## 2 Materials and Methods
### Geomorphological Features of the Two Examples
(**B**) Schematic cross-section related to object-based method (OBM) with the subdivision of the Cavallo Bianco ridge in polygons represented by the continuous red lines. The buried morpho-structures are reported as dotted red lines, with arrows indicating the movement direction. (**C**) Attribute table with the thirteen polygons 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, 1e, 1f, 1g, 1h, 1i, 2a, 2b, 2c and 2d represented in the OBM. significant minor scarp located on the Cavallo Bianco eastern slope is simplified in the TGM as a linear element located near the watershed and without any relation to the trench represented further down. The same morpho-structure, in the OBM method, is mapped as an areal element corresponding to the entire slope and in detail comprising some scarps (2a and 2d in Figure 6B), separated by the represented trench and counterscarp (2b and 2c in Figure 6B). The attributes of each gravitational element represented in the OBM are specified in a specially dedicated database containing the landform details (Figure 6C). The second investigated example (Figure 7) concerns a stretch of the Rodoretto Valley near the Balma village, showing an evident NE-SW trench partly filled by subglacial sediments. Moreover, the slope shows a rocky steep upper sector characterized by walls plunging towards the southeast. These walls are referred to minor scarps (Figure 7) that cut the glacial slope, preserved in strips, with subglacial sediments showing uniform slope (blue shading in Figure 7). An evident rocky relief shaped by glaciers also occurs in the medium sector (thin dashed white line in Figure 7), cut by some walls plunging towards the northwest referred to counterscraps and deeply incised in the bedrock by the T. Rodoretto (thick dashed white line in Figure 7). The Balma traditional geomorphological map (TGM) shows various gravitational morpho-structures dislocating the bedrock and its subglacial cover (Figure 8A). They involve the glacial slope, the glacial valley floor and the Balma rocky relief and in detail, consists of minor scarps, counterscraps and a trench. The different morpho-structures are reported as linear elements, each located at the upper edge of the single gravitational element, or along the axis, for which it is impossible evaluate their size and the relationship between  
Figure 7: View of the Rodoretto Valley, left side, around the Balma Village with an evident NE-SW trench (symbols as Figure 1) filled by glacial sediments (blue shading). A rocky steep upper sector characterized by walls (minor scraps a) and a slightly sloping medium sector with a cover of subglacial sediments are visible. These sediments form the glacial valley floor and slope dissected by the tributary torrential incisions. An evident rocky relief (thin dashed white line) with some counterscraps, and a deep incision in the bedrock shaped by the T. Rodoretto) also occur. (thin dashed white line). the different morpho-structures. The close location of various morpho-structures (trench, minor scarps and counterscarps) locally creates difficulties in their complete mapping according to the scale. The object-based method (OBM) allows for reporting the single morpho-structures as areal elements, each represented as a polygon, mapping them with their real size. For example, the scarps involving the Balma northwestern slope, reported in the TGM as linear elements, are instead, in this new method, represented by areal scarps, plunging according to the maximum slope inclination (1c, 1e, 2a and 2c in Figure 8B), that dislocate the glacial slope in which the bedrock is covered by subglacial sediments. Similar observations can be made for the counterscarps (2e, 2g and 2i in Figure 8B) that dislocate the Balma rocky relief (2f and 2h in Figure 8B). The real dimension of scarps and counterscarps reported in the OBM favours the understanding of the significant dislocation of the entire slope.