Our EWC seminar on this Friday, Jan 19, will feature our own Dr. Dario Del Giudice. He will discuss “Improving estimation and predictions in hydrology and water quality.” An abstract and bio are included below. Please join us in Mann 304 from 12:50-1:40pm.

Title:
Improving estimation and predictions in hydrology and water quality

Abstract:
Climatic variability combined with anthropogenic pressures can impact the hydrological cycle by triggering critical phenomena such as flooding and eutrophication. Mechanistic and statistical models can be powerful tools to understand and predict how aquatic systems respond to variability in climatic inputs such as precipitation. However, in order to be useful, models need to be appropriately formulated, calibrated and validated.
In this talk we will explore different freshwater issues were choosing the appropriate type of model and uncertainty quantification method is paramount. Along the way, we will deal with estimating the catchment-averaged precipitation with a limited gauging network, predicting urban peak discharge in presence of high model bias, and identifying the hydrometeorological factors controlling lacustrine oxygen depletion. We will go through different methodological approaches to perform calibration and predictions for aquatic systems at multiple spatial and temporal scales. We will see how at times sophisticated combinations of Markov processes and mechanistic models are required, whereas in other cases simple methods such as least squares and linear regression can suffice.

Biography:
Dario recently started his postdoctoral research at NCSU, after moving from Stanford where he was working at the Carnegie Institution for Science. He is interested in the impact of climate variability and human pressures on the quantity and quality of water resources. In his research at the interface of catchment hydrology and surface water pollution he combines process-based models, stochastic methods for uncertainty quantification, and statistical inference. Dario is currently focusing on the complex issue of nutrients leaching from agricultural watersheds into surface waters and fostering eutrophication and oxygen depletion. Dario holds a PhD degree from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, a MSc from the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, and a BSc from the University of Bologna.