Assessing volumetric and geomorphologic changes of terraces in Amalfi Coast using photogrammetric technique

Terraced landscapes are largely widespread in Mediterranean area from Neolithic, since their construction has been essential to make mountain or steep slope areas habitable and arable. Among these areas, Amalfi Coast is the most famous zone thanks the uniqueness of its landscape. Over the years, these areas have been subjected to quick geomorphologic and volumetric changes, causing serious problems of hydrogeological instability. Hence, in this work, the volumetric and geo-morphology changes of terraced landscapes in Minori, a small municipality of Amalfi Coast, over forty – years period, have been performed by applying the changes detection analysis to historical series of photogrammetric aerial photos. Indeed, two panchromatic series of images (1956-1996) has been processed, separately, in order to generate a high resolution orthophoto (0.03 m) and a fine Digital Elevation Model (DEM) (1 m) for each period. Subsequently, DEM of difference (DoD) has been created. DoD shows significant changes in all the study area, due to terraces abandonment or new human construction. The combination of photogrammetry and DoD shows promising results for detecting the geomorphologic and volumetric changes by historical series.