BridgET - Mt. Etna Summer School

BridgET is an EU project funded by the 2021-2027 ERASMUS+ Key Action 2 programme “KA220-HED Cooperation partnership in Higher Education”. The project aims at addressing a growing demand for highly skilled professionals in the coastal and marine geosciences sector, who can be innovative in the analysis, interpretation and representation of geological and environmental data in 3D. It has been designed to develop innovative and inclusive teaching methods to upgrade key skills and scientific expertise in the field of 3D geological mapping for reliable integration of onshore and offshore multi-scale geospatial datasets. Main goals of BridgET were accomplished with dedicated summer schools for postgraduate students of the six patner universitities, delivered by leading experts from different European universities and companies.

The Mt. Etna Summer School took place in Aci Trezza, Sicily (Italy), from September 30 to October 11, 2023. Twenty-three students from the six partner universities attended the program. One highlight of the activities was the data collection on Lachea Island, which exemplified multi-sensor land-sea data integration by showcasing the island’s geomorphological variability both above and below the water surface. Another notable site was St. Tecla coast, featuring a geologically signifcant cliff.

This datasets consist of 3 ZIP folders:

• Lachea UAV UNIMIB.zip: the dataset includes a high-resolution Digital Surface Model (DSM) and the corresponding Point Cloud (PC) of the Lachea Island's emerged portion and nearshore area. The data were collected using a DJI Phantom 4 Pro drone, owned by the University of Milano-Bicocca (UNIMIB). The survey was conducted with RTK NTRIP correction via GNSS SICILI@NET, ensuring high spatial accuracy.
  The collected data were processed using Agisoft Metashape software to generate both the DSM and PC. The DSM, with a 7 cm resolution, is provided as an ASCII file (Lachea_UAV_DSM_7cm.asc), along with its georeferencing file (Lachea_UAV_DSM_7cm.prj). The PC is available as a compressed LAZ file (Lachea_UAV_PC.laz).

• Lachea MBES UNIMIB.zip: the dataset includes a high-resolution Digital Terrain Model (DTM) and the corresponding PC of the Lachea Island offshore surveyed area. The data were collected using an R2Sonic 2022 Multibeam Echosounder (MBES), owned by the University of Milano-Bicocca (UNIMIB). The survey was conducted with RTK NTRIP correction via GNSS SICILI@NET, ensuring high spatial accuracy.
  The collected data were processed using QPS Qimera software to generate both the DTM and PC. The DTM, with a 1 m resolution, is provided as an ASCII file (Lachea_MBES_DTM_1m.asc) along with its georeferencing file (Lachea_MBES_DTM_1m.prj). The PC is available as a text file (Lachea_MBES_PC.txt).

• St. Tecla LiDAR Orthodrone.zip: the dataset includes a high-resolution PC of the harbour site of Santa Tecla. The data were collected using a RIEGL miniVUX-1UAV LiDAR mounted on a DJI M300 RTK drone, owned by Orthodrone GmbH. The survey was conducted with RTK NTRIP correction via GNSS SICILI@NET, ensuring high spatial accuracy.
  The collected data were processed using RIEGL RiPROCESS and CloudCompare software to generate the PC. The PC is available as a compressed LAZ file (2025-03-18_BridgET_OD_St_Tecla_LiDAR_transfSfM_EPSG_25832.laz). The dataset is available for scientific and teaching purposes under a creative coomons licence (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 DEED).