Understanding how human settlements and economic activities are distributed with reference to the geographical location of streams and rivers is of fundamental relevance for several issues, such as flood risk management, drought management related to increased water demands by human population, fluvial ecosystem services, water pollution and water exploitation. Besides the spatial distribution, the evolution in time of the human presence constitutes an additional key question. This work aims at understanding and analysing the spatial and temporal evolution of human settlements and associated economic activity, derived from nighttime lights, in the Eastern Alpine region. Nightlights, available at a fine spatial resolution and for a 22-year period, constitute an excellent data base, which allows one to explore in details human signatures. In this experiment, nightlights are associated to five distinct distance-from-river classes. Our results clearly point out an overall enhancement of human presence across the considered distance classes during the last 22 years, though presenting some differences among the study regions. In particular, the river network delineation, by considering different groups of river pixels based on the Strahler order, is found to play a central role in the identification of nightlight spatio-temporal trends.

Human signatures derived from nighttime lights along the Eastern Alpine river network in Austria and Italy / Ceola, Serena; Montanari, Alberto; Parajka, Juraj; Viglione, Alberto; Blöschl, Günter; Laio, Francesco. - In: Proceedings of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (PIAHS). - ISSN 2199-899X. - ELETTRONICO. - 373:(2016), pp. 131-136. (Intervento presentato al convegno 7th International Water Resources Management Conference of ICWRS tenutosi a Bochum, GERMANY nel MAY 18-20, 2016) [10.5194/piahs-373-131-2016].

Human signatures derived from nighttime lights along the Eastern Alpine river network in Austria and Italy

CEOLA, SERENA;MONTANARI, ALBERTO;
2016

Abstract

Understanding how human settlements and economic activities are distributed with reference to the geographical location of streams and rivers is of fundamental relevance for several issues, such as flood risk management, drought management related to increased water demands by human population, fluvial ecosystem services, water pollution and water exploitation. Besides the spatial distribution, the evolution in time of the human presence constitutes an additional key question. This work aims at understanding and analysing the spatial and temporal evolution of human settlements and associated economic activity, derived from nighttime lights, in the Eastern Alpine region. Nightlights, available at a fine spatial resolution and for a 22-year period, constitute an excellent data base, which allows one to explore in details human signatures. In this experiment, nightlights are associated to five distinct distance-from-river classes. Our results clearly point out an overall enhancement of human presence across the considered distance classes during the last 22 years, though presenting some differences among the study regions. In particular, the river network delineation, by considering different groups of river pixels based on the Strahler order, is found to play a central role in the identification of nightlight spatio-temporal trends.
2016
SPATIAL DIMENSIONS OF WATER MANAGEMENT - REDISTRIBUTION OF BENEFITS AND RISKS - Proceedings of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS)
131
136
Human signatures derived from nighttime lights along the Eastern Alpine river network in Austria and Italy / Ceola, Serena; Montanari, Alberto; Parajka, Juraj; Viglione, Alberto; Blöschl, Günter; Laio, Francesco. - In: Proceedings of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (PIAHS). - ISSN 2199-899X. - ELETTRONICO. - 373:(2016), pp. 131-136. (Intervento presentato al convegno 7th International Water Resources Management Conference of ICWRS tenutosi a Bochum, GERMANY nel MAY 18-20, 2016) [10.5194/piahs-373-131-2016].
Ceola, Serena; Montanari, Alberto; Parajka, Juraj; Viglione, Alberto; Blöschl, Günter; Laio, Francesco
File in questo prodotto:
Eventuali allegati, non sono esposti

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11585/585531
 Attenzione

Attenzione! I dati visualizzati non sono stati sottoposti a validazione da parte dell'ateneo

Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus 1
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? 1
social impact