CIMA Research Foundation

In 2024, Italian reservoirs—particularly those in central and southern regions—are facing a severe water crisis, with significant reductions of #water resources. These dynamics are linked to drought events, further exacerbated by the effects of #climatechange. In this context, our researchers, in collaboration with the Italian Department of Civil Protection (DPC), are developing a national water resources mapping and monitoring service (currently in an experimental phase) based on #satellitedata acquired by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 (S2) constellation. “Satellite monitoring offers well-known advantages with respect to traditional in-situ measurements because it enables for synoptic monitoring, also in data scarce environments,” explains our researcher Luca Cenci. Specifically, S2 satellite data provide an ideal tool for obtaining frequent, up-to-date, and accurate information about the surface area covered by water in each reservoir of interest (with the service covering the entire Italian territory). By comparing these data with the historical maximum extent of each reservoir recorded between 1984 and 2021 by the Copernicus/JRC Global Surface Water Explorer dataset, it is possible to calculate the percentage of the #lake's surface currently covered by water. Leveraging this information, along with archived data from the Sentinel-2 mission, enables the construction of (historical) time-series useful for estimating and monitoring the evolution of reservoirs’ water extent. These time-series are firstly updated in near real time (i.e., as soon as a S2 image acquired over a given reservoir is available) and then averaged on a monthly time-scale. Monthly information are then used to calculate the corresponding #anomalies (i.e., differences between a given month's average and the average for that same month calculated over a reference period). Indeed, anomalies are instrumental in identifying potential critical situations regarding water resource availability. As a result, this service can provide important support to authorities responsible for water resource management, for the identification of corrective measures and appropriate management plans to mitigate the impacts of the #climatecrisis on water availability. From a scientific perspective, the methodology underlying this service was presented at the IEEE Xplore International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium held this summer in Athens. 👉 Learn more in the article “Validation of a Prototype Monitoring System of Water Bodies Extent for Civil Protection Applications” authored by our researchers in collaboration with the DPC: https://lnkd.in/d9ukBxbK.

The call for abstracts of the EGU General Assembly 2025 is open! #EGU25   If you are interested in impacts of #climatechange on #snow and glaciers, submit an abstract to our session no. HS2.1.1: "Snow and glacier hydrology” European Geosciences Union (EGU) Predicted impacts of climate change in catchments covered by snow or glacier (including a shift from snowfall to rainfall, a modified total amount of precipitation, an earlier #snowmelt, and a decrease in peak snow accumulation) will reflect on #water resources availability for environment and anthropogenic uses at multiple scales. This may have potential implications for energy, drinking water and food production, as well as for environmentally targeted water management. The session encourages contributions that explore snowmelt & ice-melt runoff processes, hydrological processes in glacier-covered catchments, impact of climate change and/or extreme events on the #watercycle of snow and ice affected catchments, and other related topics.  This session will feature a solicited presentation by Prof. Bettina Schaefli from the University of Bern, Switzerland. Universität Bern METEO FRANCE, Helmholtz-Centre Potsdam - German Research Centre GFZ, INRAE 👉 Find out more: https://lnkd.in/dj9FsXGe  The 𝗮𝗯𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁 𝘀𝘂𝗯𝗺𝗶𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗲 is Wednesday, 15 January 2025, 13:00 CET.  Discover the abstract submission recipe here: https://lnkd.in/dnc9puqg 

#WeAreHiring We are looking for a local #DisasterRiskReduction (DRR) expert in #Mozambique, within the framework of the Ready2Act project: “Enhancing Coordination Mechanisms and Disaster Preparedness Capacities in Mozambique”, financed by Agenzia Italiana per la Cooperazione allo Sviluppo and carried out by our Foundation and Instituto Nacional de Gestão e Redução do Risco de Desastres (INGD), in partnership with WeWorld and with the strategic guidance of the Italian Civil Protection Department. The selected expert is expected to provide support for the execution of project activities; this position aims to bridge the gap between technical expertise and field-level implementation, ensuring direct and continuous collaboration with local partners and stakeholders. In particular, the local DRR expert is expected to support CIMA Research Foundation in key activities, such as: collection, analysis and organization of local risk information data; implementation of hydrometeorological monitoring and forecasting technologies and models; design and renovation of INGD situation rooms in Maputo and Beira; translation of technical products from English to Portuguese; organization and delivery of training activities (remote and presential) and preparation and dissemination of communication material related to Ready2Act. ⚠ Deadline: 6 December 2024 👉 All information for requirements and application at the following link: https://lnkd.in/dtdzHicG

How can we respond swiftly and effectively to #emergencies caused by disasters? The answer lies in an integrated, multi-hazard approach that combines scientific excellence with international operational coordination. This is the core of #ARISTOTLE-ENHSP, a project uniting over 20 international partners to support the ERCC (Emergency Response Coordination Centre) in managing natural hazards, operating 24/7 to ensure constant readiness. EU in Emergencies On November 27–28, the kick-off meeting for the fourth renewal of the ARISTOTLE service contract will take place at the Volcano Observatory in Catania. Since 2019, our Foundation has contributed to the project with its expertise in global #wildfire and #flood forecasting, working alongside key partners such as Instituto Português do Mar e da Atmosfera - IPMA, European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, and METEO FRANCE. The main innovation in this phase is the extension of the service to all EU Member States and participating countries, allowing them to directly activate ARISTOTLE's emergency support in real time to address severe events and disasters. During active monitoring periods, our researchers work 24/7 from our “Franco Siccardi” Operations Room, providing real-time forecasts and expert assessments to inform response strategies. This synergy demonstrates how science, when shared and coordinated, can save lives and mitigate the impacts of emergencies. 

Although #wildfires pose a significant threat to our ecosystems, technological innovation and scientific research are continuously making new advancements. The amount of #data used for vegetation fire monitoring is increasing, and consequently, new possibilities for monitoring wildfires from space are being explored and discussed. The “Future Focus – Wildfires User Workshop” organized by EUMETSAT, currently taking place in Darmstadt, Germany, is moving in this direction, bringing together experts, data providers, and end users to address wildfire prediction and monitoring from every perspective. Our researcher Paolo Fiorucci presented the study “Advantages and Limitations of Operational Use of NDWI (Normalized Difference Water Index) from Sentinel-2 for Wildfire Risk Management in Italy,” conducted by researchers from our Foundation in collaboration with the italian Dipartimento Protezione Civile. He discussed the work that, over 25 years of research, led to the development of a wildfire #risk #prediction system that can efficiently guide prevention and preparedness activities. This is made possible by integrating meteorological and satellite data, as well as utilizing artificial intelligence techniques in the #RISICO and #PROPAGATOR models, which are used to predict wildfire risk conditions and simulate the spread of fire in space and time. The study results demonstrate that the use of satellite information can reduce Early Action costs by 50%, which could be implemented during prediction and preparedness phases. This would allow for a shift in investment from firefighting to #prevention, including forest #management, thereby greatly enhancing long-term adaptation capacity and reducing impacts. 

#Wildfires are becoming more intense and widespread, causing significant environmental, wildlife, health, and infrastructure damage. #Climatechange and changes in land use and socio-economic conditions are expected to increase wildfire frequency, extent, and severity if preventive measures are not enhanced. Within the CLIMAAX project, our researchers Andrea Trucchia and FARZAD GHASEMIAZMA, in collaboration with Ainara Casajús Vallés and Núria Gasulla Fernández from the Directorate General of Civil Protection of the Regional Government of Catalonia, developed a work that includes wildfire susceptibility, hazard, and risk maps under various climate change scenarios. Using a trained #MachineLearning (ML) model that integrates past fire history with geophysical and climate descriptors – all considered constant except climate – a susceptibility map is generated, showing an area's propensity for wildfires in the near future, assuming stable climate and land use conditions. Changing climate inputs in the model produces maps representing various climate scenarios for wildfire susceptibility. Hazard and Risk maps are then constructed based on the susceptibility maps, for any desired time window and climate scenario, to quantify the impact on population, ecosystems, economic activities and infrastructure. This work is part of the CLIMAAX Climate RIsk Assessment (CRA) Handbook, available online at https://lnkd.in/eu8A_nRj and more specifically of the Wildfire Workflow, whose code is available in the form of Python Notebooks [https://lnkd.in/emaUQBQP]. The work has been presented at #MedGU24 conference, the Mediterranean Geosciences Union 4th annual meeting, which is being held these days in Barcelona, Spain. And #Catalonia itself is one of the five pilot regions in the study, characterized by a fire-prone landscape and widespread exposed elements, where the proposed approach showed interesting results, with increased wildfire risk in the Pyrenees region. These results can enhance discussions on prevention and mitigation measures from a multi-stakeholder perspective: studying future trends in fire risk patterns is essential for informing future adaptation measures.  

A system that turns science into concrete action: #AMHEWAS combines data, technology, and coordination to reduce risks and build a more resilient future. #DisasterRiskReduction #EW4ALL ℹ️ Find out more: https://lnkd.in/deQcCx4Z United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR), African Union

In order to analyze a natural phenomenon in detail and understand its characteristics and consequences, it is necessary to have an overview that allows to reconstruct as accurately as possible the picture of the situation: often observing an event “from afar” can prove extremely useful. On this assumption is based the field of study of #EarthObservation, which, thanks to #satellites, makes use of valuable information about what is happening on the Earth's surface to study evolving processes. For example, by analyzing the area affected by a natural event such as a #flood or #fire from this perspective, it is possible to assess its impact and extent and thus organize emergency response in a rapid and targeted manner, as well as improve the predictive ability of mathematical models. This is the context for the new #Hydroterra+ (H+) project, whose kick-off meeting today will officially sanction the start. Funded by the European Space Agency - ESA, the project is specifically dedicated to the observation of rapid processes in the #watercycle (from a few hours to a few days) and represents, more precisely, the scientific study of the feasibility and applicability of the eponymous mission, which focuses on areas particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change - Europe, the Mediterranean basin and some areas of Africa - proposing the use of a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) in quasi-geostationary orbit, thus enabling continuous observation with high temporal resolution. As part of the project, our Foundation is primarily involved in developing high-resolution #models to improve the prediction of extreme weather events even in areas of high topographic complexity. By testing the project's hypothetical satellite #data, we integrate soil moisture and water vapor observations into numerical forecast models, with the goal of improving forecast accuracy. In addition, we test the improvement of satellite data assimilation techniques into forecast models, also with the aim of improving #EarlyWarningSystems (EWS). Aresys , German Aerospace Center (DLR), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), National Observatory of Athens, Politecnico di Milano, Technische Universität Wien

Our researcher Lorenzo Alfieri is on the 2024 list of Highly Cited Researchers! 🎉 A result that proves brilliant minds know no boundaries: between CIMA Research Foundation and the Joint Research Centre (JRC), collaboration is always a success. 😉 EU Science, Research and Innovation This recognition highlights the excellence of the work carried out every day by our researchers with passion and dedication. #HighlyCitedResearchers Check on Clarivate: https://lnkd.in/dyiumwjg

More and more countries around the world are experiencing severe #droughts, and the situation is likely to worsen, due to #climatechange. From Ethiopia to California, from Italy to Taiwan, drought and water resource management are becoming an increasingly urgent challenge to address. But while the places affected are many and diverse, the hazard - albeit with its many nuances - is the same, as are the resulting impacts. This is why international #scientificresearch collaboration is essential, enabling researchers around the world to integrate knowledge and methodologies, delving deeper and deeper into extreme phenomena such as drought through experimental approaches and advanced predictive models. So these days we are in Taichung, Taiwan, for a drought workshop aimed at students and universities, organized under the MOU between the Institute of Bioeconomy of the National Research Council (CNR IBE), which invited us, and the Center for Space and Remote Sensing Research of the National Central University of Taiwan and the Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute of the Ministry of Agriculture. C.N.R. Istituto per la BioEconomia I.B.E - Istitute of Bioeconomy Our researchers Tessa Maurer, Ph.D. and Francesco Avanzi gave two talks on “Monitoring and forecasting the water-food nexus in a warming world: examples from around the globe” and “From hazard to risk management: towards impact-based operational monitoring and forecasting of droughts” respectively, defining what is meant by drought, what are the main indicators to recognize it and showing its main impacts. Collaboration with an institution such as CNR IBE represents an important opportunity to explore issues of common interest and promote a shared scientific approach to addressing global challenges.