Research directions
High mountain geomorphology
Main research activities are related to the study of alpine permafrost. They concern:
- The characterisation and modelling of the spatial distribution of mountain permafrost,
- The detection and mapping of ground ice,
- The study of slope movements in the alpine periglacial belt, in particular rock glaciers,
- The thermal and kinematics monitoring of permafrost,
- The study of factors controlling the occurrence of frozen ground,
- Geomorphological mapping.
Main methods/devices used are geophysics (electrical resistivity tomography), Differential GPS, digital photogrammetry, Lidar, Differential SAR interferometry, temperature loggers and automatic cameras.
See also :
http://www.unil.ch/idyst/home/menuinst/research-poles/geomorphology-cryosphere-and/high-mountain-geomorphology.html
Current PhD students:
- Jean-Baptiste Bosson : Contemporary glacial and periglacial dynamics in small alpine glacier forefields
- Nicola Deluigi : Permafrost distribution modelling in sedimentary deposits with machine learning
- Elisa Giaccone : Investigating the control of geomorphological parameters on the vegetation cover.
