Higher Education Initiative on Natural Hazard Management for a Resilient Territory

The Higher Education initiative “RESILIENT2RISK - The management of natural hazards for a resilient territory,” organized by the Department of Civil, Chemical, Environmental and Materials Engineering of the Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna, ended on April 16 in Faenza.

There were 158 participants in the initiative, seeing the constant presence of 19 recent graduates at the 10 days, joined by industry professionals registered with the Order of Engineers, the Order of Geologists and the College of Surveyors, who had the opportunity to participate in dedicated days.

RESILIENT2RISK aimed to contribute to the training of professionals capable of promoting resilient management of the territory subject to natural hazards, trying to respond to the recent critical issues and needs of the regional territory, which has seen increasing exposure to flooding and landslide events, not to mention the 2012 earthquake.

The days focused on the issues of hydraulic risk saw interventions by several UNIBO professors (Prof. Alberto Montanari, Prof. Guenter Bloeschl, Prof. Attilio Castellarin and Prof. Alessio Domeneghetti), as well as contributions from Prof. Fabio Castelli (University of Florence) and Prof. Marco Marani (University of Padua).

The topic of hydrogeological risk focused both on issues related to embankment systems (with UNIBO contributions by Prof. Giudo Gottardi, Prof. Michela Marchi, Dr. Ilaria Bertolini, Prof. Alessio Domeneghetti, and the talk by Prof. Luca Solari of the University of Florence), and on landslide events (with UNIBO contributions by Prof. Lisa Borgatti, Dr. Davide Donati, Prof. Matteo Berti, and the talk by Dr. Lorenzo Brezzi of the University of Padua).

UNIBO lecturers Prof. Nicola Buratti, Prof. Claudio Mazzotti and Dr. Francesca Ferretti, together with Prof. Serena Cattari (University of Genoa), focused on seismic risk.

R2R also addressed issues related to:

• land monitoring with Dr. Alessandro Lambertini,
• land planning with Dr. Benedetta Baldassarre
• analysis of impacts on key sectors in the region such as transportation systems (Prof. Luca Mantecchini)
• forestry sector (Prof. Federico Magnani)
• agricultural sector (Prof. Giovanni Dinelli)
• industrial sector (Dr. Federica Ricci).

The initiative was organized in collaboration with the Order of Engineers of the Province of Ravenna and Faventia Sales. RESILIENT2RISK was sponsored by the Emilia-Romagna Region, the Municipality of Faenza, the Emilia-Romagna Region Order of Geologists, and the Flaminia Foundation. The initiative received support from the extended PNRR RETURN partnership, which focuses its research activities on environmental, natural and anthropogenic hazards at the national level, in a changing climate context.