Automated Avalanche Terrain Exposure Scale (ATES) mapping – local validation and optimization in western Canada

IF 4.2 2区地球科学 Q1 GEOSCIENCES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY

Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences Pub Date : 2024-03-20 DOI:10.5194/nhess-24-947-2024

John Sykes, Håvard Toft, P. Haegeli, Grant Statham

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引用次数: 2

Abstract

Abstract. The Avalanche Terrain Exposure Scale (ATES) is a system for classifying mountainous terrain based on the degree of exposure to avalanche hazard. The intent of ATES is to improve backcountry recreationist's ability to make informed risk management decisions by simplifying their terrain analysis. Access to ATES has been largely limited to manually generated maps in high-use areas due to the cost and time to generate ATES maps. Automated ATES (AutoATES) is a chain of geospatial models which provides a path towards developing ATES maps on large spatial scales for relatively minimal cost compared to manual maps. This research validates and localizes AutoATES using two ATES benchmark maps which are based on independent ATES maps from three field experts. We compare the performance of AutoATES in two study areas with unique snow climate and terrain characteristics: Connaught Creek in Glacier National Park, British Columbia, Canada, and Bow Summit in Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada. Our results show that AutoATES aligns with the ATES benchmark maps in 74.5 % of the Connaught Creek study area and 84.4 % of the Bow Summit study area. This is comparable to independently developed manual ATES maps which on average align with the ATES benchmark maps in 76.1 % of Connaught Creek and 84.8 % of Bow Summit. We also compare a variety of DEM types (lidar, stereo photogrammetry, Canadian National Topographic Database) and resolutions (5–26 m) in Connaught Creek to investigate how input data type affects AutoATES performance. Overall, we find that DEM resolution and type are not strong indicators of accuracy for AutoATES, with a map accuracy of 74.5 % ± 1 % for all DEMs. This research demonstrates the efficacy of AutoATES compared to expert manual ATES mapping methods and provides a platform for large-scale development of ATES maps to assist backcountry recreationists in making more informed avalanche risk management decisions.

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自动雪崩地形暴露尺度 (ATES) 测绘--加拿大西部的本地验证和优化

摘要雪崩地形暴露等级表（ATES）是一个根据雪崩危险暴露程度对山区地形进行分类的系统。ATES 的目的是通过简化地形分析，提高越野休闲者做出明智的风险管理决定的能力。由于生成 ATES 地图需要成本和时间，因此 ATES 的使用在很大程度上仅限于高使用率地区的手动生成地图。自动 ATES（AutoATES）是一个地理空间模型链，它提供了一条在大空间尺度上开发 ATES 地图的途径，与手动地图相比，成本相对较低。本研究使用两幅 ATES 基准地图对 AutoATES 进行了验证和定位，这两幅地图是基于三位实地专家绘制的独立 ATES 地图。我们比较了 AutoATES 在两个具有独特雪地气候和地形特征的研究区域的性能：加拿大不列颠哥伦比亚省冰川国家公园的康诺特溪和加拿大艾伯塔省班夫国家公园的弓峰。我们的研究结果表明，AutoATES 与 ATES 基准地图保持一致的区域占康诺特溪研究区域的 74.5%，占弓峰研究区域的 84.4%。这与独立开发的人工 ATES 地图具有可比性，后者平均有 76.1% 的 Connaught Creek 和 84.8% 的 Bow Summit 与 ATES 基准地图保持一致。我们还比较了康诺特溪的各种 DEM 类型（激光雷达、立体摄影测量、加拿大国家地形数据库）和分辨率（5-26 米），以研究输入数据类型如何影响 AutoATES 性能。总体而言，我们发现 DEM 分辨率和类型对 AutoATES 的准确性影响不大，所有 DEM 的地图准确性为 74.5 % ± 1 %。这项研究表明，与专家手工绘制 ATES 地图的方法相比，AutoATES 非常有效，并为大规模开发 ATES 地图提供了一个平台，可帮助越野休闲者做出更明智的雪崩风险管理决策。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences 地学-地球科学综合

CiteScore

7.60

自引率

6.50%

发文量

192

审稿时长

3.8 months

期刊介绍： Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences (NHESS) is an interdisciplinary and international journal dedicated to the public discussion and open-access publication of high-quality studies and original research on natural hazards and their consequences. Embracing a holistic Earth system science approach, NHESS serves a wide and diverse community of research scientists, practitioners, and decision makers concerned with detection of natural hazards, monitoring and modelling, vulnerability and risk assessment, and the design and implementation of mitigation and adaptation strategies, including economical, societal, and educational aspects.