! 2004 
>s from 
teristics 
ated the 
wavelet 
uencies, 
cies. In 
'Sis was 
ver, by 
with the 
le river 
almost 
stimated 
teristics 
of error. 
e rivers, 
hard to 
nate the 
data and 
the river 
narrow 
r budget 
"i, 2000. 
-1 SAR 
national 
osphere, 
nge and 
n forest, 
Japan. 
lication. 
DOCUMENTATION OF THE MOVEMENT 
OF THE HINTERES LANGTALKAR ROCK GLACIER 
V. Kaufmann *, R. Ladstidter 
Institute of Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry 
Graz University of Technology, Austria 
viktor.kaufmann @tugraz.at 
KEY WORDS: Environment, Geomorphology, Change Detection, Monitoring, Aerial, Multitemporal, Digital, Photogrammetry 
ABSTRACT: 
Rock glaciers are striking phenomena of high mountain permafrost. These periglacial landforms are composed of rock and ice and 
creep downslope at a typical rate of a few decimeters per year. This movement and other surface changes can be measured by various 
observation techniques. In this paper a digital-photogrammetric approach to rock glacier monitoring is described based on multi- 
temporal aerial photographs. A software package, ADVM (Automatic Displacement Vector Measurement), has been developed, 
which automatically derives 3D displacement vectors from the photographs. The basic concepts of this software will be given first, 
followed by a detailed description of a new constrained image matching technique, implemented in the current ADVM 2.0 version. 
Finally, the successful application of the software is shown in a case study: The spatio-temporal evolution and dynamic behavior of 
the Hinteres Langtalkar rock glacier (Hohe Tauern range of the Austrian Alps) was reconstructed using aerial photographs (1954- 
1999). Results of the practical investigations are presented graphically and numerically. 
1. INTRODUCTION 
Rock glaciers are complex landforms of cold mountain areas 
and are composed of a mixture of rocks and ice. These unique 
features of mountain permafrost creep downslope by force of 
gravity in a steady-state mode due to the mainly plastic 
deformation of the interstitial ice, thus forming a characteristic 
surface topography consisting of transverse furrows and ridges 
(Barsch, 1996; Haeberli 2000). Rock glaciers play a decisive 
role in permafrost research, since recent climatic warming has 
triggered permafrost degradation. This fact may cause natural 
hazards, which are already observable in high-mountain areas, 
e.g. in the European Alps. The rock glacier system must be 
understood very well in order to correctly correlate observables 
of rock glaciers, e.g., creep velocity, temperature and ice 
content of the inner core, with climatic parameters, e.g., mean 
annual air temperature (Harris et al., 2001). 
Contemporary rock glacier research is highly interdisciplinary. 
One special issue is to better understand rock glacier mechanics 
(Arenson et al., 2002; Ladanyi, 2003). Detailed knowledge of 
rock glacier kinematics is indispensable in this context. The 
creep process and also basal sliding at distinct shear horizons 
cause deformation of the permafrost body. Measurements of 
internal deformation, e.g., using inclinometers and magnet 
rings, can only be carried out in boreholes, which are expensive 
to drill and therefore limited to a few examples worldwide. In 
contrast, however, visible deformation of the rock glacier 
surface may be observed directly. 
Monitoring of the temporal change of the surface geometry has 
already a long history. Kääb et al. (2003) give an overview of 
the state-of-the-art of the various monitoring techniques. 
Remote sensing, i.e., obtaining information without direct 
contact with the object, has been identified as one of the most 
powerful techniques. Referring to this technique, the 
  
Corresponding author 
893 
development of digital photogrammetric procedures using aerial 
photographs has made substantial progress, and several applied 
studies have been published (Kiib et al., 2003; Kaufmann & 
Ladstádter, 2002; Kaufmann & Ladstáüdter, 2003). 
In this paper we want to introduce our in-house developed 
software package ADVM (Automatic Displacement Vector 
Measurement). After describing the basic concepts of ADVM 
some technical details will be explained. Consequently, the 
applicability of the software will be shown in a case study. 
Finally, the paper concludes with recommendations for further 
developments. 
2. METHOD 
The first version of the ADVM software was developed in 
1999. Since then, it has been further developed and used 
successfully in several rock glacier monitoring projects. This 
paper, however, will not describe the digital work flow of 
ADVM as a whole but focuses on a new matching algorithm, 
which has been developed especially for such monitoring tasks. 
The new algorithm, implemented in the recent ADVM 2.0 
version, allows for high precision, multi-temporal point transfer 
in (pseudo-)rectified stereo pairs and simultaneous 3D 
reconstruction of displacement/flow vectors. 
2.1 Basic Concepts 
In this Section some of the basic concepts of the ADVM 
software will be outlined. The pseudo-orthophoto concept, 
being the key issue, will be discussed first. Some basics of the 
multi-photo constrained matching (MPCM) algorithm will then 
be described in brief. Finally, the extension of MPCM for 
multi-temporal point transfer is proposed.