• MONITORAGGIO DEI GHIACCIAI
• FOTOINTERPRETAZIONE
• CARTOGRAFIA STORICA
• SISTEMI INFORMATIVI GEOGRAFICI
• GLOBAL CHANGE

Abstract

Glaciers are a very important global climate change indicator and can be studied to understand ice and water processes acting on the Earth surface.
In this thesis glaciers situated in Val Martello have been analyzed for reconstructing their evolution and recent areal and volumetric. The time interval here considered ranges from the Little Ice Age (1850 AD) to 2012 AD. We applied an indirect methodology and is primarily based on the analysis of cartographic documents and aerophotographs from the end of the 19th Century to the present, integrated with a collection of photographs conservate in the historic archive of Italian Glaciological Committee (Comitato Glaciologico Italiano, CGI). The Little Ice Age limit derived from previously conducted field activity integrated by photointerpretative analysis.
In Val Martello there are twenty-six glaciers described in the "Catasto dei Ghiacciai Italiani" of CGI -CNR in 1962, but in 2012 remain only half of that. The reconstructed evolutionary trend shows a progressive and generalized reduction of glacial surfaces and volumes, with some positive advances around the ‘20s and the ‘80s; since the mid ‘90s the trend is markedly negative.
Data collected in this thesis represent an update of existing data and the constructed database should be used for future updates of extension of glaciers in Val Martello, in order to upgrade an Italian glaciers cadaster over time. This work represent a basic tool for monitoring global changes, for a correct and conscious management of renewable resources located in the Alps, for an evaluation of geomorphological hazard in high mountain area and should represent a basic document to be used for proper planning.