Integrated water resources analysis and planning

Research focus

The Peer review has evaluated this group as Good

- Integrated water resources management. The Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) para-digm has been worldwide recognized as the only feasible way currently available to ensure a sustainable perspective in planning and managing water resource systems. Here the focus is on the impact of com-bined sewerage loads on rivers, on real-time control of urban drainage systems, on planning and man-agement of urban water supply and wastewater removal systems (Artina et al. 2005), and on stochastic methods for calibration and long-term simulation of water resources systems. This includes field and laboratory investigation of complex urban systems, and the development of Decision Support Systems for planning and management of urban drainage. Fundamental research is also carried out in the area of mathematical modeling for water resources analysis and planning (Montaldo et al. 2006). - Environmental fluid and pollutant dynamics. This research area includes theoretical and laboratory inves-tigation on boundary layer interaction in channels that plays a major role in controlling sediment deposi-tion, erosion and nutrient fluxes for the aquatic biota (Ioveno et al., 2004, Parodi et al. 2004). Lab ex-periments involve innovative methods for shear stress measurement for skin friction assessment in com-plex channel geometry (Bocchiola et al. 2003). Also, both field experiments and simulation studies are developed to understand pollutants transport and diffusion dynamics in artificial and natural streams, in-cluding the effect on the aquatic ecosystem, and to develop simulation models aimed at identifying the appropriate strategies for environmental impact mitigation. - Land surface processes. Research focus is on hydrological modeling for soil-water balance and soil-vegetation-atmosphere transfer, and monitoring water and energetic fluxes between surface and atmos-phere (Montaldo et al. 2003, 2005). Mathematical models integrate soil moisture dynamics, runoff, the in-teraction of surface water fluxes with below groundwater, groundwater dynamics, and the growth of the vegetation in order to understand hydrological control of biota (Montaldo et al. 2005, Detto et al. 2006). Model calibration and validation requires field monitoring experiments on water and energetic fluxes be-tween surface, vegetation and atmosphere, these including the development of advanced techniques (e.g. eddy correlation).

Dipartimento di afferenza

Dipartimento di Ingegneria Idraulica, Ambientale, Infrastrutture Viarie, Rilevamento (DIIAR)

Docenti afferenti

Full Professor
Marco MANCINI
Alessandro PAOLETTI
Associate Professor
Gianfranco BECCIU
Giuseppe Passoni
Assistant Professor
Daniele Bocchiola
Umberto Sanfilippo