Between August 31st and September 7th, 19 PhD and MSc students, from 12 countries, participated to the first PermaCOST Training School in Trafoi (Autonomous Province of Bozen/Bolzano, Italy). During seven intense days of field excursions, lectures and exercises, the participants learnt about the periglacial context of the area and were trained to apply various tools to map, characterise and monitor periglacial landforms at the local and regional scales.
Supervised by a diverse team of 10 trainers and guest lecturers, we covered a wide range of topics for the comprehensive study of mountain periglacial environments. The training focused on the geomorphological interpretation of interconnected processes that generate and rework landforms in glacial and periglacial mountain landscapes, the available instruments and techniques to document changes in such environments, the procedure to generate consistent Rock Glacier Inventories (RoGIs) following RGIK guidelines, the use of spaceborne Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (InSAR) to detect ground surface movement associated with permafrost creep, the value of geophysical methods with a focus on Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) for the subsurface characterisation of permafrost, and the acquisition and processing of Unmanned Aircraft Vehicles (UAVs) high-resolution data to map and monitor periglacial landforms.
The full programme of the school can be found in here. Ideal weather conditions allowed us to organise several field excursions at the Stelvio Pass, in the Zay Valley and in Trafoi. The local organiser Francesco Brardinoni (University of Bologna) and the other members of the training team were very impressed about the involvement and motivation of all students during the entire week. We thank all participants for their positive energy!
