Environmental ecology and human safety

River ecology

Research activity

Study of the effects on the river environment of hydro power production and sediment flushing from artificial reservoirs. Flood risk assessment. Analysis of wood and sediment transport in mountain rivers. Physical models on structures designed to intercept wood transport in rivers, sediments by-pass for reservoirs.

Past Works

  • Pisaturo, G.R., Folegot, S., Menapace, A., Righetti, M. Modelling fish habitat influenced by sediment flushing operations from an Alpine reservoir (2021) Ecological Engineering, 173, art. no. 106439. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoleng.2021.106439
  • Folegot, S., Bruno, M.C., Larsen, S., Kaffas, K., Pisaturo, G.R., Andreoli, A., Comiti, F., Maurizio, R. The effects of a sediment flushing on Alpine macroinvertebrate communities (2021) Hydrobiologia, 848 (17), pp. 3921-3941. DOI: 10.1007/s10750-021-04608-8
  • Pisaturo, G.R., Righetti, M., Castellana, C., Larcher, M., Menapace, A., Premstaller, G. A procedure for human safety assessment during hydropeaking events (2019) Science of the Total Environment, 661, pp. 294-305. DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.01.158
  • Pisaturo, G.R., Righetti, M., Dumbser, M., Noack, M., Schneider, M., Cavedon, V. The role of 3D-hydraulics in habitat modelling of hydropeaking events (2017) Science of the Total Environment, 575, pp. 219-230. DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.10.046
  • Premstaller, G., Cavedon, V., Pisaturo, G.R., Schweizer, S., Adami, V., Righetti, M. Hydropeaking mitigation project on a multi-purpose hydro-scheme on Valsura River in South Tyrol/Italy (2017) Science of the Total Environment, 574, pp. 642-653. DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.09.088

Ongoing projects

  • field monitoring activities about effects of sediment flushing from artificial reservoirs
  • numerical simulations of habitat modelling
  • study of human safety against hydropeaking
  • interaction between sediment concentration and fish habitat
  • lab-scaled experiments on debris flows and granular avalanches.

People involved

  • Giuseppe R. Pisaturo
  • Michele Larcher
  • Maurizio Righetti
  • Giulia Stradiotti
  • Andrea Menapace
  • Anna Prati

Collaboration

  • University of Trento (Italy)
  • Hochschule Karlsruhe (Germany)
  • University of Stuttgart (Germany)
  • Alperia (Italy)