Mapping landscape evolution in 3D: Climate change, natural hazard and human settlements across the 1618 Piuro landslide in the Italian Central Alps

Abstract

AbstractNatural and anthropogenic mountain landscapes coevolve responding on different temporal scales to climate changes and geodynamics by a series of increments that cause the dynamic association of morphological stabilization surfaces, stratigraphic units and landforms. Understanding the incremental history of palimpsest landscapes helps to recognize and forecast the effects of climate change on the sensitive mountain environments, contributes to archaeological and historical reconstruction and supports management strategies for natural risks prevention and mitigation. The Italian Bregaglia Valley provides an excellent site to unravel the recent/historical increments of evolution of landforms and human settlement, permitting to map the paleo‐digital terrain models (DTMs) corresponding to the relevant landscape turning points. After the last de‐glaciation, two large‐scale landslides reshaped the valley floor, both predisposed by deep‐seated gravitational slope deformations and one surely triggered by intense rainfalls. The most recent and impacting event buried in 1618 the rich border town of Piuro, the ancient one occurred in the same area at least 1.5 ka before. Combining stratigraphic, geomorphological, topographic, archaeological and historical data, we drew the paleo‐DTMs of the pre‐ and post‐1618 settings of Piuro, sketching the landscape evolution. Since two millennia, human settlements took advantage of the decadal to secular most stable surfaces, represented by the inactive lobes of debris‐flow fans, the highest trunk river terraces and the top of humps formed by the ancient landslide body in the valley centre. Stratigraphic relationships, archaeological findings and age determinations show that both landslides diverted the trunk river and covered the existing fan lobes. On a secular timescale, fan progradation and trunk river terracing buried and reworked both the landslide bodies. The paleo‐DTMs show their original areal extent and permit to compute their volume and to sketch the setting of the buried Piuro settlements, drawing the changes of the Mera trunk river course and the chronology of activity of the lateral debris‐flow fan lobes.