Climate Change Adaptation (Floods and Water Resources in a Changing Climate for student of physics) 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 with 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 designing climate resilient environmental systems in the presence of human impact.
It is a course delivered at the School of Engineering that can be attended as an elective subject by any student at Unibo (but please check the guidelines and regulation of your study plan). The approach is both narrative and quantitative, with some reference to mathematical modelling. To facilitate attendance to non-engineering students the mathematical treatment will be confined to few lectures and the exam will take place with different questions for engineering versus non-engineering students. Moreover, alternative topics will be proposed to non-engineering students in lieu of those that are specifically targeted to engineering. It is an innovative approach and therefore I will do my best to make students comfortable and allow an interdisciplinary approach. The course includes 8 hours of exercises at the personal computer. These are not compulsory. Exercises will be developed in close cooperation with the teacher.
The first lectures will deliver the basis of science of climate change and then the course will focus on its impact with particular reference to the water cycle. Decision theory will be introduced to resolve the problem of communicating climate change and reaching convergence between different solutions to mitigate its consequences. Reference will be made to the most recent innovation and modelling solutions, with an interdisciplinary perspective. Dialogue with the students will be an essential ingredient of the teaching method.
On-line lectures
The course adheres to the Unibo experimentation of innovative teaching and learning. As such, the Thursday lectures will be delivered online (beware that online lectures will end on April 20), with an innovative use of teaching tools. The Monday's lectures will be delivered in physical presence with online streaming. Video recordings of the lectures will be made available on YouTube and Virtuale soon after the lectures.
Lectures will be delivered in physical presence and contemporary streaming video. Videos of the lectures will be recorded and made available open access on YouTube (see below).
Interactive learning
The course promotes teaching methods based on the active participation by students by using innovative technologies and social media. A fundamental role is played by the interaction between students and teachers. The idea is to integrate the traditional one-way flow of knowledge from teacher to student with a feedback flow from student to teacher and a cross flow among students. The target is achieved by assigning an active role to the student during his/her education. Innovative teaching methods may include:
- Short presentations by students;
- Groups Question&Answers sessions "Challenge the teacher";
- Self evaluation by students;
- Interim check of students' opinion on the course.
Tutorial documents
The tutorials for the course will be delivered in the form of open web pages, open media and freely accessible videos of all the lectures, for the sake of developing academic education through fully open information. Tutorial web pages for the lectures (the list may be updated during the course depending on the ambition and preferences of students):
- Introduction
- Premise - The learning process adopted in the course
- The Earth system
- The climate change problem
- Sustainability in the 21st century
- Risk based adaptation design
- Sustainable management of water resources
- Climate change and water
- Inductive and deductive estimation of climate change and climate impact
- Model calibration and validation
- Decision theory
- Design of climate change adaptation actions
Tutorial web pages for the practical exercises (the list may be updated during the course depending on the ambition and preferences of students):
- Short introduction to R and R Studio
- Exercise - Computation of the probability density function for the Po River at Pontelagoscuro.
- Exercise - Computation of risk associated to flood events. Suggested R code
- Exercise - Trend analysis for a time series of daily river flows. Suggested R code
- Exercise: Application of the linear reservoir rainfall-runoff model Mean areal rainfall and evapotranspiration data (hourly data for one year) River flow data (hourly data for one year). Suggested R code
- Application of pairwise comparison for decision making. The theory of pairwise comparison was only briefly introduced during the lectures. The text and suggested R code of the exercise give all the required information and details.
The above lectures will be linked in the web page of the course in Virtuale, that is accessible with student's credentials. Please contact the teacher if you do not have access to this page. The virtual classroom is accessible by clicking here.
Videos of the lectures
The videos of the lectures are available at the link below: Playlist of Climate Change Adaptation 2024. Videos will be made available within one week after the lecture.
Calendar of the lectures
All the lectures will be delivered by Alberto and will take place in room TA10 in Via Terracini 28 on Monday and online on Thursday. The calendar of the lectures is given here below. Please note that changes may occur. Any change will be communicated by the teacher to the students one week earlier at the latest.
- Feb 19, 3 hours physical presence
- Feb 26, 3 hours physical presence
- Feb 29, 2 hours online
- March 4, 3 hours physical presence
- March 7, 2 hours online
- March 11, 3 hours physical presence
- March 14, 2 hours online
- March 21, 2 hours online
- March 25, 3 hours physical presence
- April 4, 2 hours online
- April 8, 3 hours physical presence
- April 11, 2 hours online
- April 22, 3 hours physical presence
- April 29, 3 hours physical presence
- May 2, 2 hours online
- May 6, 3 hours physical presence
- May 13, 3 hours physical presence
- May 20, 4 hours physical presence + visit in the lab.
Exam
Learning outcome will be assessed through a online quiz plus a short oral examination. The quiz will count 30 questions with close answer and no penalty for wrong answers, with a duration of 30 minutes. Quiz will be different for non-engineering students. The oral will be very short. The exam is in physical presence. The oral aims to assess the ability of the student to deliver a clear and well articulated presentation (this question could be addressed with an interactive activity). Questions are related to the topics that are taught during the lectures and are explained in the supporting documents. The teacher may ask questions not directly related to what has been discussed during the lecture in order to assess outstanding capabilities of the student to integrate the notions delivered by the teacher. The highest score (30/30) is reserved to students who demonstrate a full knowledge of the notions, a very good ability to address questions through an efficient synthesis, and a very good presentation. The laude is reserved to students who demonstrate exceptional motivation and integrate the course content with additional notions by following their personal interest and attitude. Exam dates will be fixed in agreement with the students at the beginning of the course. Exam will take place in the laboratory LADI, Via Terracini 28. Access is through the internal door of the Dept. DICAM, close to the building entrance located on the side of the labs. Door is closed, please wait for me to open. Exam dates are (starting time is sharp, ending time is flexible depending on the number of students):
- June 11, from 9 am to 12 noon;
- June 27, from 9 am to 12 noon;
- July 17, from 9 am to 12 noon.
Contact details of the teacher and individual clarifications
The teacher is available to provide clarifications on request, by receiving individual students or groups. The office of the teacher is located at the Section of Costruzioni Idrauliche of the Department DICAM, ground floor of the"old building", Via del Risorgimento 2. Teacher can be contacted by email.
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