In the last years, several European countries have been hit by disastrous flood events. In many cases, existing flood defence infrastructures could not prevent devastating flood impacts, as occurred in Italy in 2023-2024 and in Spain in 2024. The aim of the research project is to investigate the capacity of existing and in-project flood protection and risk management measures to effectively reduce flood risk in Italy and in Europe, in light of the changes in frequency and intensity of extreme floods foreseen by scientific literature.
To reach this objective, the project will make use of the flood hazard and risk maps produced by the member states of the European Union, which are updated every six years according the EU Floods Directive 2007/60. The integration of these maps with climatic, hydrological and hydraulic simulations will allow to identify present and future trends of flood risk in the areas of interest. Moreover, the project will leverage existing databases that describe costs and technical details of risk reduction measures, including both structural flood protections (e.g. river dykes, detention areas) and non-structural measures (e.g. early warning systems, flood insurance programs).
The joint analysis of these datasets will enable the comparison of the investments in risk reduction measures with the resulting economic, social and environmental and benefits. The outcomes of the project will be used to propose improvements to current approaches applied in the design of flood risk reduction measures.
The ideal candidate should have an engineering background with competences in hydraulics and hydrology. Knowledge of languages other than English is not compulsory.
For this scholarship it is mandatory a period of research abroad of 6 months.
The research activity will be carried out at the CARISMA Research Centre, at the University School for Advanced Studies (IUSS) in Pavia, Italy. CARISMA comprises 36 members among professors, researchers and PhD students, coming from different continents and with disciplinary profiles ranging from climate science to engineering and economics. Ongoing research activities focus on climate models and datasets in risk analysis and management, and multi-hazard risk assessment methodologies in support of sustainable development. The Centre has access to the High Performance Computing Data Centre of IUSS for data analysis and numerical simulations.