Marco Dubbini

University of Bologna | UNIBO · Department of History Culture Civilization - Headquarters of Geography

Surface soil moisture is a key hydrologic state variable that greatly influences the global environment and human society. Its significant decrease in the Mediterranean region, registered since the 1950s, and expected to continue in the next century, threatens soil health and crops. Microwave remote sensing techniques are becoming a key tool for th...

David Glacier and Drygalski Ice Tongue are massive glaciers in Victoria Land, Antarctica. The ice from the East Antarctic Ice Sheet is drained through the former, and then discharged into the western Ross Sea through the latter. David Drygalski is the largest outlet glacier in Northern Victoria Land, floating kilometers out to sea. The floating and...

The occurrence of extreme windstorms and increasing heat and drought events induced by climate change leads to severe damage and stress in coniferous forests, making trees more vulnerable to spruce bark beetle infestations. The combination of abiotic and biotic disturbances in forests can cause drastic environmental and economic losses. The first s...

The occurrence of extreme windstorms and increasing heat and drought events induced by climate change leads to coniferous forests showing severe damage and stress and making trees more vulnerable to spruce bark beetle infestations. The combination of abiotic and biotic disturbances in forests can cause drastic environmental and economic losses. The...

Wetlands ecosystems support a significant percentage of the world’s biodiversity and also provide a number of ecological services, such as carbon sequestration. These fragile ecosystems need to be monitored over time in order to better understand the ecological dynamics and changes within. The study areas are the marshland of the Ostiglia and Busat...

In the originally published chapter “SAR and Multispectral Data Contribution to the Monitoring of Wetland Ecosystems Vulnerable to Climate Change” the first-last name order was erroneously reversed for all authors. This has been corrected.

The growing need for sustainable management approaches of crops and bare soils requires measurements at a multiple scale (space and time) field system level, which have become increasingly accurate. In this context, proximal and satellite remote sensing data cooperation seems good practice for the present and future. The primary purpose of this wor...

Plastic pollution has become one of the main global environmental emergencies. A considerable part of used plastics materials is dispersed or accumulated in the environment with a significant damaging impact on many terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.Artificial Intelligence has proven a fundamental approach in last years for the detection of plasti...

Marine animal forests are benthic communities dominated by sessile suspension feeders (such as sponges, corals, and bivalves) able to generate three-dimensional (3D) frameworks with high structural complexity. The biodiversity and functioning of marine animal forests are strictly related to their 3D complexity. The present paper aims at providing n...

In Antarctica, the severe climatic conditions and the thick ice sheet that covers the largest and most internal part of the continent make it particularly difficult to systematically carry out geophysical and geodetic observations on a continental scale. It prevents the comprehensive understanding of both the onshore and offshore geology as well as...

One of the most important ice-stream of the Victoria Land (VL) is the David Glacier, which produces 100 km long floating sea-ward ice tongues in the Ross Sea, the Drygalski Ice Tongue (DIT). The ice-tongue slides down into the sea increasing its velocity rates and together with ice-stream movement sometime produce characteristic ice-quakes. This pa...

A considerable amount of the plastics produced around the world is now dispersed throughout the environment, and in particular in aquatic ecosystems. This can have damaging consequences for plants, animals and human beings. This study investigates some approaches for detection and monitoring of plastics waste in river habitats through multispectral...

T&F Proofs – Not for Distribution - Unmanned Aerial System 89 The objective of this chapter is to acquaint the reader with the potentiality of UAS-based surveys on coastal environments through a discussion of examples available in the very recent literature and through the skills achieved by the authors in this field. After a short introduction on...

In recent years digital sensors have been successfully integrated on board Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) to assess crop vigour, vegetation coverage, and to quantify the 'green-ness' of foliage as indirect measurements of crop nitrogen status. The classical approach of precision agriculture has involved the use of multispectral sensors onboard UAV...

Coastal dunes provide the hinterland with natural protection from marine dynamics. The specialized plant species that constitute dune vegetation communities are descriptive of the dune evolution status, which in turn reveals the ongoing coastal dynamics. The aims of this paper were to demonstrate the applicability of a low-cost unmanned aerial syst...

In order to make inferences on the geodynamics of Antarctica, geodetic and gravimetric maps derived from past and new observations can be used. This paper provides new insights into the geodynamics of Antarctica by integrating data at regional and continental scales. In particular, signatures of geodynamic activity at a regional extent have been in...

Knowledge of spatial variation of vegetative vigour is essential for site-specific management and variable rate application. Specifically, precision viticulture requires continuous monitoring of the vigour due to the mutable condition during the year and to frequent treatments (10 to 15) during the growing season. Over the last few years, several s...

The object area of the study was analysed with a geographical and geo-archaeological approach, integrating the data by using geomatic techniques (Satellite Remote Sensing and Geographical Information System). The processing of the data of the high resolution Satellite images allowed us to discover that in the karst environment, like the one in whic...

The present paper explores the combination of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) photogrammetry and three-dimensional geomechanical modeling in the investigation of instability processes of long sectors of coastal rocky cliffs. The need of a reliable and detailed reconstruction of the geometry of the cliff surfaces, beside the geomechanical characteriza...

Within coastal systems, sand dunes are the only natural barriers able to counteract erosive processes. Since their equilibrium is often threatened by human activities and high vulnerability of the coastal environment, dunes require increasing attention and specific monitoring. Located between the mainland and the sea, dunes are unique residue habit...

The evolution of underwater photogrammetry allows to realize 3D models of submerged object and structures throughout the use of rapid and efficient procedures either in terms of data acquisition and data processing. These procedures are based on solutions that are applied using natural control points, signalized markers and tie points; the most com...

Multispectral imaging is a widely used remote sensing technique, whose applications range from agriculture to environmental monitoring, from food quality check to cultural heritage diagnostic. A variety of multispectral imaging sensors are available on the market, many of them designed to be mounted on different platform, especially small drones. T...

In recent years, the acquisition and analysis of multispectral data are gaining a growing interest and importance in agriculture. On the other hand, new technologies are opening up for the possibility of developing and implementing sensors with relatively small size and featuring high technical performances. Thanks to low weights and high signal to...

The new era of designing in architecture and civil engineering applications lies in the Building Information Modeling (BIM) approach, based on a 3D geometric model including a 3D database. This is easier for new constructions whereas, when dealing with existing buildings, the creation of the BIM is based on the accurate knowledge of the as-built co...

The feasibility of unmanned-aerial-vehicle-based photogrammetry was assessed for the reconstruction of high-resolution topography and geomorphic features of quarries by nadir and off-nadir imagery. The test site was a quarry located in the rural area of Turi (Bari, southern Italy). Two processing scenarios were created. Nadir images were initially...

Archaeologists can increasingly profit from digital elevation models for study and analysis of the actual landscape, which can contain signs of the past or mirror the ancient landscapes. From among the techniques available for such analyses, a photogrammetric method was chosen here that used images acquired by an unmanned aerial vehicle and involve...

Recent advances in automation of photogrammetric 3D modelling software packages have stimulated interest in reconstructing highly accurate 3D object geometry in unconventional environments such as underwater utilizing simple and low-cost camera systems. The accuracy of underwater 3D modelling is affected by more parameters than in single media case...

Recent advances in automation of photogrammetric 3D modelling software packages have stimulated interest in reconstructing highly accurate 3D object geometry in unconventional environments such as underwater utilizing simple and low-cost camera systems. The accuracy of underwater 3D modelling is affected by more parameters than in single media case...

Monitoring the time history of structures and infrastructures has always been an important area of application of geodetic and geomatic methods. Here we shall concentrate on the item of monitoring ancient buildings because, beyond its intrinsic interest, it provides a good illustration of some of the most recent monitoring techniques. Identifying t...

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV)-based remote sensing offers great possibilities to acquire in a fast and easy way field data for precision agriculture applications. This field of study is rapidly increasing due to the benefits and advantages for farm resources management, particularly for studying crop health. This paper reports some experiences rel...

The 3D reconstruction with a metric content of a submerged area, where objects and structures of archaeological interest are found, could play an important role in the research and study activities and even in the digitization of the cultural heritage. The reconstruction of 3D object, of interest for archaeologists, constitutes a starting point in...

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV)-based remote sensing offers great possibilities to acquire in a fast and easy way field data for precision agriculture applications. This field of study is rapidly increasing due to the benefits and advantages for farm resources management, particularly for studying crop health. This paper reports some experiences rel...

Within the Italian Antarctic research programme repeated GPS-measurements are being carried out at well installed points in the area of Northern-Victoria-Land (NVL), Antarctica, called VLNDEF: Victoria Land Network for Deformation Control. Although the deformations obtained over a period of 4 years are quite small we consider micro-gravity measurem...

The availability of high-resolution Digital Surface Models of coastal environments is of increasing interest for scientists involved in the study of the coastal system processes. Among the range of terrestrial and aerial methods available to produce such a dataset, this study tests the utility of the Structure from Motion (SfM) approach to low-alti...

Satellite images are a tool increasingly used in environmental monitoring and in recent years have become also strongly used in the field of archaeology. In this study it was conducted an experimental analysis on the identification of wetlands from satellite images in order to identify sites of interest from the archaeological point of view because...

Among the many open-source software solutions recently developed for the extraction of point clouds from a set of un-oriented images, the photogrammetric tools Apero and MicMac (IGN, Institut Géographique National) aim to distinguish themselves by focusing on the accuracy and the metric content of the final result. This paper firstly aims at assess...

L’attività solare si trova in un periodo di rapida crescita all’interno di un ciclo periodico della durata di 11 anni. Il campo magnetico terrestre ne è influenzato e con esso l’equilibrio dello strato superiore dell’atmosfera terrestre, la ionosfera, dove la propagazione dei segnali GNSS subisce i ben noti fenomeni di rifrazione. Considerato l’ult...

During the Antarctic Italian expedition carried out in 1999 a geodetic network was materialized on rocky outcrops throughout the Northern Victoria Land (NVL), Antarctica. The project, named VLNDEF (Victoria Land Network for DEFormation control), started with the goal to detect neotectonic phenomena present in the region and to supply metrical infor...

A semipermanent Global Positioning System (GPS) network of 30 vertices known as the Victoria Land Network for Deformation Control (VLNDEF) was set up in the Austral summer of 1998 in northern Victoria Land (NVL), including Terra Nova Bay (TNB), Antarctica. The locations were selected according to the known Cenozoic fault framework, which is charact...

A semi-permanent global positioning system (GPS) network of 30 vertices known as the Victoria Land Network for Deformation Control (VLNDEF) was set-up in the Austral summer of 1998 in Northern Victoria Land (NVL), including Terra Nova Bay (TNB), Antarctica. The locations were selected according to the known Cenozoic fault framework that is characte...

A private network of 133 Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) permanent sites, named ItalPoS (Italian Positioning Service) and uniformly covering the entire Italian territory, was established in April 2006 by the Italian Division of Leica Geosystems S.p.A. This network also involves several GPS stations of the INGV (Italian National Institute...

SUMMARY We had the opportunity to make surveying of some middle age towers located in Emilia Romagna region (Italy): Ghirlandina tower (Modena), "Della Sagra" tower (Carpi, Modena) , Asinelli tower (Bologna). Those towers are very interesting by architectural and artistic point of view; Ghirlandina and Asinelli are Cultural Heritage site of UNESCO....

Precision farming, sometimes called site-specific agriculture, is a strategic task for agriculture: indeed it has the potential to reduce costs through more efficient and effective applications of crop inputs; it can also reduce environmental impacts by allowing farmers to apply inputs only where they are needed at the appropriate rate. Precision f...

Abstract A semi-permanent GPS network of about 30 vertices: Victoria Land Network for DEFormation control (VLNDEF) has been set up since Austral summer 1998 at Terra Nova Bay (TNB) near Ross Sea in Antarctica. A permanent GPS station TNB1 based on dual frequency Ashtech P-code GPS receiver with a Choke Ring Antenna has been installed on a bedrock m...

Scientific investigations in Antarctica are, for many different reasons, a challenging and fascinating task. Measurements, observations and field operations must be carefully planned well in advance and the capacity of successfully meeting the goals of a scientific project is often related to the capacity of forecasting and anticipating the many di...

Ice streams play a major role in the ice mass balance and in the reckoning of the global sea level; they have therefore been object of wide scientific interest in the last three decades. During the 21st Italian Antarctic Expedition, in the austral summer 2005–06, we deployed a joint seismographic and geodetic network in the area of the David Glacie...

During the 2005-06 Austral Summer, we carried out a joint observational campaign in the area of the David Glacier, South Victoria Land, with the aim of collecting simultaneous time series of geodetic and seismological data. We installed 7 temporary seismographic stations on rock outcrops surrounding the glacier and 3 temporary geodetic stations bot...

Ice streams play a major role in the ice mass balance and in the reckoning of the global sea level; they have therefore been the object of wide scientific interest in the last three decades. During the 21st Italian Antarctic Expedition, in the austral summer 2005-06, we deployed a joint seismographic and geodetic network in the area of the David Gl...

Photogrammetry and laser scanning, thanks to significant development in last years, are comparable surveying techniques to generate -without object contact and with a precision commensurate with scale -Digital Terrain Models (DTMs), a fundamental tool to detect, classify and monitoring landslides. The traditional way to survey the territory for lan...

The Neapolitan volcanic district is one of the most important volcanic areas in Italy; for this reason, it is regularly monitored using different geodetical and surveying methods. The aim of using laser scanning in this area is to evaluate the possibilities to get a good quality DTM (Digital Terrain Model) for different applications. Therefore, som...

edited by A. K. Cooper and C. R. Raymond et al., USGS Open-File Report 2007–1047 Abstract A semi-permanent GPS network of about 30 vertices has been installed at Terra Nova Bay (TNB) near Ross Sea in Antarctica. A permanent GPS station TNB1 based on an Ashtech Z-XII dual frequency P-code GPS receiver with ASH700936D_M Choke Ring Antenna has been mo...

The Italian geodetic observatory in Antarctica is operating continuously since 1998, in this year it was installed the permanent GPS station TNB1 near the Italian Antarctic station MZS (Mario Zucchelli Station). In the following years, the geodetic infrastructure has been expanded with the installation of about 30 benchmarks in the area of Northern...