Geodiversity: Theory and Applications

The course aims at introducing students to the concept of geodiversity and at giving them methods and techniques to describe and analyze the natural elements of the physical landscape and the main climate factors driving their evolution. In particular we will focus on detecting, mapping, describing and analyzing the physical elements and the natural resources of each environment (from mountains to coastal areas), their level of integrity and conservation, their relations with landscape and climate evolution and with the human presence and use (if any).
To these aims, the course will be structured into four main parts: 1) different instruments and methods as remote sensing investigations (e.g.: the most innovative applications and products also including UAV surveys) for detecting, mapping and describing geodiversity; 2) description of the climate system and of its role in driving landscape and geodiversity evolution/change; 3) physically based approaches to assess the amount and to project in the future the availability of peculiar resources (as fresh water, snow and ice coverage) of the natural landscape; 4) development and application of a) new tools for evaluating human impacts on environment and/or landscape and b) innovative instruments (as the ones applied in cases of citizen science) to share with people information and data for raising their awareness on the fragility of the environment and for adopting the most sustainable practices to preserve the geodiversity.
At the end of the course, students will have learnt how to evaluate the geodiversity level of different environments, how to describe climate interactions and how to preserve and promote geodiversity.
The course will be base on both lectures and technical practical activities in the Lab