Adina Moraru

Adina Moraru
Norwegian University of Science and Technology | NTNU · Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Doctor of Engineering
i) Identification of flood-prone areas with geomorphic analysis, ii) Visualization of geophysical flows.

About

33
Publications
10,789
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77
Citations
Introduction
I hold a BSc in Environmental Sciences, a pre-MSc in Geological Engineering, and a MSc in Geological Hazards. My Master’s thesis focused on the study of geomorphic indicators controlling channel widening during flash floods affecting the uppermost areas of selected European rivers. After graduating I was appointed Journal Manager for Geologica Acta. I am currently a PhD candidate and research the hydraulics and geomorphology of flash floods in steep mountain rivers and hazard communication.
Additional affiliations
November 2018 - October 2024
Norwegian University of Science and Technology
Position
  • PhD Candidate
Description
  • Optimization of Hydraulic Simulations for the Visualization of Flash Floods in Steep Rivers, within the project World of Wild Waters (WoWW) www.woww.no
February 2017 - August 2023
University of Barcelona
Position
  • Research Affiliate
Description
  • Collaborating in the study of rivers in steep terrains affected by recent flood events. Proceedings of the "Geomorphology of the Antropocene: effects of the climate change in geomorphologic processes" congress (Palma de Mallorca, Spain, September 2018) and Ruiz-Villanueva et al. (2023).
February 2017 - July 2017
University of Geneva
Position
  • Research Assistant
Description
  • Guest researcher at the Institute of Environmental Sciences, where I studied geomorphic indicators controlling channel widening during 10 flash flood events affecting the uppermost areas of 54 European rivers. The outcome was published as a report in the digital repository of the University of Barcelona: Moraru, A. (2017).
Education
November 2023 - November 2023
Durham University & Queen Mary University of London
Field of study
  • Reproducibility, Big Data, and Data Sharing in Geomorphology
January 2021 - March 2021
Politecnico di Milano
Field of study
  • Leadership & Management, Research Ethics & Good Scientific Practice, Pitch your Research to Key Audiences
June 2019 - June 2019
University of Bologna
Field of study
  • W.A.T.E.R. Workshop on Advanced measurement Techniques and Experimental Research

Publications

Publications (33)
Presentation
Full-text available
Masterclass on the "Uses, challenges and limitations of applying Digital Twins in watersheds for acute and long-term flood management". Presentation topic assigned by the assessment committee of the PhD thesis titled "Optimization of hydraulic models for the visualization of flash floods in steep rivers", as part of the requirements for the PhD de...
Presentation
Full-text available
Presentation slides of the PhD thesis https://hdl.handle.net/11250/3157347
Thesis
Full-text available
Flash floods in unconfined rivers have become more frequent and severe, causing significant damage to infrastructure and inducing widespread evacuations. Understanding the inundation area, water depths, and flow velocities of such events is critical for identifying flood-prone areas and developing effective communication strategies to support vulne...
Article
Full-text available
Conducting fieldwork in polar regions presents a multifaceted challenge not only because of the remoteness of the environment, but also potential geopolitical disputes, language barriers, divergent national policies, and disparities in emergency healthcare access. This review addresses the climate crisis and reevaluates the ethical considerations o...
Poster
Full-text available
This research aims to simplify and enhance the analysis and visualization of flood-prone areas in Norwegian rivers, with a primary emphasis on Sokna river. Utilizing remote sensing and GIS analysis, our objective is to advance flood risk assessment and management by integrating hydraulic data from numerical models, remotely sensed geomorphic featur...
Article
Full-text available
This paper presents a comprehensive Virtual Reality (VR) based framework for visualizing numerical simulations of geophysical flows in a realistic and immersive manner. The framework allows integrating output data from various mesh-based Eulerian numerical models into a VR environment, enabling users to interact with and explore the terrain and geo...
Article
Full-text available
Climate change is rapidly reshaping the research landscape in the polar regions. As such, Early Career Researchers (ECRs) face increasingly daunting challenges. In this opinion piece, we report on the challenges that early career researchers confront as they seek opportunities for professional development and career advancement in polar research in...
Poster
Full-text available
Dear colleagues, we want to invite you to submit an abstract to our session at the next EGU meeting in Vienna, April 14-19, 2024: Rivers’ morphological response to extreme events and anthropogenic impacts (GM11.2) We welcome contributions dealing with i) the analysis of recent channel changes driven by climate extremes (i.e., floods and drought)...
Article
Full-text available
Efficient flood risk assessment and communication are essential for responding to increasingly recurrent flash floods. However, access to high-end data center computing is limited for stakeholders. This study evaluates the accuracy-speed trade-off of a hydraulic model by (i) assessing the potential acceleration of high-performance computing in PCs...
Article
River widening, defined as a lateral expansion of the channel, is a critical process that maintains fluvial ecosystems and is part of the regular functioning of rivers. However, in areas with high population density, channel widening can cause damage during floods. Therefore, for effective flood risk management it is essential to identify river rea...
Poster
Full-text available
The 2017 flash flood affecting Storelva in Utvik (West Norway), with an average slope of >10% in the ungauged reach, was reconstructed using visual observations during the event, as well as post-event field data and remote sensing. The dataset was then used for i) roughness calibration and sensitivity analysis, ii) validation of a 2D hydrodynamic m...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The maximum inundation area, critical locations, and flow paths in the wetted area of a flash flood in a steep river were reconstructed using remote sensing combined with post-event field investigation and soft data. The soft data contrasted with control points and used to assemble the flood extension included newspaper articles, photographs and vi...
Poster
Full-text available
Watch recorded presentation here: https://youtu.be/AlfzGh1RrPo The maximum inundation area, critical locations, and flow paths in the wetted area of a flash flood in a steep river were reconstructed using remote sensing combined with post-event field investigation and soft data. The soft data contrasted with control points and used to assemble the...
Article
Full-text available
Flash floods can cause great geomorphological changes in ephemeral fluvial systems and result in particularly severe damages for the unprepared population exposed to it. The flash flood in the Storelva river in Utvik (western Norway) on 24 July 2017 was witnessed and documented. This study assessed the causes and effects of the 2017 flood and provi...
Data
All the data needed to build a numerical model of the study case described in the manuscript "The story of a steep river: causes and effects of the flash flood on 24 July 2017 in western Norway", including the shapefiles of roads, buildings, bridges, the dimensions and openings of the three still-standing bridges (a, b, d) as measured after the flo...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Recorded presentation: https://youtu.be/LDDONUuKaI4 Visualizing results is more important than ever in scientific dissemination. The analysis and communication of complex phenomena such as flash floods requires new approaches. The target is using a state-of-the-art model with a fast and robust predictive capability, which has been tested in small,...
Presentation
Full-text available
Presentation of the World of Wild Waters project and how realistic 3D visualization of floods can provide decision makers a realistic experience and help to communicate flood risk. Video: https://youtu.be/BFTfpbKQtmw
Poster
Full-text available
Recorded presentation: https://youtu.be/LDDONUuKaI4 The analysis and communication of complex phenomena such as flash floods requires new approaches. The target is using a state-of-the-art model with a fast and robust predictive capability, which has been tested in a small, steep Norwegian river affected by a recent flash flood, and visualizing th...
Chapter
The numerical tools simulating flood events must be accurate, in order to provide useful data, and computationally efficient, to facilitate informed decision-making during a flood. One of the main limitations of modelling software at the present time is the CPU time needed to perform simulations over complex spatial domains. Recent studies show tha...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
The numerical tools simulating flood events must be accurate, in order to provide useful data, and computationally efficient, to facilitate informed decision-making during a flood. One of the main limitations of modelling software at the present time is the CPU time needed to perform simulations over complex spatial domains. Recent studies show tha...
Presentation
Full-text available
Presentation for the conference paper of the same title presented at the 10th International Conference in Fluvial Hydraulics (River Flow 2020). [ABSTRACT] The numerical tools simulating flood events must be accurate, in order to provide useful data, and computationally efficient, to facilitate informed decision-making during a flood. One of the...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Visualizing results is more important than ever in scientific dissemination. Natural hazards are complex phenomena; their examination and illustration call for a holistic approach when studying them and improving their communication in order to save lives and cost. In this paper, we present an overview of different methodologies ruling the visualiz...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
Planform variation and hydrodynamics in steep rivers were characterized based on the combination of 2D hydrodynamic simulations and GIS tools. The idealization of topography (i.e. slope) and hydrology (i.e. discharge) permitted analysing their relevance and effect in river's response to identify critical locations in case of flooding. A total of 24...
Preprint
Full-text available
Planform changes and hydrodynamics in steep water courses were characterized based on the combination of 2D hydrodynamic simulations and GIS tools. The idealization of topography (i.e. slope) and hydrology (i.e. discharge) permitted analysing their relevance and effect in river’s response to identify critical locations. A total of 24 scenarios were...
Poster
Full-text available
Natural disasters are responsible for fatalities and economic losses worldwide, and among them, floods are the most widespread and cause the highest damages. A significant amount of the damages related to floods are caused by the associated geomorphic processes (e.g. bank erosion and channel widening). River response to floods can vary significantl...
Chapter
Full-text available
Natural disasters are responsible for fatalities and economic losses worldwide, and among them, floods are the most widespread and cause the highest damages. A significant amount of the damages related to floods are caused by the associated geomorphic processes (e.g. bank erosion and channel widening). River response to floods can vary significantl...
Chapter
Full-text available
The basins of Portainé and Romadriu: Sensitivity to change and anthropogenic and natural controlling factors. At the headwaters of the Portainé basin (Eastern Pyrenees, Catalonia) the ski resort of Port Ainé was inaugurated in 1986. Since then, its facilities generated alterations in the vegetation at the headwaters that changed its hydrological fu...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
At the headwaters of the Portainé basin (Eastern Pyrenees, Catalonia) the ski resort of Port Ainé was inaugurated in 1986. Since then, its facilities generated alterations in the vegetation at the headwaters that changed its hydrological functioning. The result was the exceedance of a geomorphological threshold (in 2006 - 2008) and a change in the...
Thesis
Full-text available
As one of the most threatening geological hazards, flash floods have noteworthy geomorphic effects (e.g. erosional and depositional modifications of the pre-event channel), hence, the main aim of this study was to provide an understanding of geomorphic indicators controlling channel widening during flood events. Floods over the past fifteen years a...
Presentation
Full-text available
Presentation of the thesis of the same title (MANUSCRIPT AVAILABLE AT: http://hdl.handle.net/2445/115638). ABSTRACT: As one of the most threatening geological hazards, flash floods have noteworthy geomorphic effects (e.g. erosional and depositional modifications of the pre-event channel), hence, the main aim of this study was to provide an understa...
Thesis
Full-text available
The study of the same sample at different levels or scales of observation allows to compile complementary information with the different techniques used. Quartz is an abundant component in soils, and has been considered a relatively stable mineral in most edaphic environments. However, several studies conducted in the last decade have questioned it...

Questions

Questions (2)
Question
I am mostly familiar with the concept of slope in geography, and can tell if the terrain goes uphill or downhill based on the sign of the slope (positive in the first case, and negative in the latter). So I estimated my river's average slope and used it when defining the boundary conditions. However, I used a negative value, as my river goes downhill (and the slope is quite steep), and I've noticed that some HEC-RAS users mainly use the slope with positive values when setting the boundary conditions.
Does the sign actually affect the resulting model, or rather HEC-RAS takes the absolute value of slope?
Question
I just noticed that Research Gate does not detect References in Book Chapters and Conference Papers nor Posters, even though these have an explicit References section, thus, they do not add citations to those cited in them. Why is that?

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