Seminars

Last August the sixth IPCC report for WG1 was published, dedicated to understanding the physics of climate change. The report is organized in 13 chapters which are collected and summarized in the summary for policymakers (SPM) with 4 sections dedicated to the current state of the climate, possible future climates and climatic information that can be useful for adaptation and risk assessment, ending with assessments to limit future global warming. Starting from this organization, we present the most important aspects and results taking into account the experience and personal contribution to the drafting of the report.

Annalisa Cherchi (https://www.isac.cnr.it/en/users/annalisa-cherchi)

Susanna Corti (https://www.isac.cnr.it/en/users/susanna-corti)

Sandro Fuzzi (https://www.isac.cnr.it/en/users/sandro-fuzzi)

Replay on YOUTUBE (italian) https://youtu.be/9iveBa3NjoU

Abstract

According to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), dust storms are the result of strong atmospheric turbulence near the surface that results in the removal of large volumes of soil particles and their entry into the atmosphere, reducing horizontal visibility to less than 1000 meters. Dust storms are always known as one of the natural hazards that affect various sectors such as health, agriculture, transportation, etc. and have very wide consequences, especially reduced soil fertility, damage to crops, drying of cover. A 43-year estimate of Asian dust emissions shows that climate has the greatest impact on dust emissions and the occurrence of dust storms compared to the desertification process. Climate change has a significant impact on the frequency and severity of dust storms. Finding a relationship between pressure distribution, maximum temperature and wind can help predict the impact of future climate change or the frequency and severity of dust storms in the future. Therefore, by examining the potential changes in the distribution of pressure, temperature and wind speed, it can be predicted that the region is likely to be affected by more severe storms or if they will occur with less intensity. Therefore, it is necessary to study the phenomena related to dust and to identify the areas of active origin of dust production and to study the strategies to deal with and prevent it in the affected areas. Identifying major areas of dust emissions will, to some extent, make it possible to estimate the amount of dust emissions in response to environmental conditions in these areas by focusing on critical areas. With such knowledge, it is possible to modify dust models and the effects of climate change on future dust emissions can be assessed. Also, by examining the relationship between climatic parameters affecting the occurrence of this phenomenon, the dust situation can be investigated by considering different scenarios of climate change, which requires comprehensive and long-term statistical studies of climate variables. In fact, by examining the impact of climate change on dust production, it will be possible to estimate the dust emission situation in response to changes in these parameters and environmental conditions by focusing on these areas. The persistence of the dust phenomenon has an effective role in the incidence of diseases, its destructive effects, the persistence of air pollution and the reduction of the radiation budget. Frequency analysis and prediction of the occurrence of long-term delays in the study area is of great importance. Also, identifying areas with dust days with high durability is very effective in managing adverse effects.

Speaker:

Tayebe Mesbahzadeh is  Associate Prof. at University of Tehran and Member of Desert Net International (DNI), a scientific network for international research on desertification. She got B.sc in soil science M.Sc. in Desert Management Ph.D. in Combating of desertification. Main research interests are wind erosion, geomorphology, climate change, sedimentology.

See it on YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/ZidLUIN_VNg

Abstract: CNR-ISAC partecipa al progetto LC-CLA-2018 "FORCeS", ora giunto a metà del suo percorso. Tra i vari progetti che in H2020 mirano ad implementare Earth System Models più completi ed affidabili, FORCeS ha un chiaro focus sull'annoso problema dell'incertezza legata alla forzante climatica degli aerosol atmosferici. Il progetto si serve dell'analisi di serie storiche di misure di ECV legate agli aerosol e alla radiazione, di nuovi - cosiddetti - emerging constraint, nonché di nuove parametrizzazioni di processi specifici legati ad aerosol e nubi (compresa la fase ghiaccio) basate sui risultati di campagne sperimentali. FORCeS rappresenta un esempio di come la ricerca su un tema su cui CNR-ISAC possiede competenze specialistiche, ovvero sia quello degli aerosol atmosferici, possa essere articolato nell'ambito delle climate action dei più recenti programmi Europei.

Breve CV del relatore Stefano De Cesari

Riguardalo su YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/heJ8wPys1Ns

Titolo - Produzione bibliografica in ISAC: dati, analisi e buone pratiche

Abstract - 

Guarda la registrazione: https://youtu.be/6l_8ywdLzsc

Titolo: LHP Europe: possibili applicazioni di tecnologiche abilitanti nell’ambito delle sfide ambientali

LHP Europe è una società ingegneristica che sviluppa e fornisce soluzioni e integrazioni ad alta tecnologia per assistere gli avanzamenti all’avanguardia dei suoi clienti nei settori industriale, biomedicale, automobilistico e agricolo e, nel contempo, focalizzando i propri sforzi su un futuro sostenibile dal punto di vista ambientale.

Nel corso del seminario presenterò la nostra azienda, la nostra visione, le collaborazioni esistenti con Università ed Enti di ricerca e le  nostre attività caratterizzanti, con un focus sulle soluzioni di data analytics fino ad oggi sviluppate, applicate al mondo del manufacturing. L'esplosione della tecnologia, abilitata dalla meccatronica, microelettronica, automazione, connettività, IoT, big data e intelligenza artificiale, può essere sfruttata per affrontare sfide quali il cambiamento climatico, l'inquinamento e la contaminazione delle acque.

A tale proposito presenteremo alcuni esempi applicativi, a partire da una soluzione sviluppata in ambito Industria 4.0. Tale soluzione tecnologica prevede il monitoraggio e l’analisi di impianti di automazione industriale, tramite la raccolta e l’elaborazione dei dati provenienti dalle linee di produzione e l’utilizzo di una infrastruttura cloud in grado di garantire massima scalabilita’ e flessibilita’. Presenteremo inoltre due casi in fase di studio in cui queste tecnologie e concetti vengono applicati alla sostenibilita’ ambientale. Nel primo, verra’ mostrata una soluzione che si basa sull’analisi dei particolati PM 2.5 e PM 10, attraverso la raccolta di dati provenienti da dispositivi integrati su biciclette. Nel secondo invece si presentera’ una soluzione di monitarggio da remoto di spartiacque, utilizzando sensori localizzati nel terreno e droni.

Matteo Giunchedi (matteo.giunchedi [at] lhpes.com)  e' un giovane ingegnere appassionato di innovazione e tecnologie all’avanguardia. Si e’ laureato presso l’Universita’ di Bologna, in Ingegneria dell’Automazione, con una tesi incentrata sulla predizione della carica residua di batterie su un prototipo di veicolo elettrico. Attualmente si occupa di gestire progetti su commessa e di sviluppo di soluzioni proprietarie. Le sue conoscenze sono incentrate sul mondo delle tecnologie 4.0 e sull’analisi dei dati.

Title: Frontier Research in Earth System Prediction

Venue: go to meeting link: https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/932307501

Abstract: So far, the lack of observations to constrain the model complexity has determined the development of different modeling systems for different time scales. The models that are developed for short time-scales (i.e. ranging from weather forecast to seasonal climate predictions) include only that part of the variability for which observations are available and that can be suitably modelled/initialized in order to positively contribute to the forecasts. For instance, the land surface model developed at ECMWF (HTESSEL) and included in the ECMWF Integrated Forecasting System (IFS), assumes land cover and vegetation characteristics to be constant in time, therefore evidencing considerable biases and weak prediction signal over the interested land areas. On the other hand, for long time-scales (i.e ranging from interannual to decadal and beyond), the Earth System Models (ESMs) used for climate variability and climate-change research contain comprehensive soil-vegetation-atmosphere-transfer schemes that are intended to represent as many processes as possible, including those that are still poorly constrained or understood. Since most of the applications of climate predictions would serve social and economic interests that are land-based, it is of foremost importance to  improve Earth system predictions over land  by filling the gap between the models used for short-term prediction (verification-based) and the latest developments in the ESMs (process-based). Following this approach, we show that the new and improved observational records can be effectively used to seamlessly enhance land surface, vegetation and hydrology processes in IFS/EC-Earth, leading to significant improvements of the predictions across multiple time-scales. 

Long-term enhancements in climate/Earth system prediction must come from improving the description of the physical & Earth-system processes on the basis of dedicated process studies and observational databases. This is a slow, but necessary process. In the meanwhile, given a set of imperfect models, we can improve predictions by combining individual models through the multi-model approach. Multi-Model Ensembles (MMEs) are powerful tools in dynamical climate prediction as they account for the overconfidence and the uncertainties related to single-model ensembles. Previous works suggested that the potential benefit that can be expected by using a MME amplifies with the increase of the independence of the contributing Seasonal Prediction Systems (SPSs). Here we combine the two MME SPSs independently developed by the European and by the Asian-Pacific communities. We demonstrate the potential of the combined Grand MME to significantly contribute to obtain useful predictions at the seasonal time-scale applied to the energy sector. These results motivated the application of latest available multi-model seasonal predictions from independent sources [European (Copernicus), North American (NMME) and Asian Pacific (APCC)] that is being performed within the H2020 SECLI-FIRM project (http://www.secli-firm.eu)

Most relevant recent publications:

1. Alessandri, F. Catalano, M. De Felice, B. van den Hurk, and G. Balsamo, 2021: Varying Signatures of Surface Albedo Feedback on the Northern Hemisphere Land Warming., Environ. Res. Lett.,16, 034023. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abd65f
2. van Oorschot, F., van der Ent, R. J., Hrachowitz, M., and Alessandri, A, 2021.: Climate controlled root zone parameters show potential to improve water flux simulations by land surface models, Earth Syst. Dynam. Discuss. [preprint], https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-2021-3
3. Alessandri, A., M. De Felice, F. Catalano, J-Y. Lee, B. Wang, D-Y. Lee, J-H. Yoo, A. Weisenheimer, 2018: Grand European and Asian-Pacific multi-model seasonal forecasts: maximization of skill and of potential economical value to end-users, Clim. Dyn., 50 (7-8), 2719-2738 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-017-3766-y
4. Alessandri, A., F. Catalano, M. De Felice, B. Van Den Hurk, F. Doblas Reyes, S. Boussetta, G. Balsamo, P. Miller, 2017: Multi-scale enhancement of climate prediction over land by increasing the model sensitivity to vegetation variability in EC-Earth, Clim. Dyn. doi:10.1007/s00382-016-3372-4
5. Alessandri  A., M. De Felice , N. Zeng , A. Mariotti , Y. Pan , A. Cherchi , J-Y. Lee , B. Wang , K-J. Ha , P. Ruti, and V. Artale, 2014: Robust assessment of the expansion and retreat of Mediterranean climate in the 21stcentury. Nature Sci. Rep., 4, 7211, doi:10.1038/srep07211

Titolo : Più informazione o più fiducia nella scienza? Cosa abbiamo imparato in questo anno di pandemia per migliorare il dialogo tra scienza e società

Presentazione dell’Annuario Scienza Tecnologia e Società 2021 (Barbara Saracino e Giuseppe Pellegrini) realizzato con il sostegno della Compagnia di San Paolo.

In tempi di pandemia il rapporto tra scienza e società si è fatto più vivace. Di fronte a un fenomeno sconosciuto per il quale non si hanno grandi certezze si ripropone il tema dell’affidabilità degli esperti e dei ricercatori nel fornire informazioni corrette e in tempi adeguati. Allo stesso tempo, i decisori pubblici si trovano a gestire misure di salute pubblica con informazioni non sempre facili da maneggiare.

L’Annuario Scienza Tecnologia e Società, realizzato da Observa offre numerose indicazioni per riflettere su questo importante tema valorizzando il punto di vista dei cittadini sulla comunicazione pubblica della scienza.

Barbara Saracino, è ricercatrice in Sociologia all’Università di Bologna. Insegna Metodologia delle scienze sociali e Scienza, società e public engagement. Coordina per Observa Science in Society le attività dell’Osservatorio Scienza Tecnologia e Società. È autrice, tra l’altro, del libro «I giochi, le stelle e l’uomo. Studio sociologico della curva normale» (Mimesis, 2018).

Giuseppe Pellegrini insegna Innovazione tecnologia e società all’Università di Trento. Con il Mulino ha pubblicato «Narrazioni di mondi possibili. Giovani e immaginario scientifico» (2018). È presidente di Observa Science in Society.

Recent publications:
- Pellegrini G. (2020), Coronavirus and public communication: the role of experts and decision-makers in the view of the public, in Overabounding and Society, SocONe Pub.
- Entradas M, Bauer MW, O’Muircheartaigh C, Marcinkowski F, Okamura A, Pellegrini G, et al. (2020) Public communication by research institutes compared across countries and sciences: Building capacity for engagement or competing for visibility? PLoS ONE 15(7): e0235191. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0235191

Watch video: https://youtu.be/St1LyfR8Meo

Michela Maione (Università di Urbino “Carlo Bo”, CNR-ISAC) michela.maione [at] uniurb.it

Titolo: Cibo e inquinamento atmosferico: percezione dei cittadini e cambiamenti di stili di vita individuali

Abstract:

L'inquinamento atmosferico in Italia è responsabile di circa 90.000 morti premature all’anno. Per combatterlo efficacemente le misure di tipo strutturale (end of pipe o energetiche) dovrebbero essere accompagnate da cambiamenti degli stili di vita individuali. Questi ultimi non possono prescindere dalla consapevolezza da parte dei cittadini di quelli che sono i comportamenti responsabili delle emissioni di inquinanti. Uno studio condotto dall’Università di Urbino, in collaborazione con ISAC CNR e l’Università di Vienna, ha analizzato la percezione degli Europei sulle sorgenti di inquinamento. I risultati dello studio hanno rivelato i cittadini Europei sottovalutano enormemente il ruolo del settore agroalimentare che non è mai visto come inquinante, mentre in realtà agricoltura e allevamenti intensivi sono i principali responsabili di emissioni di ammoniaca che, reagendo con altre componenti atmosferiche, va a costituire la componente dominante del PM2.5. 

Uno studio parallelo, condotto in collaborazione con le Università di Brescia e Roma Tre e il JRC, ha quantificato, in termini di anni di vita recuperati, i co-benefici per la salute dei cittadini Italiani derivanti da una diminuzione del consumo di proteine animali. Al vantaggio metabolico dovuto al minore apporto di proteine ed acidi grassi si unisce infatti quello legato ad una minore esposizione al PM, conseguente la diminuzione delle emissioni di ammoniaca. Lo studio è stato corredato da un’analisi socioeconomica sulla disponibilità dei cittadini italiani a rinunciare ai prodotti di origine animale per alcuni giorni alla settimana. Una parte degli Italiani sembra essere disponibile ad astenersi dal mangiare carne e latticini3, ma non in misura sufficiente da poter fare la differenza in termini di vite guadagnate.

E quindi necessario che a politiche Europee adeguate che coinvolgano anche il settore agro-alimentare, si accompagni una maggiore consapevolezza del ruolo di questo importante settore produttivo nell’inquinamento, così che i cittadini possano valutare i vantaggi diretti ed indiretti del passaggio ad una dieta meno ricca di prodotti animali.

Questa ricerca si basa sui risultati del Progetto Europeo SEFIRA (Socio-Economic implications For Individual Responses to Air pollution policies), coordinato dall’Università di Urbino, di cui ISAC-CNR è partner.

1.       M. Maione, E. Mocca, K. Eisfeld, Y. Kazepov, S. Fuzzi,  2020. Public perception of air pollution sources across Europe. Ambio, https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-020-01450-5

2.       M. Volta, E. Turrini, C. Carnevale, E. Valeri, V. Gatta, P. Polidori, M. Maione, 2021. Co-benefits of changing diet. A modelling assessment at the regional scale integrating social acceptability, environmental and health impacts. Science of The Total Environment, 756, 143708, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.143708.

3.       E. Valeri, V. Gatta, D. Teobaldelli, P. Polidori, B. Barratt, S. Fuzzi, Y. Kazepov, V. Sergi, M. Williams, M. Maione, 2016. Modelling individual preferences for environmental policy drivers: Empirical evidence of Italian lifestyle changes using a latent class approach, Environmental Science & Policy, 65, 65-74, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2016.05.019.

Short Bio: Michela Maione, associated with research duties to ISAC-CNR, is associate Professor of Environmental Chemistry at the University of Urbino “Carlo Bo”, Department of Pure and Applied Sciences (DiSPeA).

M. Maione has a long research experience in the field of atmospheric composition change in relation to air quality and climate change, with a particular focus on short-lived GHGs, their emission quantifications and impacts on climate change and air quality. Much of her work has involved working within international networks and establishing important scientific collaborations with senior scientists from the most important academic and scientific institutions all over the world. This research has produced more than 90 publications, mostly in peer-reviewed journals and with an international co-authorship.

In addition, M. Maione has been the Scientific Officer of the major European network on atmospheric change, climate and air quality (ACCENT) and, breaking new scientific ground, has worked closely with scientists from the socio-economic field and has followed the policy process in the EU to provide scientific input to policy through focussed policy-relevant summaries. Such transdisciplinary approach has been followed in two EU FP7 funded projects: i) SEFIRA on the socio-economic implications of individual choices and behaviours in the implementation of air quality policies, of which M. Maione is the coordinator; and ii) ACCENT-Plus aimed at coordinating the best European research in the field of air quality and climate change in support of the design and implementation of air quality and climate policies.

in 2017 M. Maione has been appointed as Lead Author in the IPCC refinement of the 2019 Refinement to the 2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories.
She is contributing author in Chapter 2 of Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion: 2018, Global Ozone Research and Monitoring Project–Report No. 58, World Meteorological Organization, (Geneva, CH, 2018).

Since 2001, when she has started to be responsible for her research group, M. Maione has been successful in obtaining funding for several research proposals, mostly International,

In the last ten years M. Maione has been responsible for the following international and national research projects:
- SEFIRA, Socio-Economic implications For Individual Responses to Air pollution policies in EU+27 (EU-FP7) (Coordinator);

• -  RITMARE, The Italian Oceanic Research (Italian Ministry for Education and Research);
• -  VIIAS, Integrated evaluation of the environmental and health impact of atmospheric pollution (Italian Ministry for Health);

• -  InGOS, Integrated non-CO2 Greenhouse gas Observing System (EU-FP7);
• -  ACTRIS, Aerosols, Clouds and Trace gases Research Infrastructure Network (EU-FP7);
• -  ACCENT-Plus, Atmospheric Composition Change: the European NeTwork – PoLicy sUpport and Science (EU-FP7);

- ACCENT, Atmospheric Composition Change, a European NeTwork. Network of Excellence (EU-FP6);
- EUROHYDROS, A European Network for Atmospheric Hydrogen observations and studies (EU-FP6);
- SOGE-A, System for Observation of halogenated Greenhouse gases in Europe and Asia (EU-FP6);
- SOGE, System for Observation of halogenated Greenhouse gases in Europe (EU-FP5);

- SHARE Asia, Stations at High Altitude for Research on the Environment-Asia (EV-K2- CNR Committee)
- AEROCLOUDS, Study of direct and indirect effects of aerosol and clouds on climate (FISR Fondo Integrativo Speciale Ricerca);

• -  Arctic Strategic Project (Italian National Research Council);
• -  PNRA, Italian National Project for Research in Antarctic (Italian National Research Council).

Watch video: https://youtu.be/HCFowq0guuE

Abstract:Globally, climate change has wide ranging effects on all aspects of society, environment, and economy; however, the type and extent of these impacts are still widely debated. In this seminar I will show you some of the activities I have been involved in during the last years, regarding hazards and risks of climate change impacts in some key research hotspot areas.

The first part of the seminar will be focused on high-elevation sites. These areas are particularly suitable for impact studies because of the presence of the cryosphere, which is highly sensitive to climate. Specifically, the effects on slope stability are receiving a growing attention in the recent years, both as terrestrial indicators of climate change and implications for hazard assessment. A statistical-based approach to detect climate anomalies associated with the occurrence of slope failures, with the aim to catch an eventual climate signal in the preparation and/or triggering of the considered events, will be presented. The method has been performed on more than 350 landslides occurred in the Italian Alps along 2000-2016 and highlighted that slope failures occurred in association with one or more climate anomalies in more than 90% of considered case studies.

In the second part of the seminar, I will investigate the risks that climate change poses for other opposite, but nevertheless key environments, which are particularly sensitive to climate change impacts i.e., urban areas. They represent only a small fraction of the Earth’s surface, but they are where more than half of the global population resides and concentrations of assets and economic activities are found. Here, some insights from the EPA-funded Urb-ADAPT project in the Greater Dublin Region (Ireland) will be introduced. Current and potential future climate-related risks and vulnerabilities have been assessed by merging high-resolution climate data (current and projected) with information on land cover, population and socioeconomics. Specifically, results regarding heat risk assessment will be shown and their usefulness to support the implementation of targeted adaptation and mitigation strategies will be delineated.

Short Bio:Roberta Paranunzio received her M.S. Degree in Environmental Engineering from the Politecnico di Torino in 2013 and she obtained her Ph.D from the same institution in 2017. From 2013 to 2017, she was at CNR-IRPI and Politecnico di Torino working on the impacts of climate change on slope instability at high elevation sites and the estimation of climatic forcing on regional and global scale and with high spatial resolution, with a focus on the relation between air temperature variations in recent years and urbanization trend. Between 2018 and 2019, she was at the University College of Cork (Ireland) as Post-Doctoral Research Associate working on current and future climate-related risks to the population living in urban areas. She has been Researcher at CNR-ISAC (Torino) since 2020. Her main research stream focuses on the nexus between climate change, related-extreme events and natural hazards based on a multi-perspective approach in “hotspot” areas like high-mountain regions and urban areas. Specifically, main goals are: to develop predictive models for natural hazard occurrence, to assess exposure, vulnerabilities and risks related to identified hazards and to understand how physical and socio-economic systems respond to climate-induced natural hazards to support climate adaptation strategies.
 

Riguardalo sul nostro canale Youtube: https://youtu.be/Fdao3qTR2pk

Una visione operativa della meteorologia aeronautica targata Enav, il principale provider italiano di servizi della navigazione aerea, nella descrizione delle attività che gli Osservatori Meteo e i Meteorologi di Enav esercitano quotidianamente sugli aeroporti e negli spazi aerei di competenza, contribuendo così a una sicura ed efficiente gestione dei voli che interessano il nostro territorio

Marco Tadini, nato a Milano nel 1963, nel 1989 si è laureato in Fisica all’Università degli Studi di Milano, con tesi presso l’Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera a Merate (Lecco). Già Ufficiale del Genio Aeronautico ruolo fisici, dal 1991 è Meteorologo presso l’Azienda Autonoma di Assistenza al Volo per il Traffico Aereo Generale, ora Enav S.p.A., dove attualmente riveste il ruolo di Responsabile del Servizio Meteorologico. Ha partecipato alle attività del Programma Nazionale di Ricerche in Antartide, operando come Meteorologo nella base antartica italiana di Baia Terra Nova.