Human agency may bring about environmental changes either wittingly or unwittingly. One of the unwitting changes typical of undulating hilly areas is the acceleration of erosion as a result of trampling or vegetation removal near roads or pathways. This thesis made use of GIS modelling and lidar data for Slovenia to estimate the amount of material eroded from pathways and roads for five selected areas of interest. During fieldwork, measurements of how much the path has sunk into local surface were taken and compared with lidar shaded relief interpretation, which made it possible to determine the precision of the model used. The model was confirmed to be remarkably precise as more than 80% of fieldwork measurements deviated by less than 15 cm – the vertical accuracy of the data used – from values obtained from the model. It was also discovered that using the local model and shaded relief model is easier than fieldwork in some cases, namely for the abandoned and overgrown pathways.
|