Application of a new method for rapid quality assessment of renewable aggregate resources in alpine regions

Abstract

Alluvial fans, valley fills and debris cones represent economically significant, natural aggregate resources in the alpine regions of Austria. Due to continual erosion they constitute renewable sources of sand and gravel. However, knowledge of their petrographic properties and resulting aggregate quality is scant. An automated evaluation method was developed to estimate petrographic characteristics and predict resource suitability. This method makes use of the fact that the properties of a gravel deposit depend on the morphology and geology of the provenance area. Area percentages of geological units in the source area were expected to mirror the litho-spectrum of the gravel resource. Petrographic analysis of 13 field samples shows that this is indeed the case. Discrepancies amount to 0–10%; larger deviations occur for grain size fractions <2 mm in the presence of soft rock types such as mica-schist or paragneiss. Forecasts of aggregate quality on the basis of lithological composition and grain size characteristics were compared to operational data of five gravel pits. The actual usage of the material agrees with predictions in four out of the five cases.

Geomaterials in construction and their sustainability: understanding their role in modern society

“…The paper presents alluvial fans, valley fills and debris cones from Alpine areas as economically interesting sources of aggregates that are formed through erosion and accumulation in morphologically exposed regions. Pfleiderer et al (2015) demonstrate that GIS-based techniques can help in the rapid assessment of the quality of material for estimation of possible petrographic composition and technological performance. GISbased techniques are also useful in the evaluation of historical quarry areas and variability of the use of building materials in specific environments, as shown in the example of the Ile-de-France cuesta (Turmel et al 2015).…”

“…Despite their classification as non-renewable resources, in very specific cases aggregates can be considered as partly renewable as shown by Pfleiderer et al (2015). The paper presents alluvial fans, valley fills and debris cones from Alpine areas as economically interesting sources of aggregates that are formed through erosion and accumulation in morphologically exposed regions.…”

Statistical analysis of karst springs in Lower Austria

“…The maximum elevation in this area was then extracted from the ALS-DEM using ArcGIS. In order to obtain a value for K, the model was calibrated with 44 MCE values calculated on the basis of oxygen isotope analyses from various data sources (Spendlingwimmer, 1984;Salzer, 1997;Pfleiderer et al, 2005;Stadler et al, 2008). We used the R-function 'optim' on the isotope-derived MCE-model to minimise the sum of squared errors, which resulted in K = 0.43.…”