Use of remote sensing for the delineation of surface peat deposits south of the Venice Lagoon (Italy)

The aim of the present study is to map the regional extent of the peat soils using remote sensing. This is a first step of a wider project focused on the simulation of land subsidence due to the oxidation of organic soils in an area, the Zennare Basin, located south of the Venice Lagoon, where this process is responsible for a settlement rates of the order of 2-3 cm/year. Landsat 7 ETM+, Aster and Ikonos scenes have been analyzed using the Principal Component Analyses (PCA), the Soil Brightness Index (SBI) calculated through a Tasseled Cap Rotation, and supervised classifications based on the Maximum Likelihood and Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM) algorithms. The results, calibrated on field investigations (geomorphological surveys and sediment sampling), allowed the classification of the outcropping sediments and the production of an accurate geomorphological map.