Improve our understanding of Rock Slope Failures using calving events

Project Information

Rockslope_failures

Grant agreement ID: 705215

DOI

10.3030/705215

Project terminated on 21 June 2018

EC signature date 7 March 2016

Start date 1 June 2016

End date 31 May 2018

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 183 454,80

EU contribution

€ 183 454,80

Coordinated by

THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
United Kingdom

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Rockslope_failures (Improve our understanding of Rock Slope Failures using calving events)

Reporting period: 2016-06-01 to 2018-05-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Glacier calving is one of the main processes generating ice loss from marine-terminating glaciers (and thus, contributing to sea level rise), nevertheless, there still exists a great incertitude concerning the processes that control and lead to iceberg formation and a full understanding of the dynamic processes shaping the termini of glacier fronts is still elusive. This epistemic uncertainty may be related not only to the highly non-linear dynamics of the calving phenomena, but also to the 2D nature and the limited spatial and temporal resolution of the techniques typically used for investigating the rapidly evolving glacier front.
Regular and accurate high-resolution measurements are required to quantify these processes and feedback, including both the possibility to identify the elusive existence of calving MF laws at specific regions and to capture the key spatial-temporal linkages between rates of ice calving, flow, surface lowering and frontal advance/retreat. To this end, a new generation of three-dimensional techniques and methods -such as Terrestrial Laser Scanner (TLS) and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV)- combined with powerful image processing workflows (e.g. Structure-From-Motion, SFM) will be used in this project.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

-2018.04 – KEYNOTE SPEAKER > EGU > High Resolution Topography in the Geosciences (Session GM2.2)
-2018.04 – KEYNOTE SPEAKER > EGU > Rockfalls, rockslides and rock avalanches (Session NH3.14). [*].
-2018.04 – CONFERENCE: EGU2018 + project meeting with project collaborators.
-2018.02 – PUBLICATION: Landslides Journal. A multidisciplinary approach for the investigation of a rock spreading on an urban slope.
-2018.02 – CAREER PROGRESSION: Accepted a lectureship in Engineering Geology + Geohazards at the School of Earth and Environment (Univ. Leeds) as the logical continuation of the Marie Curie fellowship.
-2017.12 - TRAINING ON TRANSFERABLE SKILLS (9h)
-2017.12 - PUBLICATION: Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences (EGU). Using street view imagery for 3-D survey of rock slope failures
-2017.11 – PUBLICATION: Landslides Journal. Rockfall Risk Management using a Pre-failure Deformation Database.
-2017.10 - TRAINING: European Space Agency (ESA) > Introduction to Radar Remote Sensing. Online open course
-2017.09 - SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE: Remote sensing and photogrammetry society conference (RSPSoc2017): London, UK
-2017.09 – BOOK CHAPTER: Mapping and Monitoring of Landslides using LiDAR. CRC Press.
-2017.07 – PUBLICATION: Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences (EGU). Reconstruction of a collapsed rock pillar from Web-retrieved images and terrestrial LiDAR data
-2017.07 – FIELDWORK CAMPAIGN IN GREENLAND (Summer 2017): Equipment installation + datasets successfully acquired. Support for photogrammetric surveys during RESPONDER ERC EU-H2020 project.
-2017.06 – SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE: IX National symposium in unstable slopes: Santander, Spain
-2017.06 – PUBLICATION: Geomorphology. The role of tectonics and slope tectonics on the occurrence of a rock avalanche at the Pampeanas ranges (Argentina).
-2017.06 - KEYNOTE SPEAKER > IX National symposium in unstable slopes: Santander, Spain. [*]
-2017.06 - KEYNOTE SPEAKER > 6th Interdisciplinary Workshop on Rockfall Protection
-2017.06 – CONFERENCE: Oral communication > Progressive Rock Slope Failure, Ascona, Switzerland, Switzerland
-2017.05 – PUBLICATION: Earth Surface Processes and Landforms (Wiley). Time-lapse structure-from-motion photogrammetry for continuous geomorphic monitoring.
-2017.05 - TRAINING: UK Polar Network Early career workshop - (6h) British Antarctic Survey
-2017.05 - SESSION CHAIRING: 6th Interdisciplinary workshop on rockfall Protection: Barcelona, Spain
-2017.05 – PUBLICATION: Earth Surface Dynamics (EGU). Automated Terrestrial Laser Scanning with Near Real-Time Change Detection – Monitoring of the Séchilienne Landslide.
-2017.05 – EDITORIAL BOARD > Computers & Geosciences – International Journal
-2017.04 – PUBLICATION: Landslides Journal. Calculation of the rockwall recession rate of a limestone cliff, affected by rockfalls, using cosmogenic chlorine-36
-2017.03 – TRAINING: Assessor for the examination of MPhil in Polar Studies, Department of Geography, Univ. Cambridge
-2017.02 - TRAINING: Remote Emergency Care (40h) - Advanced first aid and care during expeditions (this was a requirement during fieldwork in Greenland)
-2017 - TRAINING: Univ. Cambridge > (24.5h):
-2016.12 – PUBLICATION: Remote Sensing of Environment. Beyond 3D: the new spectrum of LiDAR applications for Earth and Ecological sciences.
-2016.12 – PhD ADVISOR: Nick. P. Toberg (Main supervisor: Poul Christoffersen).
-2016.12 – PhD ADVISOR: Thomas Chudley (Main supervisor: Poul Christoffersen).
-2016.10 - TRAINING: Elmer/Ice course: open-source, parallel, Finite Element code for solving glaciological problems. Univ. Oslo, Norway (22h)
-2016.10 – TALK: Invited Seminars @ Univ. Cambridge, Scott Polar Research Institute - Physical Sciences Seminar.
-2016.07 – PhD CO-SUPERVISION: Xabier Blanch (Co-supervisor w/M.Guinau).
-2016.06 – to 2016.12 (7.5h) - TRAINING: Univ. Cambridge > : 2016.12 > CVs and applications for academia (3h) | 2016.12 > Getting a lectureship (3.5h) | 2016/11 > Academic job market in the UK (1h).
[*Invitation dismissed due to incompatibility with previously acquired responsibilities]

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

-PROJECT OUTREACH (I): Some of the outcomes of the fieldwork campaign funded by this project were displayed in the exhibition “Uummannaq: A century of exploration in Greenland” that was hosted at the Scott Polar Research Institute. I participated in the exhibition by generating a series of panels and videos that were displayed both during the opening and during the during the 6 months exhibition (from Sept. 2017 to March 2018). One my videos was displayed was continuously displayed at the museum hall during the opening times (8 hours per day) and the other one was displayed on an iPad attached to the exhibition walls during the same period of time. The outreach was quantified by the museum curators in 24,260 visitors in the period that the exhibition was open together with 1,490 school children (38 groups) that visited the museum while the exhibition was on. The iceberg calving footage projected in the main hall of the museum is still being projected and will be displayed during several more months. Dr. Poul Christoffersen, contact person for the MC project at the host institution, leaded the exhibition through an ERC grant (RESPONDER: Resolving subglacial properties, hydrological networks and dynamic evolution of ice flow on the Greenland Ice Sheet). https://www.dropbox.com/s/eqivpzo8jns3thp/North2_video_timelapse_v5.mp4?dl=0

-PROJECT OUTREACH (II): Part of the footage acquired during the summer 2017 fieldwork campaign in Greenland was shared with the director of a documentary under-construction entitled "A day in the life of Earth", produced by a UK/Canada co-production (Screenglue productions and yap films). The director was interested in showing part of our time-lapse video showing glacier shifting and is currently editing the different scenes (TBC in summer 2018).

-SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACT AND WIDER SOCIETAL IMPLICATIONS: Part of the algorithms developed during the fellowship are being implemented on a real-time Early Warning System for the forecasting of rockslope failures in Norway (manuscript in preparation).

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