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Floods: Ten concepts to get better protected
Floods often call people and disaster management by surprise. A list of recent floods shows that inundations are the reason of increasing concern. The list of floods in Italy (in Italian) indicates that 50 victims were reported from 2021 to 2022. An example of a flood that took people by surprise is the event that occurred in Germany during the summer 2021.
Degree and Ph.D. opportunities at Unibo
The Department of Civil, Chemical, Environmental and Material Engineering at the University of Bologna, where I teach and work as a researcher, offers several opportunities to foreign students. I believe studying in Bologna and Ravenna (where the University of Bologna has a campus and where I am teaching) is a great experience for a foreign student.
Degree programmes
If you are interested in degree programs (bachelor and master) offered by my Department, please refer to the following link:
Tutorials Mountain River Training M - 2023-2024
Web site providing information, tutorials and videos for the master degree course on Mountain Rivers Training. The web page is in Italian.
Tutorials of Coastal Engineering - 2023-2024
The course on Coastal Engineering is included in the study plan of the master degree program in Off-shore Engineering at the University of Bologna. The part of course that I am teaching counts 12 hours of lectures. The teacher will make extensive use of interactivity, with the options illustrated below. Lectures include about 4 hours dedicated to solving exercises by using the personal computer, by collaborative work by students and teacher. Students will be kindly asked to bring their own personal computer to solve the exercises.
Lecture notes for "Climate change and global health" - University San Raffaele
"Climate change and global health" (CCGH) is a 12-hour module of the course on "Climate changing and architecture for health" at the University San Raffaele in Milan. I am teaching CCGH for the first time in the fall semester 2023.
The 12 hours of teaching will be delivered through in-presence frontal lectures. the study plan is as follows:
Courses on Climate Change and Adaptation - Spring 2024
Next Spring I am teaching two courses on climate change and adaptation at the University of Bologna. The courses will be delivered in hybrid mode, that is, in physical presence and streaming (delivery in streaming is pending the approval of the University, please check here for updates. However, video of the lectures will be made promptly available in any case).
The courses are:
Presentation of the curriculum "Harbour Engineering" of the master degree in Civil Engineering - Unibo
The curriculum "Harbour Engineering" of the international Master’s in Civil Engineering at the University of Bologna is a programme that aims at educating professionals with the necessary in-depth scientific and technical knowledge in the field of coastal and marine engineering, by specifically focusing on resilience of marine structures and environment under climate change. The programme provides students with firm technical bases while nurturing decision-making and leadership potential.
Tutorials of Climate Change Adaptation - 2023
Climate Change Adaptation is concentrating on strategies and actions to mitigate the impact of climate change on society, with a particular focus on water. The course will be taught during 48 hours of frontal teaching, including lectures given by the teacher and exercises developed by collaborative work by students and the teacher. The purpose of the course is to provide an overview of modern techniques for estimating design variables for water resources systems in the presence of human impact.
Tutorials of Science of Climate Change and Climate Actions 2023
"Science of Climate Change and Climate Actions" is a soft skill course at the University of Bologna. It will be taught in English for a total of 24 hours (3 credits) in the second semester, by me and other expert colleagues. Details are given here. Access is given to a maximum number of 200 students. The study plan is as follows:
Tutorials of Harbour Engineering - 2023
The course on Harbour Engineering focuses on design of harbors and coast management. The part of course that I am teaching counts 32 hours of lectures. The teacher will make extensive use of interactivity, with the options illustrated below.
My live interview (in Italian) at the TRC TV on megaflood predictability
On November 27 I have been live interviewed by the TV channel TRC. The discussion focused on predictability of megafloods, after the publication of the Nature Geoscience paper "Megafloods in Europe can be anticipated from observations in hydrologically similar catchments", authored by Miriam Bertola with a large pool of co-authors.
The interview can be watched here. The video has been kindly provided by TRC Bologna.
Thank you for your interest.
Ciao,
Alberto
My presentation at the International Conference Themes 2023 titled "Long term cycles in hydroclimatic processes: the unresolved enigma of climatic variability"
My presentation "Long term cycles in hydroclimatic processes: the unresolved enigma of climatic variability" at the International Conference Themes 2023 (Venice, November 15, 2023) is available for download at the link below.
Thank you for your interest.
Ciao,
Alberto
Megafloods in Europe can be anticipated. Paper in Nature Geoscience
The article "Megafloods in Europe can be anticipated from observations in hydrologically similar catchments", authored by Miriam Bertola with a large pool of co-authors, has been published on Nature Geosciences.
Public share full-text access to a view-only version of the paper can be accessed here.
My presentation at the Hydrology Days of the Italian Hydrological Society "Pandemics, geopolitics, economic inflation and water resources management"" (in Italian)
My presentation "Pandemics, geopolitics, economic inflation and water resources management" (in Italian) at the Hydrology Days of the Italian Hydrological Society is available for download at the link below. It's a new interdisciplinary adventure stimulated by the awareness that water resources management is driven by forcings related to political economy.
Thank you for your interest.
Ciao,
Alberto
My poster contribution "Why the 2022 drought in the Po River is the worst ever" (in Italian) at the Hydrology Days of the Italian Hydrological Society
My poster contribution titled "Why the 2022 drought in the Po River is the worst ever" (in Italian) presented at the Hydrology Days of the Italian Hydrological Society is available for download at the link below.
Thanks for your interest!
Best,
Alberto
Article on Nature Italy and press coverage on the 2022 drought along the Po River
Nature Italy published an article by Ginevra Chelli titled "Po river drought in 2022 was the worst of the last two centuries", that comments on the results presented in the paper ""Why the 2022 Po River drought is the worst in the past two centuries" published in Science Advances, by myself, Hung Nguyen, Sara Rubinetti, Serena Ceola, Stefano Galelli, Angelo Rubino and Davide Zanchettin.
The paper was widely commented by the press. Please see:
Paper on Science Advances: Why the 2022 Po River drought is the worst in the past two centuries
The paper "Why the 2022 Po River drought is the worst in the past two centuries" by myself, Hung Nguyen, Sara Rubinetti, Serena Ceola, Stefano Galelli, Angelo Rubino and Davide Zanchettin has been just published by Science Advances. The paper is open access.
The study focuses on the extreme drought that in 2022 hit the Po River basin and attempts to understand its drivers.
Research project Advanced Grant financed by the Italian Science Fund "Stochastic amplification of climate change into floods and droughts change"
My research proposal titled "Stochastic amplification of climate change into floods and droughts change" has been financed by the Italian Science Fund within the programme "Advanced Grant". The grant is worth 1.383.631,00 €.
New scientific paper: "Historical rainfall data in northern Italy predict larger meteorological drought hazard than climate projections"
The scientific paper "Historical rainfall data in northern Italy predict larger meteorological drought hazard than climate projections" has been just published in Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (HESS). The article is open access.
Article on Nature on the floods in the Emilia-Romagna region (in Italian and English)
Nature published an article titled "Examining the role of climate change in the Emilia-Romagna floods", that makes considerations on the causes of the flood and presents a brief review of relevant scientific contributions. I was interviewed by the journalist, thus the article includes some statements by me. I believe it is an interesting reading for getting more details on what happened.
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