Assessing the effect of the Vaia storm on sediment source areas and connectivity storm in the Liera catchment (Dolomites)

Extreme meteorological events are important causes of environmental damages, particularly in mountain areas that can be heavily affected by destructive processes such as landslides and debris flows. From 27 and 30 October 2018, an extraordinary storm - named Vaia - hit Northeastern Italy. The Vaia storm triggered mass wasting processes, generated new slope instabilities, caused widespread windthrows, and damaged human infrastructure. This work aims at assessing the effect of the Vaia storm in the Liera Torrent basin (Venetian Dolomites, Italy), by building and comparing sediment source inventories before and after the Vaia storm. The Liera basin drains an area of 35 km² and elevation ranges between 976 and 3192 m a.s.l. The mapping and classification of the sediment sources have been carried out through the interpretation of high-resolution orthophotos and Digital Terrain Models (DTMs) derived from airborne LiDAR data (1-m resolution) acquired in 2015 and 2019. A topography-based index of sediment connectivity has been applied to characterize connectivity spatial patterns at catchment scale and identifying the sediment sources on the hillslopes effectively connected to the Liera torrent. A preliminary connectivity analysis showed that the upstream sector the catchment located in the Pale di San Martino plateau is not effectively connected to the lower Liera valley because of its karstic environment and debris originated from the highest portion of the relief are confined in a hollow. Thus the inventories have been limited to the medium and lower parts of the catchment considering an area of 20 km². Results indicated a total of 1650 sediment source areas after the Vaia event, with an areal increase of about 20% with respect to 2015 inventory, especially due to the development of landslide (843 in total for the 2019 inventory), expansion of the debris flow channel (257) and areas subject to surficial erosion (127). Other areas that have been identified encompass debris flow deposit (288), rock fall deposit (31), stream bank erosion (45), and other sediment source areas which need field survey to be properly classified (59). The analysis allowed: (1) obtaining reliable and detailed pre- and post- event sediment sources inventories, (2) assessing sediment connectivity at the catchment scale, which is fundamental for estimating the contribution of sediment sources and related transfer paths, (3) improving sediment dynamics understanding related to the Vaia storm in the study area. Future analysis will focus on field validation and residual sediment availability for the investigated areas. This study was carried out in the frame of the Interreg V-A Italy - Austria SedInOut project.