
Roberto RanziUniversity of Brescia | UNIBS · Department of Civil Engineering, Architecture, Land, Environment and Mathematics
Roberto Ranzi
Professor and PhD in Water Engineering
About
202
Publications
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Introduction
Graduated cum laude in Civil and Environmental Engineering at Politecnico di Milano, Italy where he obtained a PhD in Hydraulic Engineering in 1994. He is author of over 70 scientific papers in refereed international journals and over 260 articles on journals, book chapters, specialized monographs and proceedings about hydrology, environmental and water engineering. Chairs the IAHR Technical Committee of Climate Change Adaptation. Rector's Delegate for International Affairs, Univ. of Brescia
Additional affiliations
Education
September 1986 - February 1990
Publications
Publications (202)
KEY POINTS • Determining illegal connections using transient flow in the time and frequency domains • Effect of illegal connections on pressure signal characteristics in time and frequency domains • The accuracy of illegal connection detection using the frequency domain signal is more accurate
The leakage of water supply pipes and the increase of water consumers and demand have raised the importance of knowing the actual conditions of water supply network pipelines for optimizing their operation and management. In this study, after a detailed survey on the existing network in the Calvagese della Riviera municipality (province of Brescia,...
A climatology of snow water equivalent (SWE) based on data collected at 240 gauging sites was performed for the Italian Alps over the 1967–2020 period, when Enel routinely conducted snow depth and density measurements with homogeneous methods. Six hydrological sub-regions were investigated spanning from the eastern Alps to the western Alps at altit...
A climatology of SWE based on data collected at 299 gauging sites was performed for the Italian Alps over the 1967–2020 period, when the Italian National Electric board conducted routinely and with homogeneous methods snow depth and density measurements. Six hydrological sub-regions were investigated spanning from the eastern Alps to the western Al...
As a cartographic base for the analysis of an extensive literature review on the ancestral irrigation and water management techniques in the Mediterranean basin and Central Asia, we propose some thematic maps that presents a classification of the ancestral irrigation techniques and some climatic indices, i.e. the Köppen–Geiger climate classificatio...
This work presents a novel, spatially distributed, GIS-based application of Benfratello's conceptual method (developed in the 1960s) to estimate the climatic water deficit and the irrigation deficit at the field and basin scales. Explicit analytical relationships are obtained to define the deficit uncertainty on the basis of the interannual variabi...
The current management of water resources is expected to be severely impacted by climate change, rapid urbanization, and population growth. It often involves several competing interests. Therefore, the need to re-evaluate the current management rules is fundamental for the optimization of the objectives, reduction of water stress, and mitigation of...
Background
Through this study, we aimed to test the association between the exposure to metals measured in indoor dust and metabolic outcomes among children living in areas with environmental exposure to metals.
Methods
The project “Health impacts of environmental exposure to airborne pollutants in the sites of Brescia and Taranto, Italy: increase...
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...
Mammal bioerosion is an emergent threat to the functionality of levees. In the present paper, the problem of assessing the failure probability of levees affected by mammal bioerosion is addressed. A fully bivariate description of peak flow discharge and flood duration is combined with a deterministic unsteady seepage flow model to obtain a suitable...
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...
Background
Through this study we aimed to test the association between the exposure to metals measured in soil, outdoor and indoor dust and olfactory function among children living close to ferromanganese alloy plants. Moreover, we investigated how metal concentrations vary with the distance from the plants and the relationships among the different...
Surface melting is a major component of the Greenland ice sheet surface mass balance, and it affects sea level rise through direct runoff and the modulation of ice dynamics and hydrological processes, supraglacially, englacially and subglacially. Passive microwave (PMW) brightness temperature observations are of paramount importance in studying the...
Politiche smart di gestione del rischio alluvionale nell'Italia post-pandemica Webinar 27 maggio 2021
The value of cartographic heritage for environmental applications is demonstrated with a test case in the Central Italian Alps. Land cover changes since the early 19th century are detected from sample maps of the Second Military Survey of the Habsburg Empire in Lombardy (1818-1829), available on the portal www.mapire.eu. They are compared with 1954...
Extreme streamflow nonstationarity has probably attracted more attention than mean streamflow nonstationarity in the assessment of the impacts of climate change on the water cycle. Nonetheless, a significant decrease in mean streamflow could lead to conditions of scarcity of freshwater in the long-term period, seriously compromising the sustainabil...
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...
Prolonged and statistically significant decreases in mean riverflows could lead to chronic conditions of freshwater scarcity, seriously compromising the sustainability of the water demand for civil, agricultural and industrial uses. Regional analyses are however still needed to better characterize non-stationarities in different climates, since a c...
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...
Applications and results of the hydrometeorological flood forecasting chain which has been setup for the Red river and the Ca river are briefly presented here. Five major floods occurred in the Red river in the 1971–2007 period and several floods occurred in the Ca river from 2006 to 2011, including the October 2010 catastrophic flood, were simulat...
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....
Floods are acknowledged as one of the most serious threats to people's lives and properties worldwide. To mitigate the flood risk, it is possible to act separately on its components: hazard, vulnerability, exposure. Emergency management plans can actually provide effective non-structural practices to decrease both human exposure and vulnerability....
The contribution proposes a research path concerning the problem of flood management of the Adige river in the city of Verona and, consequently, the solutions implemented in the
past to protect the city. The effectiveness of the solutions has been such that it is now possible to attribute to Verona a low flood risk level. The relationship between t...
Accurate streamflow prediction is a fundamental task for integrated water resources management and flood risk mitigation. The purpose of this study is to forecast the water inflow to lake Como, (Italy) using different machine learning algorithms. The forecast is done for different days ranging from one day to three days. These models are evaluated...
For the last forty-five years (from 1974 to present) ferroalloy production in Bagnolo Mella, Northern Italy, has generated particulate emissions enriched in potentially toxic metals and metalloids including arsenic (As), lead (Pb) and manganese (Mn). Of these, Mn is unique in that it has a significant background concentration and is seldom studied...
Elevated exposure to manganese (Mn) in environmental dusts and airborne particulates, particular from ferromanganese alloy steel production and metal working, is associated with a number of negative health outcomes, including Parkinsonism and other nervous system diseases. Manganese contamination and exposure from industrial sources is difficult to...
This dataset contains high-quality series of meteo-hydrological variables reconstructed for the upper part of the Adda river basin (Central Italian Alps). In particular it includes:
- the daily runoff time series of the Lake Como inflows and outflows, the longest for Italian Alps, reconstructed for the 1845-2016 period in the Adda river basin. The...
A high‐quality daily runoff time series of the Lake Como inflow and outflow, the longest for Italian Alps, was reconstructed for the 1845–2016 period in the Adda river basin. It was compared with contemporary monthly precipitation and temperature observations and estimated potential evapotranspiration losses. Trend analyses were conducted for daily...
Floods are acknowledged as one of the most serious threats to people’s lives and properties worldwide. To mitigate the flood risk, it is possible to act separately on its components: hazard, vulnerability, exposure. Emergency management plans can actually provide effective non-structural practices to decrease both people exposure and vulnerability....
The 1800–2016 monthly precipitation record for the upper Adda river basin is presented. It is computed by applying the anomaly method to a quality‐checked and homogenized observation database. The reconstruction accuracy and its evolution over the study period is evaluated at both station and grid‐cell levels. The anomaly‐based interpolation provid...
The level of protection offered by an earthen levee is typically described in terms of flood water level that the levee is capable of containing. If a larger flood occurs, floodwaters exceed the height of the levee and flow over its crest. As the water passes over the top, it may erode the levee, worsening the flooding and potentially causing a bre...
Flood risk has shown an increasing trend since several decades both in developed and in developing countries, so that it has become one of the most serious threats to human safety and assets. The significant flood risk increase has induced a change in flood defence paradigms, in favour of a more holistic approach. Actually, a flood risk mitigation...
Climate-induced changes in small watersheds are still not well researched because long-term datasets are usually missing for these watersheds. Such studies can, however, improve our understanding of the watershed response to climatic changes at such a small scale being transparent. In this study, we investigate trends in temperature, precipitation...
The river flow in Red river delta though is very abundant during the high season is well faced with high potential of seawater intrusion in downstream areas due to huge water demand from upstream and invading seawater, also resulting from sea level rise. The operation of many reservoirs upstream has great effects on river regime and salinity dynami...
The project partners of Erasmus+ Environmental Protection and Natural Disasters organised a second international interdisciplinary Summer School for doctoral students in 2017. The main topic of the Summer School, which was held in Ljubljana (21 May-10 June 2017), was natural disasters. Twentyeight students from all over the world attended the Summe...
Flood control reservoirs are widely recognized as effective structural practices in order to mitigate the flood risk in natural watersheds. Nevertheless, the flood frequency distribution in the downstream reach is strongly affected by a certain number of characteristics of the upstream flood hydrographs. When a direct statistical method is utilized...
A new high-resolution gridded dataset of 1845–2016
monthly precipitation series for the upper Adda river basin was computed
starting from a network of high-quality and homogenised station records
covering Adda basin and neighbouring areas and spanning more than two
centuries. The long-term signal was reconstructed by a procedure based on
the anomal...
Flood control reservoirs are widely recognized as effective structural practices in order to mitigate the flood risk in natural watersheds. Nevertheless, the flood frequency distribution in the downstream reach is strongly affected by a certain number of characteristics of the upstream flood hydrographs. When a direct statistical method is utilized...
The hydrological regime of the Arve river and its tributaries is highly driven by glacier and snow melt, with high flow in summer and low flow in wintertime. This study aims to explore how melt rates of glaciers and snow influ- ence the streamflow since the 1960s of five nested catchments (Bisme du Tour, Arveyron d’Argentière, Arveyron de la Mer de...
Copulas are shown in this paper to provide an effective strategy to describe the statistical dependence between peak flow discharge and flood volume featuring hydrographs forcing a flood control reservoir. A 52-year time series of flow discharges observed in the Panaro River (Northern Italian Apennines) is used to fit an event based bivariate distr...
A consortium of the University of Ljubljana, the University of Brescia (Italy), the University of Natural
Resources and Life Sciences BOKU Vienna (Austria), and the company Piktorama has successfully
implemented the first international summer school for doctoral students in Ljubljana within the framework
of the Erasmus+ “Environmental protection an...
River flow time series are far from being stationary and always experienced changes in the past, also dramatic in long time horizons. In recent years it seems that both climatic and anthropogenic factors are accelerating the variability of hydrological processes. It is not clear, however, whether climatic or anthropic factors represent the major fo...
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...
In the 50th year anniversary of the November 1966 Adige river flood, which hit at the same time Florence
and Venice 14 map sheets of the Adige river valley between Meran and Borghetto, in northern Italy, were
scanned in high-quality and printed for the public ac-cess and use. The lithograph was printed in 1847 in a
1:20.736 scale (1”:288° i.e. 1 Zo...
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...
In the perspective of improving and disseminating risk assessment methodologies and rise preparedness
of people to flood hazard this paper presents flood hazard maps estimated in the Quang Ngai province, in
central Vietnam, for different return periods in terms of depth, duration and velocity using the FLO-2D,
hydrodynamic model with a 90 m x 90 m...
La carta del fiume Adige di Leopoldo de Claricini-Dornpacher viene qui illustrata per accompagnare una ri
stampa tratta dalla fedele scansione di un originale in scala 1: 20 736 che rappresenta in 15 fogli la valle dell’Adige, da Merano a Borghetto come appariva verso il 1847, data di probabile redazione della carta. L’originale è stato ridotto, pe...
A flood risk map, annexed to a monograph by Alfred Ritter Weber von Ebenhof published in 1892, is described.
In this map risk levels were divided into three categories and eight classes and was used to share
the cost of levees’ reparation and enhancement for the Adige river close to the town of Trento, in northern Italy.
It can be reinterpreted cer...
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...
We explore how to address the challenges of adaptation of water resources systems under changing conditions by supporting flexible, resilient and low-regret solutions, coupled with on-going monitoring and evaluation. This will require improved understanding of the linkages between biophysical and social aspects in order to better anticipate the pos...
Risk assessment needs rational and quantitative methodologies to describe hazard, vulnerability
and exposure. This paper focuses on physical vulnerability functions based on mechanical
schemes representing human stability and building structural resistance in a flow. These
instruments were used to model the Gleno dam break event that occurred in 19...
For the determination of the flood risk hydrologist and hydraulic engineers focuse their attention mainly to the estimation of physical factors determining the flood hazard, while economists and experts of social sciences deal mainly with the estimation of vulnerability and exposure. The fact that flood zoning involves both hydrological and socioec...
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...
SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS FOR POLICYMAKERS ON ADAPTION TO CLIMATE CHANGE IN WATER
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