Full Professor of Hydraulic Engineering at Politecnico di Milano since 2003 and Director of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering since 2017. Adjunct Professor at the Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences of the University of Arizona (USA). Main research activity is related to qualitative and quantitative aspects of groundwater systems and underground energy resources (more than 190 ISI publications; h-index(SCOPUS) = 38). Key roles in EU framework projects (FP5-FP7, H2020: Coordinator, Deputy Coordinator, Project leader, Supervisory Board member, and PI of numerous research projects funded by the industrial sector). Chair of the Communication Committee of the International Society for Porous Media (Interpore). Chair of the Committee on Groundwater Hydraulics and Management of the International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research (IAHR). Chief Executive Editor of the Journal Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (EGU) and Associate Editor of the Journals Water Resources Research (AGU) and Stochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment. Recipient of the Chaire Gutenberg and Prix Gutenberg 2018 (Award by Cercle Gutenberg and Région Grand-Est, France, for research on Climate change and water cycle in Upper Rhine Basin). Elected member of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts (2021).
Research experience spans theoretical/numerical and experimental projects, motivated and funded through applications to real problems, and focused on subsurface flow dynamics of (variably) saturated soils, parameter estimation, inverse modeling, geostatistics, stochastic analyses of flow and transport in geo-chemically active subsurface environments, scaling in hydrology & geophysics, data assimilation, model reduction techniques for the solution of flow and transport problems, and uncertainty quantification in groundwater systems, from the pore- to the laboratory-, field- and basin-scale. Current research activities include (i) environmental protection of groundwater bodies; (ii) stochastic groundwater hydrology, (iii) delineation of wellhead and groundwater source protection regions, (iv) multiscale flow and solute transport in aquifers and reservoirs, (v) multiphase flows, enhanced oil recovery, and shale gas development, (vi) risk based corrective actions of subsurface energy development, (vii) environmental impacts of competitive use of groundwater.
38
>190
236 (source: Scopus)
Teaching activity comprises tenure of numerous classes (Hydraulics, Fluid Mechanics, Groundwater Hydraulics) within the curricula of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering at the Politecnico di Milano. Currently he teaches classes of Fluid Mechanics and Transport Phenomena in Petroleum Reservoirs at the School of Industrial Engineering (Politecnico di Milano). He coordinates the course of Groundwater Hydraulics within the curriculum of the Doctoral Program of Environmental and Infrastructure Engineering (Politecnico di Milano). For additional information visit the official page on Politecnico website.
Title: "Trapping and Removal of X-ray Contrast Medium agents from water resource and stream Sediments- New Concepts in Trapping, Recycling and Management (REMEDI)". Project funded in the call H2020-MSCA-ITN-2020. Role: Coordinator (Project admitted to funding; status: Grant Agreement completed). Key topic and objective: Assessment of the dynamics of X-Ray contrasting media agents (CMA) migrating in sediments and porous media under uncertainty, including development of mechanistic and quantitative models for X-ray CMA-dynamics during phase transformation while migrating through heterogeneous porous media.
Title: "Removal and Mitigation of Pollution from the Use of Pesticides: Prevention, Recycling and Resource Management (RECYCLE)". Project funded in the call H2020-MSCA-RISE-2019. Role: Coordinator. Key topic and objective: RECYCLE tackles two interlinked global issues: (i) potential shortages of pesticides as essential need for food security, and (ii) the decline of water quality due to excess pesticide input.
Title: "Furthering the Knowledge Base For Reducing the Environmental Footprint of Shale Gas Development" (FracRisk). Role: Partner/Beneficiary. Key topic and objective: Improving understanding of the potential impact of shale gas exploration and exploitation by hydraulic fracturing, including probabilistic risk assessment of environmental matrices and development of decision-support tools for quantifying the environmental impacts.
Title: "Innovative methods for water resources management under hydro-climatic uncertainty scenarios". The project involves 7 Research Units (6 Italian Universities and the National Research Council). Key topic and objective: embed interpretive scaling relationships of subsurface parameters within reduced order stochastic modeling procedures of steady-state groundwater flow.
Title: "Towards improved groundwater vulnerability assessment" (IMVUL), Marie Curie Initial Training Network (contract No. PITN-GA-2008-212298). IMVUL was a multi-partner ITN funded by the EU and coordinated by The University of Leeds. Role: Partner/Beneficiary. Key topic and objective: Quantification of vulnerability issues in a series of case study aquifers. The objective is achieved upon relying on (i) a combination of laboratory experimental designs and experiments and on (ii) a series of mathematical and numerical modeling tools for simulating contaminant transport in the subsurface to be employed to investigate subsurface processes relevant to groundwater vulnerability, in terms of quality and quantity.
Title: "Stochastic Analysis of Well-Head Protection and Risk Assessment" (W-SAHaRA). Contract No. EVK1-1999-CT-00041. Role: Coordinator. Key topic and objective: W-SAHaRA was a European level consortium operating in the context of the probabilistic analysis of drinking wells protection and aimed at the quantification of the importance of the heterogeneity of natural geological materials and its impact on the sustainable management and development of drinking well fields.
Probabilistic risk assessment aimed at the quantification of environmental risks subsequent to Shale Oil Development / hydraulic fracturing in Colombia.
Key topic and objective: Stochastic approaches leading to uncertainty quantification of models for sediment gravity flows.
Key topic and objective: Sensitivity analysis of seismic characterization of reservoirs through inversion under uncertainty; model benchmarking through information theory metrics.
Key topic and objective: Stochastic inverse modeling of two-phase immiscible fluid flow in the presence of space-time distributed data collected through 4D tomography.
Key topic and objective: Improvement of current approaches and methods to the interpretation of partitioning tracer data associated with inter-well tracer tests keyed to (i) enhancing our understanding of connectivity features of a reservoir, (ii) properly assessing the spatial distribution of fluid saturation in the system, and (iii) integrating within a unique framework information associated with single- (i.e., tests based on the classical push-pull technique) and inter- well tracer tests.
Key topic and objective: Development of a modeling-based approach and decision line to support and guide experimental activities at the pore- and core-scale.
Key topic and objective: Application to field cases of global sensitivity analysis tools and model reduction techniques for stochastic inverse modeling of sedimentological processes. Quantification of parametric and scenario uncertainties.
Key topic and objective: Development of an approach aimed at defining a groundwater flow and transport model leading to the quantification of the contamination risk of target pumping wells in the presence of uncertain aquifer parameters and geochemical process.
Key topic and objective: Numerical implementation of a mathematical model for the simulation of coupled processes (fluid flow and geochemical/mechanical compaction) in sedimentary basins including the effects of glaciation.
Key topic and objective: Conceptual and numerical modeling of flow processes and mud losses in porous and/or fractured reservoirs in exploration and development wellbores.
Key topic and objective: Quantification of CO2 (H2S/CO2) generation from dissolution of carbonate rock matrix under scenario and parametric uncertainty with direct application to realistic scenarios.
Key topic and objective: Pore- and core-scale characterization of two- and three-phase flows in porous media through integration of theoretical upscaling, numerical pore- and continuum- scale analyses, laboratory experiments, and development of semi-empirical models.
Key topic and objective: Global sensitivity analysis tools and model reduction techniques for stochastic inverse modeling of sedimentological processes driving basin scale structure. Application to the sedimentological modeling framework embedded in the computational system Dionisos.
Key topic and objective: Extension of geochemical models with specific reference to carbonate/clay reactions, leading to field applications and estimate of CO2 generation under realistic conditions.
Key topic and objective: Formulation and characterization of a mathematical model for the simulation of coupled processes (fluid flow and geochemical/mechanical compaction) in sedimentary basins including the effects of glaciation and isostatic processes.
Key topic and objective: Application of one-dimensional effective models based on model complexity reduction to interpretation of field settings associated with geochemical and mechanical compaction.
Key topic and objective: Identification of a modeling strategy and structure of effective models for the simulation of key processes governing generation and migration of non-hydrocarbon components in sedimentary basins.
Key topic and objective: Developing of theoretical framework and algorithms for inverse modeling of mechanical and geochemical compaction at the basin scale for well field management.
Key topic and objective: Experiments and geochemical modeling of the effects of Arsenic partitioning and dynamics on the assessment of groundwater background levels.
Key topic and objective: Data assimilation and stochastic inverse modeling for the characterization of reservoirs in the presence of uncertain distribution of hydrofacies and hydraulic properties
Key topic and objective: Pore-scale simulations and theoretical upscaling of two- and three-phase flows in natural porous media for enhanced oil recovery through water alternating gas injection.
Key topic and objective: Development of model order reduction techniques and ensuing mathematical model for uncertainty analysis of coupled mechanical and geochemical compaction processes at the basin scale.