BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//pretalx//talks.staging.osgeo.org//foss4g-europe-2025//talk//WZ3VJ B BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:CET BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20001029T040000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=-1SU;BYMONTH=10 TZNAME:CET TZOFFSETFROM:+0200 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20000326T030000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYDAY=-1SU;BYMONTH=3 TZNAME:CEST TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0200 END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:pretalx-foss4g-europe-2025-WZ3VJB@talks.staging.osgeo.org DTSTART;TZID=CET:20250718T120000 DTEND;TZID=CET:20250718T120500 DESCRIPTION:Glacier monitoring is essential for understanding climate chang e\, especially for smaller glaciers\, which are highly sensitive to warmin g and face rapid losses. The GlaMBIE team (2025) provides a global assessm ent of glacier mass changes from 2000 to 2023\, revealing an alarming acce leration in mass loss\, particularly in regions with small glacier areas. Central Europe\, including the Alps\, experienced the most dramatic relati ve loss (-39%)\, highlighting the vulnerability of mid-latitude glaciers. Despite their relatively small size\, these ice bodies play a crucial role in regional water resources and ecosystem stability. Hugonnet et al. (202 1) further quantify this acceleration\, reporting a global glacier mass lo ss rate of 267 gigatonnes per year between 2000 and 2019\, exceeding the c ombined ice loss of Greenland and Antarctica. Smaller glaciers\, such as t hose in the Alps\, are particularly challenging to monitor due to their fr agmented nature and steep\, complex terrain\, which often limits data cove rage and increases uncertainty. High-resolution Digital Elevation Models\, such as those provided by the Pléiades Glacier Observatory\, provide cri tical insight into these changes (Berthier et al.\, 2024). Given their imp ortance for water supply and natural hazard management\, maintaining long- term\, high-precision monitoring and data management systems - especially through accessible platforms such as WebGIS - is crucial to reduce observa tional uncertainties and inform adaptation strategies (Gärtner-Roer et al .\, 2022).\n\nWebGIS platforms are essential tools for environmental monit oring\, enabling real-time data collection\, analysis\, and visualization. By integrating diverse geospatial datasets\, they provide interactive ass essments of environmental conditions\, support change detection\, and enha nce decision-making. Advances in cloud computing\, open-source software\, and mobile technologies further improve their efficiency (Kipkemboi et al. \, 2023). Their ability to manage large datasets and present user-friendly visualizations has expanded their role in various environmental domains ( Toro Herrera et al.\, 2021). In water resource management\, a WebGIS envir onment facilitates real-time monitoring of parameters such as chlorophyll- a concentration\, suspended matter\, and surface water temperature\, aidin g awareness and policymaking (Oxoli et al.\, 2020). Similarly\, in glacier monitoring\, initiatives are emerging to integrate geological\, remote se nsing\, and geophysical data into centralized WebGIS platforms (Senger et al.\, 2021). These systems address challenges posed by harsh environments and accessibility issues\, enabling data sharing and visualization to impr ove research and fieldwork efficiency. They also support educational activ ities by documenting data acquisition workflows. Despite challenges such a s high hardware costs and limited interpretation tools\, the benefits—ex tended field seasons\, quantitative analysis\, and increased accessibility —outweigh these limitations.\n\nThis work presents a WebGIS platform des igned to facilitate the exploration and analysis of the Belvedere Glacier monitoring data. The glacier\, located in the Italian Alps\, is the site o f a long-term monitoring project coordinated by the Department of Civil an d Environmental Engineering of Politecnico di Milano that yearly organises a Summer School for groups of students that are involved in the Global Na vigation Satellite System measurements of documented targets distributed a long the surface. This allows the derivation of velocity and volume variat ions over the last decade (Gaspari et al.\, 2024). By integrating geospati al visualization and interactive data analysis\, the WebGIS platform offer s an intuitive environment for researchers\, environmental agencies\, and stakeholders. It leverages CesiumJS for dynamic 3D geovisualization and Po stgreSQL/PostGIS for spatial data management\, ensuring scalability and ef ficiency in handling large datasets but also providing a compatible interf ace for flexible mobile field mapping activities employing Qfield or Mergi n Maps.\n\nThe WebGIS platform is conceived as a dynamic tool intended to help monitor the Belvedere Glacier and to serve a broad audience with vari ous needs. The motivation behind developing the platform stems from the ne ed to improve data accessibility and usability in the context of glacier m onitoring. Traditional methods of data management are often based on stati c files like spreadsheets and PDFs\, and are proved to be inefficient\, fr agmented\, and challenging to update. The implementation of the Belvedere WebGIS platform involved translating conceptual designs into a fully funct ional web application. This process included setting up a Django framework \, configuring the database\, developing backend logic and integrating fro ntend visualization tools. Key features include an interactive map\, tempo ral data visualization\, and graph-based analysis\, enabling users to trac k glacier changes over time and examine displacement trends. The platform supports data uploads and exports\, enhancing its role as a comprehensive tool for scientific research and decision-making.\n\nBuilt with open-sourc e geospatial technologies\, this WebGIS provides a solid foundation for fu ture enhancements\, such as integrating orthophotos\, 3D representations\, as well as advanced visualization. By combining GIS technology with web-b ased accessibility\, the platform contributes to a deeper understanding of glacier dynamics\, supports data-driven environmental assessments\, and s erves as a valuable tool for the scientific community studying climate-dri ven glacier evolution.\nSource code: https://github.com/labmgf-polimi/belv edere-webgis\nPublication of the webGIS on a public server is in progress. \n\nReferences:\nThe GlaMBIE Team (2025). Community estimate of global gla cier mass changes from 2000 to 2023. Nature\, 1-7.\nHugonnet et al. (2021) . Accelerated global glacier mass loss in the early twenty-first century. Nature 592\, 726–731\nBerthier et al. (2024). The Pléiades Glacier Obse rvatory: high-resolution digital elevation models and ortho-imagery to mon itor glacier change. The Cryosphere\, 18(12)\, 5551-5571.\nGärtner-Roer e t al. (2019). Worldwide assessment of national glacier monitoring and futu re perspectives. Mountain Research and Development\, 39(2)\, A1-A11.\nKipk emboi et al. (2023). Development of a Web-GIS Platform for Environmental M onitoring and Conservation of the Muringato Catchment in Kenya\, Journal o f Geovisualization and Spatial Analysis\, vol. 7\, no. 1.\nToro Herrera et al. (2021). A collaborative platform for water quality monitoring: SIMILE WebGIS\, in Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci.\, 201 –207. \nSenger et al. (2021). Using digital outcrops to make the high Ar ctic more accessible through the Svalbox database. Journal of Geoscience E ducation\, 69(2)\, 123-137.\nGaspari et al. (2024). Bridging geomatics the ory to real-world applications in alpine surveys through an innovative sum mer school teaching program\, Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci.\, XLVIII-4/W12-2024\, 59–66 DTSTAMP:20260527T031509Z LOCATION:PA01 (Quarticle) SUMMARY:An Open-Source WebGIS Approach to Empower Glacier Research with Sca lability and Reproducibility - Federica Gaspari URL:https://talks.staging.osgeo.org/foss4g-europe-2025/talk/WZ3VJB/ END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR