Climatology and hydrology

Contact: Marzia Ciampittiello (Unit of Verbania)
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hydrolgy1 hydrology2

The Climatology and Hydrology Group of CNR-ISE is formed by one researcher, one technician and two fellow researchers. Our research concentrates on impact of climate change on ecosystems, evaluating rainfall and river flow data, in particular in the areas of Lake Maggiore, Candia and Viverone catchments, and on impacts of human activities on lakes and river ecosystems. We are also developing a new infrastructure for hydro-meteorological stations based on Internet of Data (IoD) and Internet of Things (IoT), open software, web-services and OGC.
Our work deals with the analysis of the impacts of climate change on water resource, in particular on rivers and lakes, evaluating the hydrological balance, through static and dynamic models. We evaluate the trend of long time series and of extreme events, through dedicated statistical analyses, in particular on drought and flood periods as indicators of climate change, and on their impact on environmental and on human security.
We analyze the impact of human activities such as hydroelectric power or water supply, the presence of dam or artificialization along rivers and lakes shores, developing survey methods with other national and international research institutes: we worked with CNR IRSA for developing the CARAVAGGIO (Core Assessment of River hAbitat VAlue and hydro-morpholoGIcal cOndition) methods for hydro morphological assessment in rivers and as well as with the Environmental Ministry and University of Dundee, to develop an Italian survey method for hydromorphological assessment for lakes: Lake Habitat Survey (LHS) methods.

Research

We develop our research at the Institute of Ecosystem Study and therefore our analyses and activities have to take into consideration ecosystem services, ecological aspects, pressure and impact on biological elements, in addition to climate change, hydro-meteorological aspects, hydro-morphology and hydraulics features of rivers and lakes, pressure and impact on water researcher, human safety and socio-economic point of view. For this reason, we collaborate with biologists and chemists to develop different research programs in various fields.
For example, we work with the Environment Ministry for the application of the Water Frame Directive (WFD 2000/60) in Italy, with focus on hydromorphological parameters in lakes and on the evaluation of infrastructures and anthropic activities impacts on lake ecosystems quality, applying the LHS method. Consequentially we participated at the CEN working group on lake hydromorphology (CEN TC 230/WG 2/TG 5).
Also we worked on Life project LIFE + INHABIT – “Local hydro-morphology, habitat and RBMPs: new measures to improve ecological quality in South European rivers and lakes”, in order to understand the correlation among biological parameters (phytoplankton, machrophytes, macrobenthos and fishes) and ecological quality and the hydromorphological quality and their impacts on biological communities. The two temporary member of our staff have carried out two PhD thesis, one on rainfall extreme events with high-resolution, in the Lake Maggiore catchment, evaluating trend and their changing in time and in space, performing their regional frequency analysis and adopting extreme value distributions like TCEV (Two-Component Extreme Value Distribution) and GEV (Generalized extreme value distribution) (http://eprints.uniss.it/8253/).
The second PhD focused on the evaluation of the Optimal Flow Discharge that has to be released downstream from water intake structures. We are also working on innovative research projects in the field of Internet of data (IOD) and for integrated and innovative applications of acquisition, management and organization of environmental data related to lake basins. From this recent research it has been possible to realized new typologies of hydro-meteorological stations, more flexible and configurable; in the future, we would like to extend our tests on other typology of measurement devices such as geophone (realized yet), phreatic layer, correntometer. Having to organize, analyses and elaborate a lot of data we are working, too, on database, software of validation rules and mathematical model to data analysis and data validation.

Facilities

We often carry out field surveys, in order to apply CARAVAGGIO and LHS methods, and to measure river flow with the current meter or floatings, useful during floods

Some recent research projects

  • Project POR FESR 07/13 – Regional announcement in support of industrial research development of integrated and innovative applications in the field of Internet of data IOD - Axis I, Innovation and Production Transition - Action I.1.3 Innovation and PMI - PITAGORA (A Platform of Interoperable Technology for the acquisition, management and organization of environmental data related to lake basin). (July 2014 - July 2015).
  • Project “Clean Water: The ecological quality of torrential ecosystems and hydroelectric power” - IDROENERGY S.r.l., and ARS.UNI.VCO (June 2014 – June 2015)
  • Project INTERREG STRADA – “Strategie di adattamento ai cambiamenti climatici per la gestione dei rischi naturali”, Programma Operativo di Cooperazione Transfrontaliera Italia-Svizzera 2007-2013, nell’ambito della misura 1.1 "Gestione dei rischi naturali", (2010-2013) for the statistical analyses of the extreme rainfall events in the catchment of Lake Maggiore.
  • Research on the evolution of Lake Maggiore, limnological aspects - "Meteo-hydrological features and climate”. CIPAIS (2001- ongoing).
  • Working Group on lake hydro-morphology for WFD (Water Framework Directive) 2000/60, from September 2007 ongoing; Environment Ministry.
  • Working group of CEN (European Committee for Standardisation) for a standard method for assessing lake hydromorphology (CEN TC 230/WG 2/TG 5). (2010-2014)