquired by the ESA Sentinel-1 satellites from 9 October 2014 to 19 June 2017 allowed the identification of a clear precursory deformation signal for the Maoxian landslide (Mao County, Sichuan Province, China). The landslide occurred in the early...

Landslide susceptibility maps (LSM) are frequently used by local authorities for land-use management and planning activities. They are valuable tools used by decision makers for urban and infrastructural plans and for civil protection purposes. False negative and false positive errors can affect the accuracy of a LSM, decreasing the reliability of...

Pre-event and event landslide deformations have been detected and measured for the landslide that occurred on December 3rd, 2013 on the south-western slope of the Montescaglioso village (Basilicata Region, Southern Italy). The event, triggered by 56 h of continuous rainfalls, produced a ground displacement of several meters and created significant...

In this work we exploited the potentialities of a multi-temporal and multi-band interferometric analysis to derive the pre and post event deformations in an area affected by a large complex landslide, mobilized the 12 February 2017, in the Abruzzo Region (Ponzano hamlet). C- and X-band SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) data, analyzed by means of the S...

Open image in new windowThe current availability of highly developed remote sensing technologies in the field of landslide detection, mapping and monitoring allows for rapid and easily updatable data acquisitions, improving the traditional investigation capabilities, even in hazardous or inaccessible areas, while granting at the same time the safet...

Open image in new windowIn the spring of 2013, the Parma Province (Northern Italy) was affected by a large number of landslides, as a result of heavy and persistent rainfall occurred between January and April. This resulted in the triggering of about 1400 mapped landslides, which caused severe damages. In particular, on April 6th 2013, a large land...

In this study, we present the detection and characterization of ground displacements in the urban area of Pisa (Central Italy) using Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) products. Thirty RADARSAT-2 and twenty-nine COSMO-SkyMed images have been analyzed with the Small BAseline Subset (SBAS) algorithm, in order to quantify the ground subs...

The potential of repeat-pass satellite SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) interferometry has been exploited to detect, map and characterize ground deformations in the western part of the Gulf of Corinth (Greece). The Gulf of Corinth separates the Peloponnesus from the continental Greece and the northern coast area of the Peloponnese peninsula is identi...