Giovanna Grossi

University of Brescia | UNIBS · Department of Civil, Environmental, Architectural Engineering and Mathematics

The present work presents a bi-objective optimization methodology, which is aimed at simultaneously minimizing the total installation costs of management systems as well as urban flooding, as a tool to be conveniently adopted as part of a decision support system to help identify the optimal location of best management practices (BMPs). For each sub...

Climate change is significantly impacting water resources, especially in arid regions. This study evaluates its effects on groundwater in the Al-Badan sub-catchment, Palestine, by analyzing hydroclimatic data from 1990 to 2020 and the future predicted climate change scenarios. Using the Mann-Kendall test and Sen’s slope estimator, a significant ann...

This study highlights the intricate relationship between population growth, water demand, and infrastructure development in Dura city. As population surges, so does the demand for water, posing challenges in meeting citizensʹ evolving needs. Analysis indicates a consistent upward trend in Duraʹs population, growing at an average rate of 2.5% annual...

The analysis of precipitation, temperature, and snow water equivalent (SWE) trends offers a scientific approach for understanding the impacts of climate change. This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of climate change indicators in Lombardy, Italy, covering the yearly and monthly trends of precipitation and temperature from 1990 to 2020. Addi...

In the last decades urbanization, population growth and climate change have been putting a strain on the efficiency of urban water systems all over the world. Conventional centralized water infrastructures, especially pipe networks and most of the grey infrastructures, have often shown their inadequacy to handle the increasingly water flow volumes...

Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) is a way of organizing research where scientists work together with non-governmental organizations, communities, and other groups of the society to co-create new knowledge or understanding about community issues. The new knowledge can be later used to attain change in the community. The basic idea behin...

The impact of climate change on water availability is alarming, both globally and locally. The city of Brescia has a large reserve of water deriving from the aquifer, the presence of springs and numerous streams, for a water supply system serving 200,000 inhabitants. The aim of this study was to project Brescia’s spring discharge for two future per...

Green roofs present several advantages at multiple scales. However, the applications are still not spread enough, which could be mainly due to the uncertainty about some factors such as water consumption in the dry season, the usage of the roof for other purposes like solar panels, and the construction issues such as initial and maintenance costs....

Bias correction (BC) is often a necessity to improve the applicability of global and regional climate model (GCM and RCM, respectively) outputs to impact assessment studies, which usually depend on multiple potentially dependent variables. To date, various BC methods have been developed which adjust climate variables separately (univariate BC) or j...

Bias correction (BC) is often a necessity to improve the applicability of global and regional climate model (GCM and RCM, respectively) outputs to impact assessment studies, which usually depend on multiple potentially dependent variables. To date, various BC methods have been developed which adjust climate variables separately (univariate BC) or j...

The application of gridded precipitation datasets as a substitute of limited ground observation over mountainous regions is challenging due to considerable biases and needs adjustments before their application in subsequent impact models. In this study, four commonly used precipitation bias correction (BC) methods were evaluated for their skills to...

According to a very recent report of the European Environment Agency (EEA, 2020), urban adaptation to climate change requires special attention to extreme weather events and particularly heavy storms, as they are expected to cause the most pronounced impacts in European cities. In agreement with this direction, some Italian regions are setting regu...

Analisi dell'evoluzione dell'area urbana • Stima del coefficiente udometrico • Effetti combinati dell'espansione urbana e del cambiamento climatico sulla stima della portata critica per i collettori fognari 1 PREMESSA Le città italiane sono un esempio emblematico delle criticità idraulico-ambientali che derivano dall'intensa impermeabilizzazione de...

The study presents a comprehensive assessment of the key terrestrial water budget (TWB) components and their recent temporal trends using observed and gridded datasets across Upper Jhelum Basin (UJB) for the period of 2003-2014. Different gridded datasets were used for precipitation-P (APHRODITE, CHIRPS, PGMFD, ERA-5, and MSWEP), evapotranspiration...

The increasing rate of occurrence of extreme events (droughts and floods) and their rapid transition magnify the associated socio-economic impacts with respect to those caused by the individual event. Understanding of spatio-temporal evolution of wet–dry events collectively, their characteristics, and the transition (wet to dry and dry to wet) is t...

ESTESO L'aumento di intensità e variabilità dei processi idrologici previsto a livello globale anche dalla recentissima pubbli-cazione dell'IPCC (IPCC, 2021) rappresenta per i centri urbani un potenziale incremento di vulnerabilità rispetto al rischio di piene urbane. A livello europeo, la dispersione urbana e il conseguente consumo di suolo aument...

Aiming at closing the gap between the academy and the civil society, participatory research initiatives set the favorable framework for public engagement and awareness raising on environmental issues. Local communities and stakeholders can play an active role in the research process, also by sharing their experience and field knowledge. The academy...

High-resolution seasonal and annual precipitation climatologies for the Upper Indus Basin were developed on the basis of 1995–2017 precipitation normals obtained from four-gridded datasets (APHRODITE, CHIRPS, PERSIANN-CDR, and ERA5) and the quality-controlled high- and mid-elevation station observations. Monthly precipitation is estimated through t...

Climate change is globally causing more intense meteorological phenomena. Our cities experience increased rainfall intensity, more intense heat waves, and prolonged droughts providing economic, social, health and environmental challenges. Combined with population growth and rapid urbanization, the increasing impact of climate change will make our c...

The evaluation of sediment yield by water erosion taking into consideration the possible impact of climate change is the object of this work, concerning the use of the Modified Universal Soil Loss Equation (MUSLE) in an Italian case study. This empirical model was implemented in a Geographical Information System, taking into account Alpine hydrolog...

The increasing rate of extreme events (Droughts and floods) and their rapid transition magnifies the associated socio-economic impacts than the individual event. Understanding of spatio-temporal evolution of wet-dry events collectively, their characteristics and transition (wet to dry and dry to wet) is therefore significant to identify and locate...

Principio di invarianza idraulica e idrologica in Emilia-Romagna e Lombardia. • Applicazione della metodologia ad un caso studio nelle regioni d'Italia considerate. • Confronto dei regolamenti di invarianza idraulica e idrologica nelle regioni d'Italia considerate. 1 INTRODUZIONE Il continuo aumento dell'urbanizzazione e i cambiamenti climatici in...

The climate change of the last half century is globally causing an increasingly in violent meteorological phenomena. Cities are experiencing the pressures of these phenomena and they are facing many challenges-economic, social, health and environmental. Over the coming decades the population growth and the rapid urbanization will bring to a tumultu...

Flood risk management is one of priorities set by the European Union to protect population and assets. In a very recent report of the European Environment Agency dealing with urban adaptation to climate change (EEA, 2020), extreme weather events (heatwaves, heavy precipitation, flooding and droughts) are expected to cause the most pronounced impact...

A high resolution seasonal and annual precipitation climatology of the Upper Indus Basin was developed, based on 1995-2017 precipitation normals obtained from four different gridded datasets (Aphrodite, CHIRPS, PERSIANN-CDR and ERA5) and quality-controlled high and mid elevation ground observations. Monthly precipitation values were estimated throu...

Science shops are community-based participatory research initiatives aiming at reducing the gap between research and the civil society and promoted by the European Commission. WatShop, the new science shop set up at the University of Brescia (Northern Italy), is one of the local output of the Horizon2020 project SciShops aiming at expanding the sci...

Sediment yield and solid transport are often evaluated through mathematical models, since field data are rarely available. In this preliminary analysis, the sediment yield for an analysed rainfall event was estimated in the Guerna catchment (Italy), in order to create a combined sediment yield and solid transport system at the small basin scale. Se...

To quantify water erosion rates and annual soil loss in mountainous areas, two different empirical models were used to estimate the effects of soil erosion in a small mountain basin, the Guerna Creek watershed, located in the Central Southern Alps (Northern Italy). These two models, Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) and Erosion Potential...

As a result of two research projects conducted over the years from 2005 to 2011, this paper describes the configuration of a coupled hydrometeorological flood forecasting system set up for the Red river basin (169,000 km² at the outlet) and the Ca river basin (23,830 km² at the outlet), across China and Vietnam, and Laos and Vietnam, respectively....

The main objective of this study is to detect scientific activities in the field of “water resources management” that include citizen science methods, using a bibliometric approach. The analysis aims at supporting the start of a new science shop based at the University of Brescia, Italy, in the framework of the European SciShops project. As the bac...

Water erosion and evaluation of the average annual soil loss considering the potential effects of climate change are the focus of this study, based on the application of two empirical models, the RUSLE (Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation) and the EPM (Erosion Potential Method), to an Italian case study. A small mountain basin, the Guerna creek wa...

At the outlet of the Vermicelli catchment-a peri-urban area located in the campus of University of Calabria (Cosenza, Southern Italy)-a sedimentation tank is located, aiming at collecting the basin surface runoff and improve its quality. First, experimental results of the treatment effects are here presented and analyzed. In addition, a monitoring...

Study region: Milan, northwestern Italy. Study focus: The impact of expected trends in storm temporal structures is analyzed with reference to urban drainage systems, featuring catchment areas spanning from 10 ha to 100 ha. A bivariate stochastic model for the derivation of flood frequency is developed, accounting for the seasonality of storm volu...

Permeable Pavement (PP) represents a good solution to solve stormwater management problems. In this way, the potential removal efficiency of a PP in treating dissolved metals was assessed by performing a monitoring campaign at a lab-scale system. Based on literature experiences, different relatively high-level concentrations of copper and zinc were...

Low Impact Development systems represent an ecological alternative for mitigating the effects of urbanization and climate change on the environment, such as urban flooding risk, water pollution, urban heat islands, etc. These systems include significant tools in urban planning and retrofitting strategies; among others: green roofs, permeable paveme...

Permeable Pavement (PP) represents a good solution to solve stormwater management problems both in quantitative and qualitative way. In this way, the potential removal efficiency of a permeable pavement in treating metals was assessed by performing a monitoring campaign at a lab-scale system constructed for the purpose. Based on literature experien...

Urban flooding is recently affecting several towns in the Italian Mediterranean region. The study focuses on the interconnection between the sewer network of the town (Rossano Scalo) and the main water course (the Citrea Creek) flowing through it. An integrated approach considering both town planning and hydraulic aspects lead the search for potent...

Copulas demonstrated to provide an appealing strategy to develop multivariate distributions in several hydrologic applications. Main advantages arise from the possibility of separating the assessment of the dependence structure from those of the marginal distributions. This allows to straightforwardly evaluate the impact of climate change on those...

In assessing the impact of climate change on infrastructure, it is essential to consider the interactions between the atmosphere, vegetation and the near-surface soil. This paper presents an overview of these processes, focusing on recent advances from the literature and those made by members of COST Action TU1202 - Impacts of climate change on eng...

Channel morphological change is often evaluated by employing sediment transport models since field data during high magnitude low frequency events is rarely available. However, sediment transport rate estimates are heuristic at best to within 1 - 3 orders of magnitude. Mimico Creek is an urban gravel-bed channel in Southern Ontario, Canada that has...

Precipitation measurements by rain gauges are usually affected by a systematic underestimation, which can be larger in case of snowfall. The wind, disturbing the trajectory of the falling water droplets or snowflakes above the rain gauge, is the major source of error, but when tipping-bucket recording gauges are used, the induced evaporation due to...

The paper presents the activity performed at the University of Brescia by students and researchers, belonging to different Mediterranean cultures and different disciplines, to prepare a documentary exhibition on irrigation techniques in water scarcity conditions, on the occasion of the International Year of Soils 2015. Traditional irrigation techni...

The sacral complex of the Valle dei Templi in Agrigento, belonging to the UNESCO Heritage Site List, stands over the crest of a stiff calcarenite bench, which overlies a layer of partially saturated carbonate sand. The retrogression of slopes and toppling phenomena that have occurred in the past, caused by the undermining combined with the disconti...

Aiming at contributing with a hydrological perspective to the geotechnical investigation in mountain environments, particularly focusing on landslides triggered by perched water tables, we present some findings of a longlasting experimental and theoretical investigation of mountain—soils hydrology. After recalling a theoretical framework suitable t...

A design storm definition procedure for the sizing of channels within mixed urban and lowland rice drainage systems is developed, with reference to the Northern Delta in Vietnam. By analyzing a 20-years-long time series of rainfall observations recorded at Hanoi monitoring station, typical storm events were identified and a set of suitable design s...

A design storm definition procedure for the sizing of channels within mixed urban and lowland rice drainage systems is developed, with reference to the Northern Delta in Vietnam. By analyzing a 20-years-long time series of rainfall observations recorded at Hanoi monitoring station, typical storm events were identified and a set of suitable design s...

In karst basins a strong mutual interaction between streamflow and groundwater is often observed and can affect flood formation and runoff propagation. Aiming at characterising the runoff regime of the transnational Vipava/Vipacco karst basin (650km2, Eastern Alps, SLO/I), which is a case study of the FP7 KULTURisk research project, the natural gro...

In order to assess the annual mass balance of the Mandrone glacier in the Central Alps an energy-balance model was applied, supported by snowpack, meteorological and glaciological observations, together with satellite measurements of snow covered areas and albedo. The Physically based Distributed Snow Land and Ice Model (PDSLIM), a distributed mult...

As a result of two research projects conducted over the last six years, this paper describes the configuration a hydrometeorological flood forecasting system set up for the Red River (169 000 km² at the outlet) and the Ca River basins (23 830 km2 at the outlet), across China and Vietnam, and Laos and Vietnam, respectively. The research objectives w...

Si presentano i risultati del calcolo del bilancio di massa del ghiacciaio del Mandrone, nel gruppo montuoso dell’Ada- mello, nelle condizioni climatiche attuali ed in quelle previste per il secolo corrente. Nelle condizioni attuali il bilancio è stimato a partire dall’accumulo invernale misurato puntualmente nelle aree circostanti il ghiacciaio e...

Recently the detention reservoirs have been largely adopted for decreasing the flood risk of the valleys and the floodplain settlements. For ungauged basins, the traditional sizing methods utilize a design hydrograph, which is obtained from a synthetic hyetograph, whose volume satisfies a representative depth-duration-frequency curve. In this work,...

The effects of a change in climate are expected to be recognizable in many environmental aspects even at small spatial scales: atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration, air temperature, precipitation pattern (days of snowfall translate in days of rainfall), rainfall intensity and erosivity. As a consequence, strong modifications may affect the rate...

Wildfires are affecting each year many valuable areas in Italy, as well as in many other parts of the world. The effects on the vegetation may be devastating and the vegetative recovery may take a long time, depending mainly on the vegetation type, the soil hydrological properties and the climate after the wildfire. In this work a preliminary analy...

The Adamello Glacier is the largest glacierised area in the Italian Alps and consists of five hydrographic units, the major in size being the Mandrone Glacier which covered an area of 13.38 km2 in June 2003. In order to assess the yearly mass balance of the Mandrone Glacier the PDSLIM energy-balance model was applied: it is a seasonal snow- pack mo...

The assessment of the efficiency of a storm water storage facility devoted to the sewer overflow control in urban areas strictly depends on the ability to model the main features of the rainfall-runoff routing process and the related wet weather pollution delivery. In this paper the possibility of applying the analytical probabilistic approach for...

Bivariate copulas are exploited to construct joint distribution functions of rainfall variables

The potential impact of climate change scenarios on the runoff regime in the Italian Alpine area was investigated. A preliminary analysis of the output of three Global Circulation Models (PCM, HADCM, ECHAM) was needed to select IPCC-based scenarios for the 2000–2099 period. Two basins, 1840 and 236 km2 in size, respectively, and with different glac...

In several mountainous areas located in West Europe, in recent years (Po River 1994, 2000 and 2002, the Elbe River 2002, the Rhone River 2003) urbanization has strongly affected the vulnerability of valleys and flood plain areas. As a consequence the structural defence of both cities and industrial areas has become fundamental with respect to the p...

As regards the hydrological simulation of flood events, a physically based distributed approach is the most appealing one, especially in those areas where the spatial variability of the soil hydraulic properties as well as of the meteorological forcing cannot be left apart, such as in mountainous regions. On the other hand, dealing with real time f...