Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra

 

Information on the service

The Poggio Baldi laboratory is an experimental and permanent natural monitoring site for the homonymous landslide. The lab is managed by the Department of Earth Sciences of the Sapienza University of Rome and it is framed in the project “Dipartimento di Eccellenza per le Scienze della Terra” (Sapienza University of Rome – Years 2018-2022) funded by MUR. The lab is also supported by NHAZCA Srl, start-up of the Sapienza University.
 
The lab employs the most advanced remote sensing tools in order to monitor the activity of the main rock scarp, which is often source of rockfalls, and the related debris talus at the toe. The permanent lab officially starts on October 26, 2021 with the installation of a fully-fledged, energy-independent wooden structure that allow the continuous monitoring 24 hours a day, remotely accessible and manageable.
 
Le prime attività di monitoraggio risalgono all'aprile 2015, quando sono state avviate campagne di monitoraggio geomorfologico a breve termine dal Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra dell'Università Sapienza con cadenza annuale. Nel corso del tempo, il laboratorio si è arricchito di altri strumenti e di partner e sponsor che hanno trovato nel laboratorio naturale della frana di Poggio Baldi il luogo ideale per testare i loro strumenti sperimentali per la valutazione e il monitoraggio frane.
 
The first monitoring activities date back to April 2015, when short-term geomorphological monitoring campaigns were initiated by the Department of Earth Science of Sapienza University with an annual basis. Over time, the lab has been supplied with more instruments as well as partners and sponsors who find the natural laboratory of the Poggio Baldi landslide the ideal place to test their experimental instruments for landslide assessment and monitoring.
Click here to learn more about the Lab.

 

Team

The Poggio Baldi Lab research team consists of professors, researchers and PhD students from the DST, CERI and the start-up NHAZCA srl. The scientific head of the monitoring Lab is Prof. Paolo Mazzanti.

 

Monitoring Devices

• Interferometric Radar
• Doppler Radar
• Terrestrial Laser Scanner
• Drone Surveying
• Flat Mesh 4G Camera
• Thermal Camera
• Phonometer
• Gigapixel Robotic Head
• Weather Station
• Triaxial Geophone
• Dataloggers.

 

Research Activities

Since 2015 at the Poggio Baldi Experimental Site, many researchers, and leading companies in the production of geotechnical and geomatic monitoring instrumentation have been meeting annually with the technical and scientific community for live, in-field demonstrations of their technologies. Moreover, in the Poggio Baldi area many surveys and investigations have been carried out using modern remote sensing techniques, in order to acquire as much information as possible about the active gravitational processes. Specifically, the activities carried out are as follows:

• multi-temporal and multi-station surveys with Terrestrial Laser Scanner (TLS)
• surveys by Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)
• photogrammetric surveys by SAPR platform (Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems)
• Gigapixel surveys by robotic head for camera
• Photomonitoring with 4G cameras
• monitoring by Terrestrial SAR Interferometry (TInSAR).

With the establishment of the permanent monitoring site, the lab is now completely autonomous in terms of energy supply and data acquisition. To date, the lab provides continuous acoustic measurements, optical images every 10 minutes, doppler radar data and meteorological data.

 

Didactics

The activities of the Poggio Baldi Lab have also been conducted as part of PhD, Master’s and Bachelor’s theses, as well as during internships of student from universities abroad.
The Poggio Baldi Lab’s activities have led to the publication of several research articles on national and international journals and the presentation of contributions to conferences.
The Poggio Baldi Lab is part of didactic courses for Master’s students and its activities have been presented by various media (RAI NEWS).
In addition, the laboratory was selected to host an educational excursion during the World Landslide Forum 2023 (wlf6.org).

 

Some photos from the Lab

Overview of the Poggio Baldi landslide with the homonymous monitoring laboratory.

Top view of the Poggio Baldi monitoring laboratory and details of the installed monitoring sensors.

Inauguration of the Poggio Baldi permanent natural laboratory at the presence of the Magnificent Rector Antonella Polimeni and the mayor of Santa Sofia (FC) Daniele Valbonesi.

Educational and outreach activities during the open day held on 2022 May with professionals and university students who came to visit the Laboratory.