News

Running your own climate model

The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model is basically a powerful computer program that simulates the atmosphere. Scientists and forecasters use it to study weather and climate—from everyday storms to long-term climate patterns. It’s very flexible: you can plug in different physics options, adjust the resolution, or zoom into a specific region to get more detail. 

My invited presentation at Tsinghua University titled "From hydrological complexity to hydrological predictions, through the exploration of uncertainty, randomness and stochastic theory"

My invited presentation at Tsinghua University (China) titled "From hydrological complexity to hydrological predictions, through the exploration of uncertainty, randomness and stochastic theory" is available at the link below.

The presentation was given on Oct 22, 2025. Thanks to professor Fuqiang Tian and esteemed Colleagues for inviting me. Thanks to Dr. Khosro Morovati and Dr. Yi Nan for the excellent support. It has been an exciting week!

Ciao,
Alberto

Lecture notes for "Climate change and global health" 2025 - University San Raffaele

"Climate change and global health" (CCGH) is a 12-hour module of the course on "Climate change and architecture for health" at the University San Raffaele in Milan. This page refers to the lectures delivered in the Fall semester of 2025.

The 12 hours of teaching will be delivered through in-presence frontal lectures. the study plan is as follows:

My interview at the TV show "Decoder" (Telereggio TV) on water resources management in Reggio Emilia (in Italian)

On October 3, 2025, I was interviewed at the TV show "Decoder" (Telereggio TV, chaired by Gabriele Franzini) on water resources management in Reggio Emilia. The interview is in Italian, for a duration of 30 minutes.

Thanks for your interest.
Best,
Alberto

Link to the video of the interview

Video of my contribution to the "Meet the Laureate" recognition of the 2025 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate

I was invited to join the "Meet the Laureate" recognition of the 2025 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate Prof. Guenter Bloeschl. The event was held in Stockholm on August 27, in the presence of His Majesty Carl XIV Gustaf and Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Victoria.

Attending the Stockholm Water Prize award ceremony was an interesting and delighting experience.

Thanks for your interest.
Ciao,
Alberto

Video of "Meet the Laureate" recognition (My contribution starts at time 44.40)

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Teaching

Tutorials of Coastal Engineering - 2022-2023

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.

Tutorials of Sustainable Design of Water Resources Systems - 2022

Sustainable Design of Water Resources Systems is concentrating on the management of water resources in the presence of increasing anthropogenic pressure and climate change. 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 2022

"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 from other Departments. Details are given here. Access is given to a maximum number of 200 students. The study plan is as follows:

Tutorials of Coastal Engineering - 2021

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.

Research

My presentation at the IAHS Peter Loucks Lecture titled "An impossible dream: The deterministic hydrologic prediction", Florianopolis, November 2024

I delivered the 2024 IAHS Peter Loucks Lecture in Florianopolis (Brasil) during the Joint IAHS IWRM-STAHY-EBE Conference. The title of the lecture was "An impossible dream: The deterministic hydrologic prediction". My presentation is available at the link below.

Thank you very much for your interest!
Ciao,
Alberto

 

Download presentation with animations (pdf, 31 Mb)

Scientific article: The IAHS Science for Solutions decade, with Hydrology Engaging Local People IN one Global world (HELPING)

The scientific paper "The IAHS Science for Solutions decade, with Hydrology Engaging Local People IN one Global world (HELPING)" is available online here. It is the presentation to the scientific community of the new IAHS scientific decade 2023-2032.

Thanks a lot for your interest.
Ciao,
Alberto

Scientific paper: Monitoring macroplastics in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems: Expert survey reveals visual and drone-based census as most effective techniques

The scientific paper "Monitoring macroplastics in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems: Expert survey reveals visual and drone-based census as most effective techniques" is available online here.

It's my first experience in the field of plastic transport in aquatic systems. Different monitoring techniques are evaluated through an expert survey.

Thank you for your interest!
Best,
Alberto

 

Bluecat: an extension of the approach and software to allow application to any environmental prediction or ensemble prediction

An extension of the Bluecat approach and software to allow uncertainty assessment for predictions given by any environmental (multi)model has been released in September 2024.

The extension is presented in a submitted paper, titled "Uncertainty estimation for environmental multimodel predictions: the BLUECAT approach and software". Preprint is available here.

Causes of the exceptional 2022 drought in the Po River Basin (in Italian). My presentation at the National Meeting of Hydraulics and Hydraulic Works, Parma, Sept 2024

My oral contribution titled "Causes of the exceptional 2022 drought in the Po River Basin" (in Italian) at the National Meeting of Hydraulics and Hydraulic Works  is available at the link below.

Thank you for your interest.

Ciao,
Alberto 

A "presentation mode" version of the ebook "A travel through time to explore past and future megadroughts"

I created a "presentation mode" version of the ebook "A travel through time to explore past and future megadroughts" (linked in the left column here) which can be downloaded at the link below. It is a powerpoint file that may be useful when presenting to an audience.

It also was an opportunity to revise the ebook and add a page on megadroughts during the "Common Era".

Enjoy your travel! If you have any comment please do send an email to me.

Thanks a lot.
Best,
Alberto

New scientific paper: "The sword of Damocles of the impossible flood"

We are pleased to report the publication of our (together with Guenter Bloeschl and Bruno Merz) opinion paper "The Sword of Damocles of the impossible flood". It discusses reasons why floods often call us by surprise.

This is main research focus at the moment, one of the central themes of my brand new project CO22Water. If you are interested please follow the web page of the project, there will be opportunities to contribute soon.

My presentation "Uncertainty assessment for predictions of natural hazard events and impact" at the workshop "Multi risk models from assessment to validation and implication for decision making" - Bari, June 2024

My presentation "Uncertainty assessment for predictions of natural hazard events and impact" at the workshop "Multi risk models from assessment to validation and implication for decision making", that took place in Bari during June 20-21 2024, is available at the link below.

Thanks a lot for your interest.

Ciao,
Alberto

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