Laboratory of Climate Change Adaptation will propose practical activities finalized to obtain publicly available past and future climatic scenarios, test their validity with the support of data visualization and make their evidence-based analysis for estimating project variables. Open source software will be used to download and analyse the output from global climate models, downscale the data at local spatial scale and fine time scale, detect climate change and its spatial variability. Several climatic variables will be considered by focusing on their physical and statistical behaviours and the reliability of their simulations.
I am teaching 12 hours of the course, focusing first on open source operating systems, coding languages (Python and R) and visualisation tools. Then, climate scenario generation with climate models and open data from public repositories will be considered, for the purpose of estimating project variables under future climate. Reference will be made to case studies, including the case of the Strait of Messina Bridge, that is projected to be the longer suspension bridge ever designed (see here the list of the longest suspension bridge spans). Teacher and students will work together step by step by starting from the basis with a collaborative approach to learning basing on open material and information. A special focus is dedicated to wind, storm, geological and water related impacts and the disaster and the marine and land environments.
On-line lectures
The course adheres to the Unibo experimentation of innovative teaching and learning. As such, some of the lectures may be delivered online, with an innovative use of teaching tools. The calendar of online lectures will be decided later by interacting with students to fit their needs. 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 online, in any case with contemporary streaming video.
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.
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 will integrated, completed and updated (some lectures may be removed) during the course depending on the ambition and preferences of students; links will be made available during the semester):
- Introduction: the Strait of Messina Bridge;
- Operating systems and virtual machines: Windows, Linux, macOS, Virtualbox, WMware;
- Linux operating system and Python/R programming languages;
- 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
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: Playlist of Climate Change Adaptation and Laboratory of Climate Change Adaptation 2025. Videos will be made available within one week after the lecture.
Calendar of the lectures
All the lectures of my part of the course will be delivered by Alberto and will take place at the rooms of Ex-Asili, via Tombesi dell'Ova, Ravenna. 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.
- September 25, 4 hours, 11-13 and 14-16;
- October 9, 4 hours, 11-13 and 14-16;
- October 30, 4 hours, 11-13 and 14-16.
Exam
Learning outcome will be assessed by inviting the student to individually present a case study (a climate scenario, a code for analysing data etc). The teacher will ask the student specific questions related to the presented case. 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 Ravenna, in location to be defined.
Contact details of the teacher and individual clarifications
The teacher is available to provide clarifications on request, by receiving individual students or groups. Teacher can be contacted by email to fix appointments.
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