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Welcome to AppGeMa, the Applied Geomorphological Mapping Working Group Website.

As the activities and outputs of the working group grows, all materials will gather here. The pages are editable by any user or visitor to this website so that we can pool the knowledge that the group as a whole possesses. There is a single login password which allows you to perform any editing on the site and this will have been emailed to you when you joined the mailing list.

We look forward to meeting and working with you during the lifespan of the working group.

Paolo Paron & Mike Smith

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Introduction

Maps are one of the most appropriate and synthetic ways of showing the distribution of landforms, surface and near-surface deposits, the processes that act on landforms and the time of their action. Geomorphological maps are one of most important end products of investigations made by geomorphologists on the territory. Furthermore they are of great usefulness to many other professionals dealing with the landscape and landforms like engineers, urban planners, soil and forest scientists, agronomists, land conservationists, etc.

Moreover, at the present moment, the great development of digital analysis of remotely sensed imagery on the one side, and the widespread application of GIS, Digital Terrain Analysis, DEM analysis (geomorphometry) and of modern lab techniques on the other, can integrate classical field surveys and add values also to a map.

Both inside our scientific community and, even more, among other scientific and professional communities, the pure and applied importance of geomorphological maps is not yet completely understood and developed. Furthermore the increasing human pressure on the environment is pushing the need for a better understanding and planning of the landscape in developed and, to a greater degree, in the so called emerging and developing countries.

Maps can be thought as a frontier or a meeting point at which geomorphologists, geologists and other professionals share their different knowledge of the territory and plan together a sustainable use of the environment.

As stated by Cooke et al. (1982) different geomorphologists have worked on a variety of problems in contrasting terrain and morphoclimatic conditions and several mapping systems have been set up. Nevertheless attempts to produce a unified system do not seem to have been widely adopted so far.

A major role could be here played by the activity of a strong geomorphological mapping school, under the IAG umbrella.

A WG on Applied Geomorphological Mapping has been approved by the EC and National Delegates, in accordance with all three constitutional Objectives of the IAG/AIG.