Seminars Excellence Project - January, 16, 2025
Speaker: Dr. Francesco Marra | Thursday 16 January, 4.30 p.m. | Arduino Classroom Speaker: Dott. Andrea Brenna | Thursday 16 January, 5 p.m. | Arduino Classroom
16.01.2025
Monitoring heavy rainfall in the Alps
Heavy rainfall in the Alps is typically convective in nature, and is capable of triggering natural disasters such as floods and debris flows. These convective processes develop at space and time scales that conventional monitoring systems are not able to monitor. Consequently, the atmospheric controls on these hazards are poorly understood, leading to uncertain warning and risk management. This seminar will show real life examples of the problems we face in monitoring these heavy rainstorms, and will discuss how climate change is enhancing their intensity and frequency, thus exacerbating the potential impacts.
Geomorphic dynamics in mountain streams triggered by severe floods: processes, impacts, and hazard mapping
During high-magnitude to extreme flood events, whose intensity and frequency is currently exacerbated by the occurrence of heavy rainfalls under the effects of climate change, streams undergo geomorphological dynamics that differ significantly from those observed under ordinary hydrological conditions. Intense processes of bank erosion and sediment transport can lead to substantial modifications in the riverchannel's morphology, with important implications for flood-related hazards. This is particularly evident in mountainous environments, where geomorphological processes such as channel widening and enhanced sediment transport, sometimes manifesting as debris floods or debris flows, represent the main source of hazard, and potentially risk, related to floods. Drawing primarily on a series of examples collected from the Cordevole River catchment (Dolomites, Italy) following the October 2018 Vaia Storm, this seminar addresses the following topics: (i) advances in the understanding of river geomorphic dynamics in response to high-magnitude floods; and (ii) geomorphic approaches available for mapping flood hazards driven by river channel dynamics, with a focus on risk mitigation particularly in anthropized areas.
