RICERCA ITALIANA     

CUDAM

CENTER OF ADVANCED STUDIES OF HYDROGEOLOGICAL RISKS IN MOUNTAIN AREAS

Università degli Studi di Trento

Abstract

The creation of a Center for advanced studies of hydrogeological risks of mountain areas is proposed, with particular reference to sediment production, hillslope hydrogeology, debris and mud flows dynamics, alluvial fans and piedmont risks issues.

Up to now, these phenomena have been analyzed separately inside different disciplines and usually with focus on single aspects. It is urgent, important and possible to arrive to a set of conceptual, numerical and practical tools that present scientific rigor with an interdisciplinary approach. In particular, we are referring to generation and modeling of shallow landslide and debris flows, to the problems related to the evaluation in continuous time of the hydrological cycle, to solid discharges evaluation, to limited area precipitation forecasting, to the morphology of the mountain and piedmont rivers, to the role of vegetation on these phenomena.The Center is the framework in which researchers of the disciplines, that bring knowledge to the above phenomena, can jointly work: low atmospheric physics, hydrology, geology, forestry, topography, remote sensing and hydraulics. The Center wants to coordinate multidisciplinary researches on these fields and, at the same time, establish as a Center for advanced education for graduate and postgraduate national and international students. It will also support life-long education for technicians and professionals already working in the field of hydrogeological hazard>>>

Principal Investigator

Aronne ARMANINI Università degli Studi di TRENTO

International Relationship

The proponent group has a relatively large number of researchers who are internationally recognized experts in the fields relevant to CUDAM. However, with the aim of becoming a center of national and international interest, the Center has the goal to establish (or better consolidate) a series of co-operation relationships with several national and international research and productive structures. CUDAM will cooperates with the Italian Universities and the centres of CNR and the operative units of the Gruppo Nazionale per la Difesa dalle Catastrofi Idrologiche del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (National Hydrological Hazard Prevention Group of the Research National Council). In particular, among these:

- the research group on hydrology, geomorphology and river networks of the University of Padova led by Prof. Andrea Rinaldo, with whom a long-standing and consolidated scientific co-operation relationship exists;

-the research group on geology and geomorphology of the University of Padova led by Prof. Rinaldo Genevois, who is co-operating with the University of Trento within EU projects;

- the research group on hydrodynamics and river morphology led by Prof. Giovanni Seminara of the University of Genova, with whom a long and consolidated scientific co-operation relationship exists;

At an international level, the following professors already declared their intention to collaborate with the Center:
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Research Objectives

The Center will be placed in the Campus of the Engineering Faculty of the University of Trento, which is being provided with a new Laboratory of Hydraulics, some equipped experimental basins, a computer centre for data processing and development of mathematical and numerical models. Researches will be carried out mostly locally but in connection with other national and international research institutions.

The Center will lodge visiting professors and students in structures available at the University of Trento, such as for example the new center Augsburgerhof which is being rehabilitated. It will be also able to support advanced educational and research activities for students of different Ph.D.courses interested in these topics.

One of the aims of the Centre is also to be a technical support to public administrations for the creation of monitoring systems, basins plans, hydrological risk plans and hazard prevention and for the evaluation of the impacts of hazards on structures and for the elaboration of interventions for the reduction of their environmental impacts.

The Center will also focus on advanced educational activities, organising:

- Courses within the framework of the European Engineering Graduate School of Environment Water (EGW) of the International Association for Hydraulic Research (IAHR), of which the host-Department is member.

- Advanced courses for the students of different>>>