ALPMON envisages the compilation of an alpine monitoring system by means of satellite data and GIS. With this system, harmonized basic information for major planning projects in alpine regions should be made available. The development of ALPMON was conducted in close co-operation with the Alpine Convention, in particular the Alpine Monitoring Group, and national administrations. In order to meet the requirements and needs of the Alpine Convention and the involved national administrations an intensive execution of the customers needs was carried out. To ensure the comparability of the information content for different test sites and later on for different regions, the parameters worked at in ALPMON were harmonised. For the classification of satellite images detailed information about the condition in the field is indispensable. Main sources of the collecting of ground information were aerial photos and field surveys. The ground information for all test sites was collected following the previously defined guidelines including the harmonised parameters and definitions of the common nomenclature. The satellite images passed standard geometric as well as radiometric correction taking into account the special conditions in the Alps. Subsequently, the information content of the images was improved by image image fusion and by the calculation of texture feature images. Classification was based on a detailed signature analysis. Different classification methods were chosen, i.e. Maximum Likelihood thresholds, unsupervised classification algorithms, hierarchical approach. Additional information, such as a DEM, GIS data layers, or digital map layers, was integrated in the classification process. The accuracy of the classification results was determined for all classified parameters based on the ground information collected at each sample plot. The statistical analyses of accuracy included Kappa statistics, confusion matrices, regression analyses of observed versus estimated values, etc. All previous tasks were performed with respect to the results required by the Alpine Convention as well as the requirements of the national customers. In order to test the performance of the remote sensing based alpine monitoring system and demonstrate its potential for divers alpine questions, specific applications have been performed in close co-operation with the national customers. The topics are avalanche risk assessment, erosion risk assessment, tourismplanning, water runoff modelling, nationalpark management and the integration of ALPMON into the CORINE-nomenclature of level 3. A concept for the establishment of a remote sensing based alpine information system introduced to the Alpine Convention (Customer on the European level) was worked out.
For further information see
http://dib.joanneum.ac.at/alpmon/home.html
