Jan Beutel of ETHZ/CENL, expert in wireless and embedded systems
Alain Geiger of ETHZ/D-BAUG/IGP, expert in satellite geodesy and precise navigation
Stephan Gruber of UniZH/Dept. of Geography, expert in quantitatve understanding of the mountain cryosphere
Hugo Raetzo of Federal Office for the Environment BAFU/FOEN [industrial partner], expert in risk management on landslides, the monitoring and the development of remote sensing applications for mass movements
Tazio Strozzi of Gamma Remote Sensing [industrial partner], expert in radar remote sensing applications
Recent observed environmental changes as well as projections in the fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shed light on likely dramatic consequences of a changing mountain cryosphere following climate change. Some very destructive geological processes are triggered or intensified, influencing the stability of slopes and possibly inducing landslides. Unfortunately, the interaction between these complex processes is poorly understood. This project addresses the key issues in response to such changing conditons: monitoring and warning systems for the spatial and temporal detection of newly forming hazards, as well as extending the quantitative understanding of these changing natural systems and our predictive capabilities.
It will develop dependable wireless sensing technology as a new scientific instrument for environmental sensing under extreme conditions in terms of temperature variations, humidity, mechanical forces, snow coverage as well as unattended operation that are needed for longterm deployment. This technology should integrate various sensing dimensions (such as pressure, humidity, crevice movements, high precision deformation and movements) in terms of sensing and processing and the idea is to extend the spatial scope from local (microscopic) measurements to large scale information derived from satellite radar remote sensing and fuse the resulting information to achieve an unparalleled degree of precision in space, time and accuracy. The new measurement technology developed can be used to advance applications in science and society: geophysical and climate-impact research as well as early warning against landslides and rock-fall.
Research and development of several advanced sensing technologies and their system-level integration via systems and software engineering lie at the core of the project. They include model-based design to ensure dependable operation in a highly resource-constraint setting, optimized use of harvested solar energy through energy-efficient algorithms and long-term reward maximization as well as multi-objective optimization of the multi-processor hardware platforms. Also crucial is research on advanced differential GPS sensing for high-precision movement detection and the development of sensor fusion algorithms combining different classes of sensors with high spatial granularity and satellite-scale X-ray images.
All these activities are guided by thorough geophysical modeling and simulation as well as by demands from early warning scenarios. The project has the clear objective to develop a technology demonstrator that integrates the new technologies into the application field.
4D GPS water vapor tomography: new parameterized approaches, D. Perler, A. Geiger, F. Hurter: J Geod. DOI 10.1007/s00190-011-0454-2, Springer-Verlag (0, 2011)
An energy-conservative model of freezing variably-saturated soil, M. Dall’Amico, S. Endrizzi, S. Gruber, R. Rigon: The Cryosphere, (0, 2011)
Measuring and analysis of scale dependent variability of ground surface temperatures in alpine terrain, S. Gubler, J. Fiddes, S. Gruber, M. Keller, The Cryosphere, (0, 2011)
Bestimmung der Fließgeschwindigkeiten von Blockgletschern. R. Mautz, D. Grimm, P. Limpach, S. Tilch, A. Geiger Geomatik Schweiz, (0, 2010)
Recent observed environmental changes as well as projections in the fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shed light on likely dramatic consequences of a changing mountain cryosphere following climate change. Some very destructive geological processes are triggered or intensified, influencing the stability of slopes and possibly inducing landslides. Unfortunately, the interaction between these complex processes is poorly understood. This project addresses the key issues in response to such changing conditons: monitoring and warning systems for the spatial and temporal detection of newly forming hazards, as well as extending the quantitative understanding of these changing natural systems and our predictive capabilities. 
