First field trip – June 17th

On June 17th, fieldwork activities were carried out in the Passeier valley. The field trip had several goals. The main one was to get familiar with the study area chosen for the physically-based approach of the landslide hazard assessment. Besides, getting the first soil samples to determine the hydrological and geotechnical parameters of the soil and testing out the equipment that will be used during the next field campaigns at the end of July.

The first stop was a meadow near Sankt Martin in Passeier on the south-facing hillside. After a very informative conversation with the landowner about previous landslides in the area, a Dynamic Cone Penetration Test (DCPT) was executed. The information from the DCPT can be used to determine the regolith depth, one of the most important parameters in the physically-based model. At one of the three test sites for the DCPT, a soil pit was dug to assess the soil structure and take soil samples from several depths.

The second stop was on the north-facing hillside, between Quellenhof and Neuhaus. A Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) acquisition was performed. This acquisition will be used to construct a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) with a high resolution. This DEM can be used to find signs of previous landslide occurrences among all its potential uses. It is known that several landslides occurred at the site in 2016; nevertheless, since the latest DEM is from 2014, this cannot be used for the 2016 event. Therefore, the DEM generated from the TLS will cover this gap.