USING GEODETIC TECHNIQUES FOR GEOMORPHOLOGIC ANALYSES OF SCREE SLOPES IN LOW-ALTITUDE FORESTED REGIONS AND ITS IMPLICATION FOR CONSERVATION MANAGEMENT

Martin RASKA, Pavel RASKA, Jiri POSPISIL, Karel KIRCHNER

ABSTRACT: Scree slopes (scree deposits) are landforms that may indicate palaeogeomorphic and palaeoenvironmental development of a landscape and often represent unique recent habitats for stenoecious species, thus increasing geodiversity ad biologic diversity of a landscape. The latter fact led to intense research and conservation of scree slope sites especially in mid-latitude environments. The conservation and management of scree slopes and their individual habitats are only possible while based on precise data about their topography. Moreover, if little information is available about the topography of scree slopes, the consideration on geomorphic and environmental change of them is far from convincing. In this study, we used the total station with a single beam scanning function to acquire the elevation data of a mid-latitude low-altitude scree slope in a forested site (Ceske stredohori Mts.). The total station was used as an effective alternative to airborne and terrestrial laser scanners. The design of filtration method including the computational procedures and evaluation of results from filtering process is presented. Finally, we evaluate the potential of the method to derive advanced geomorphologic characteristics of scree slopes for ecological applications, nature conservation and environmental management.

Keywords: Scree slopes, geodiversity, conservation management, topography analyses

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