99516 - FLOODS AND WATER RESOURCES IN A CHANGING CLIMATE

Learning outcomes

Students will learn the scientific basis of the water cycle with specific focus on the propagation of climate change to changes in water related hazards. They will learn how changes in the water resources availability can be mitigated, how adaptation may be carried out and how mitigation and adaptation interact with each other. Students will learn what we know and what we still do not know about climate and water. They will also know what contribution they can give to resolve the climate challenge in both their roles of citizens and experts, with specific reference on the impact of water changes. The approach will be interdisciplinary with the aim to move to transdisciplinarity, namely, by setting the basis for an innovative scientific and technical approach.

Course contents

The course focuses on no-regret and sustainable solutions to adjust to current or expected effects of climate change. A special focus is dedicated to water related impacts and disasters.

The course is highly multidisciplinary and directed to a wide audience with the aim to expand beyond engineering with an innovative vision. To facilitate interdisciplinarity, a narrative form of the final assessment (exam) will be offered to those students who are not attending a degree programme in Engineering.

The teacher will make extensive use of interaction with students. For example, students will be given the optional opportunity of delivering presentations to the class and the public, developing software, preparing open source contributions. Students may propose additional ideas for interaction.

Lectures will be recorded and made freely available on the web. Tutorial documents will be provided in the form of open web pages under CC license, and therefore may be freely re-used by students. Tutorial are already available on the web site of the teacher.

The lectures include: (1) an introduction to the climate change problem (see a preliminary version of the lecture at https://www.albertomontanari.it/climatechangeproblem/). (2) Climate modelling (https://www.albertomontanari.it/climatemodelling/). (3) Climate change and water cycle (https://www.albertomontanari.it/climatechange/) (4) Models for estimating climate change impact. (5) risk based adaptation design (https://www.albertomontanari.it/node/188). (6) decision theory (https://www.albertomontanari.it/decisiontheory), (7) Solutions for climate change adaptation.

Part of the course will be delivered online to propose to the students an innovative and web based approach to education. Examples of online resources are given at https://www.albertomontanari.it/ebookdroughts and https://www.albertomontanari.it/node/186.

Readings/Bibliography

The teacher will prepare dynamic documents to support the learning process, which will be made available in the form of an open e-book, which may be open to interactive contribution by students.

Teaching methods

The course is taught through lectures. Part of them are dedicated to simple data analysis and solutions for climate change adaptation. These lectures will be developed at the computer.

Assessment methods

The preparation of the student will be assessed through a quiz with 30 multiple choice questions without penalty and a duration of 30 minutes. Quiz may be different for students attending engineering programmes. After the quiz a short oral examination will follow for the students in engineering only, with duration of about 5 minutes. Students who are not attending engineering programmes will be anyway given the opportunity to make the oral part of the exam, if they wish.

Students may be asked to solve a short exercise during the quiz and/or the oral part of the exam. The exam is passed if the student proves to be prepared on the theoretical principles and analytical derivations that were taught during the lectures. The teacher will explicitly mention to students during the lectures what are the basic questions that one needs to rigorously address in order to pass the exam. The speaking capability will also be evaluated. The laude is reserved to students who are excellently prepared and prove to have integrated their preparation with personal in-depth analysis.

Teaching tools

The teacher will made available notes on his personal web-site. Scientific papers will be distributed during the lectures as well as summaries of recent research outcomes.

Lectures will be delivered with the physical presence of the teacher and will also be made available via online streaming.

Moreover, the teacher makes available videos of the lectures (see https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzpKSIoIBFCMyQTjxsbbA58wLdXVEF8RI).

Links to further information

https://www.albertomontanari.it

Office hours

See the website of Alberto Montanari