Description and objectives

The identification and geomorphological characterization of catchments and slopes intersecting transportation corridors are crucial for quantifying their potential interaction with geo-hydrological phenomena such as flash floods and landslides. The proposed work involves the development and implementation of specific portable, automatic, and reproducible software modules for: (1) multi-scale delineation of catchments and slopes, (2) calculation of the time of concentration using an ensemble of empirical methods at each scale level, and (3) assessment of the stability of the identified slopes using statistical, conceptual, and physically based methods.

In (1), multi-scalarity is achieved through a delineation method for catchments and slope units nested across different scale levels, locally optimized using an adaptive algorithm. In (2), several equations available in the literature are used to determine times of concentration as a function of hydrographic network density, topography, and land cover. In (3), models calibrated at the national scale are specialized for individual slopes, and high-resolution physical models are applied to simulate rockfall and debris flow phenomena.

These three components represent core areas of expertise of the research group. The proposed objectives consist of variations of algorithms, software, and models that have been developed and extensively tested at the national level, using digital terrain models with a resolution of 10 m or higher.