From theory to real-world geomatics applications: glacier monitoring fieldworks through an innovative teaching program

Applying skills gained from university courses marks a pivotal step in crafting engaging and innovative teaching methods (Balletti et al., 2023). Over its 10 editions, the Summer School hosted by Politecnico di Milano's Section of Geodesy and Geomatics, within the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, has consistently aimed to bridge the divide between theory and practice. Focused on instructing students in the design and execution of topographic surveys, particularly in environmentally challenging alpine regions impacted by climate change, this program ensures hands-on learning experiences.

The Summer School is framed within a long-term monitoring activity of the Belvedere Glacier, a temperate debris-covered alpine glacier, located in the Anzasca Valley (municipality of Macugnaga – Italy). Since 2015 annual in-situ GNSS and UAV photogrammetry surveys have been performed to derive accurate 3D models of surface of the entire glacier, allowing the derivation of its velocity and volume variations over the last decade. In a week-long program, undergraduate and graduate students in Engineering, Geoinformatics and Architecture are encouraged to collaborate, with the supervision of young tutors who are passionate about the topic, to develop effective strategies for designing in-situ measuring surveys, fostering problem solving and team-working. The teaching materials used to introduce key theoretical concepts as well as to guide students through practical exercises with processing software is made openly accessible online with a dedicated website built on top of an open-source GitHub repository (https://tars4815.github.io/belvedere-summer-school/), providing the groundwork for developing collaborative online teaching and expanding the material for other future learning experiences  (Potůčková et al., 2023).

Adding value to the experience, students also contribute to an ongoing project regarding the monitoring of the glacier (Ioli et al., 2021; https://labmgf.dica.polimi.it/projects/belvedere/), providing valuable insights on the recent evolution of the natural site. The 2D and 3D georeferenced products are indeed published in an existing public repository on Zenodo (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7842348), sharing results with a wider scientific community.

The valuable experience and outcomes from various Summer School editions led the organizing team to secure the EGU 2023 Higher Education teaching grant program. This opportunity facilitated enhancements to the teaching material and bolstered support for in-situ experiences.

Bibliography:

Balletti, C., Capra, A., Calantropio, A., Chiabrando, F., Colucci, E., Furfaro, G., Guastella, A., Guerra, F., Lingua, A., Matrone, F., Menna, F., Nocerino, E., Teppati Losè, L., Vernier, P., Visintini, D. (2023): The SUNRISE summer school: an innovative learning-by-doing experience for the documentation of archaeological heritage, Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci., XLVIII-M-2-2023, 147–154

Ioli, F., Bianchi, A., Cina, A., De Michele, C., Maschio, P., Passoni, D., Pinto, L. (2021). Mid-term monitoring of glacier’s variations with UAVs: The example of the belvedere glacier. Remote Sensing, 14(1), 28.

Potůčková, M., Albrechtová, J., Anders, K., Červená, L., Dvořák, J., Gryguc, K., Höfle, B., Hunt, L., Lhotáková, Z., Marcinkowska-Ochtyra, A., Mayr, A., Neuwirthová, E., Ochtyra, A., Rutzinger, M., Šedová, A., Šrollerů, A., Kupková, L. (2023): E-TRAINEE: open e-learning course on time series analysis in remote sensing, Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci., XLVIII-1/W2-2023, 989–996