online events
2nd decembrer 2021 h18.00
Water resources of glaciers and climate change
Glaciers are very sensitive sentinels of climate change. They hold important archives of the history of the climate and condition the sea level on a global scale (the ice caps in the first place) but are also strategic as “Water Towers”, able to provide the water resources necessary for irrugent, civil and industrial uses for large part of the planet’s population.
Glaciers have undergone numerous fluctuations in the past, recording key events in the history of climate on both a regional and global scale. However, the glacial system is very vulnerable if exposed to conditions of widespread climate warming, affecting both the availability of the water resources stored in these reservoirs, and the geopolitical consequences of their response to the changes taking place. Consequently, it is extremely necessary to know in detail the glacial system of our planet to understand its responses to the changes taking place and to provide new data for a correct and shared management of natural resources.
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Pisa
IGG-CNR Pisa
Current Position
RESEARCH ACTIVITIES
Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Pisa & IGG-CNR Pisa
Professor of Geomorphology at the University of Pisa, he belongs to the IGG of the CNR of Pisa. Member of the Academic Senate from 2018 to 2020, delegate of the Rector for the signing of the “Adamello Charter”, he was President of the Italian Glaciological Committee (2009-2014) and is coordinator of the monitoring of the Lombard glaciers since 1996. He is national correspondent of the World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS-UNESCO), delegate for Italy in the Standing Committee on Antarctic Geographic Information of the SCAR. He was a member of the Naz Scientific Commission. for Antarctica (CSNA) of the MIUR and the Organizing Committee of the Institute of Polar Sciences of the CNR.
The main research activity concerned glacial dynamics, its effects on the shapes of the relief, its links with the environment and the climate in a diachronic perspective. The main areas of study are Antarctica and the Alpine region, but he has conducted and conducts research in Geomorphology, Glacial Geology, Glaciology, Quaternary Geology and Geoarchaeology also in the Apennines and in Greenland. Since 1986 he has participated in fifteen PNRA expeditions, also covering the role of Scientific Coordinator (Mario Zucchelli Station). Since 1993 he has coordinated several research projects of the PNRA also in the context of formal agreements with the NSF (USA) and with the New Zealand Antarctic Program (ANT_NZ). In 2005 he participated in a US expedition to Greenland.
He is part of the teaching staff of the PhD in Polar Sciences of the University of Venice Cà Foscari, he was part of the teaching staff of the PhD course in Polar Sciences of the University of Siena and coordinated the PhD course in Earth Sciences of the University of Pisa.