Research

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)

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

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

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.

On June 15 I have been interviewed by the TV channel TRC. The discussion focused on flood and drought risk.

The interview can be watched here. The video has been kindly provided by TRC.

Thank you for your interest.
Ciao,
Alberto

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 

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

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", that took place in Bari during June 20-21 2024, is available at the link below.

Thanks a lot for your interest.

Ciao,
Alberto

My presentation at the EGU2024 General Assembly titled "Why the 2022 Po River drought is the worst ever observed" is available for download at the link below.

Thanks for your interest.
Ciao,
Alberto

My invited presentation (together with Pierluigi Claps and Paola Pagliara) titled "Civil protection in Italy: origin, evolution and future perspectives" (in Italian)  at the meeting "80 Years of Hydrology" (Salerno, January 23-24, 2024) is available for download at the link below.

It is a celebration of the contributions by Fabio Rossi and Lino Versace to civil protection.

Thank you for your interest.

Ciao,
Alberto

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 "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 

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 "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 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

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:

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.

Stochastic amplification of climate change into floods and droughts change

Summary

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.