Thursday, February 6, 2025

Biosphere, Atmosphere, Climater Interactions 2025 Class

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The Hydrological Modeling 2025 class

 Welcome to the 2025 Hydrological Modeling Class!

To better understand the materials provided:

  • Storyboards – Summaries of the lectures, usually in Italian.
  • Whiteboards – Explanations of specific topics, presented on a whiteboard using Notability on an iPad.
  • Slides – Commented in English (available since 2021).
  • Videos – Recorded during lectures to complement the slides, with no editing (as post-production would be too time-consuming).
    • 2025 videos are available on a [Vimeo Showcase] (link here).
  • Additional information & references – Marked in italics, for the curious and the brave who want to explore further.

📅 24 February 2025– Part I

Syllabus & Introduction to Hydrological Modeling

In this session, I introduced the course and its learning-by-doing philosophy. We cover all theoretical concepts first, followed by the practical applications (with Professor Giuseppe Formetta).

The real start 

To begin is also worth to have a little (philosophical) analysis of what a model is. This is what done in the following parte of the lecture

📅 25 February 2025 – Geomorphometry

This session begins with a discussion of previous lesson topics and the rationale behind introducing geomorphometric concepts. Since catchments are spatially extended, understanding their geometry is essential for studying catchment hydrology.

In the first part, we focus on the geometrical and differential characteristics of topography, including:

  • Elevation
  • Slope
  • Curvature

These parameters are fundamental for extracting the river network and identifying different parts of a catchment.

We then define drainage directions and explore how they are computed using Digital Elevation Models (DEMs)—where topography is discretized on a regular grid. From these drainage directions, we determine the total contributing area at each point of a DEM.

These two key characteristics allow us to:

  1. Identify channel heads and extract the river network.
  2. Define hillslopes and establish an initial framework for Hydrologic Response Units (HRUs).

    📅 3 March 2025 

    Q&A - 


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    Tuesday, February 4, 2025

    The Hydrology Class Lab 2025

     The lab component makes up nearly half of the course, following the motto:

    "Learning by doing."

    Throughout the lab, you will conduct at least three key numerical experiments:

    • Time Series Analysis – Exploring various data elaborations with various Jupyter Notebooks and a little of Python
    • Intensity-Duration-Frequency (IDF) Curves – Estimating rainfall intensity over different time scales with various Jupyter Notebooks and a little of Python, as well 
    • Infiltration Experiments – Investigating soil absorption dynamics using the WHETGEO system
    • Evaporation & Transpiration Experiments – Understanding water loss processes in different conditions using the GEOSPACE ssytem

    Resources

    🔹 [Vimeo Showcase – General Lab Videos]

    🔹[OSF Repository – Lab Materials]

    🔹[Theory and Concepts here]


    📌 Detailed videos and materials for each experiment are listed below.



     2023-02-24 Introduction to working with Jupyter and Notebooks

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    The Hydrology class 2025

    The Hydrology 2025 Course will be 90% similar to last year's class, with only minor modifications. You can find details about the tools used and other relevant information in the  2023 Index (a quick 3-minute read).This page provides access to course materials, including slides, videos (both old and new), and other resources.

    Hydrology is a fascinating field because water is essential for life and human activities. It is fundamentally the Physics of the Hydrological Cycle, yet it is deeply interconnected with biochemical processes and geology due to water's crucial role in ecosystems. Here a brief introduction from a National Geographics post.  A companion page is available for the laboratory exercises, where you can find all the necessary materials for hands-on practice.


    The lab material is here. 

    Classes and Related Materials

    Available Resources

    • Storyboards – A summary of the lecture, usually in Italian.
    • Whiteboard – A detailed explanation of a specific topic, presented using Notability on an iPad.
    • Slides – Commented in English.
    • Videos – Commentary on the slides, typically recorded during lectures with no editing (as post-production would be too time-consuming).
      • 2024 Videos are available on a Vimeo Showcase [link here].
    • Additional Information & References – For those eager to explore more, supplementary details and references are provided in italics.

    Class Schedule & Materials

    📅 24 February 2024 – Introduction to the Course and Hydrology

    • Blöschl, Günter. 2022. Flood Generation: Process Patterns from the Raindrop to the Ocean. DOI: 10.5194/hess-2022-2.

    📅 25 February 2024 – Ground-Based Precipitation and Its Statistics

    📌 Topic: Understanding precipitation distribution, intensity, and extreme events—essential for engineering applications.

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    Saturday, January 25, 2025

    GEOSPACE or Soil-Plants-Atmosphere-Continuum Estimator in GEOframe first paper

    The soil-plant-atmosphere continuum (SPAC) system is a complex and interconnected network of physical phenomena, encompassing heat transfer, evapotranspiration, precipitation, water absorption, soil water flow, substance transport, and gas exchange. These processes govern the exchange of energy, matter, and water within the SPAC system. To better understand and model SPAC interactions, interdisciplinary approaches are essential due to the inherent complexity of the system. Instead of relying on a single monolithic model, we propose a component-based modeling approach, where each component addresses a specific aspect of the system. Object-oriented programming (OOP) is adopted as the foundational framework for this approach, providing flexibility and adaptability to accommodate the ever-changing nature of the SPAC system.

    Please find the paper by clicking on the Figure

    The Soil Plant Atmosphere Continuum Estimator in GEOframe (GEOSPACE) is presented in this paper, in particular the one-dimensional development, GEOSPACE-1D. The framework is a tool designed to facilitate robust, reliable and transparent simulations of SPAC interactions. It embraces the principles of open-source software and modular design, aiming to promote open, reusable, and reproducible research practices. By implementing the OOP, GEOSPACE-1D breaks down the complexity of SPAC modeling into smaller, self-contained structures, each responsible for a specific scientific or mathematical concept. This modular architecture adheres to the "open to extensions, closed to modifications" philosophy, enabling easy model extension without disrupting existing components. Equations are implemented in an abstract manner, emphasizing the use of common interfaces over concrete classes, a hallmark of contemporary OOP. GEOSPACE-1D adopts a generic programming framework, where distinct classes adhere to a common interface. This compartmentalization serves two critical purposes: validating individual processes against analytical solutions and facilitating the integration of novel processes into the system.

    The paper emphasizes the significance of modeling the coupling between infiltration and evapotranspiration for accurate hydrological simulations. It explores the interplay between plant transpiration, soil evaporation, and soil moisture dynamics, highlighting the need to account for these interactions in SPAC models. The paper concludes by underlining the importance of modularity, transparency, and openness in SPAC modeling, principles that underlie the development of GEOSPACE-1D and its components. Overall, GEOSPACE-1D represents a promising approach to SPAC modeling, providing a flexible and extensible framework for studying complex interactions within the Earth's Critical Zone. It is worth recalling that the fundamental premise of GEOSPACE-1D is not to create a single soil-plant-atmosphere model, but to establish a system that allows the creation of a series of soil-plant-atmosphere models, adapted to the specific needs of the user's case study.

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    Wednesday, January 8, 2025

    SpaceItUp works on WP 7.3

     At the Kickoff meeting held in Rome of the project SpaceItUp, I briefly presented where Earth Observations could be introduced in a common configuration of the GEOframe-NewAGE model. The Figure summarizes where. 


    The slides which you can find by clicking on the Figure, explain a little more. The idea we will pursue in htis project will be to use for calibration/validation or as a driver as much as possible Earth Observations. So far we played in a sandbox. Now we have to really accomplish!
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