Partner 2 : Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca (UNIBICO), Italy

Role

UNIBICO will lead Workpackage 2. Within the University the work will be carried out by the recently founded Department of Geological Science and Geotechnology. Subcontracts will be let to the University of Bologna (which with CNR IRPI is a leading centre for the use of GIS in hazard zonation) and the Lombardy Regional Geological Survey (which is charged with landslide management in the region). The Survey will be an important end user of the project results.

Experience

The Department of Geological Science and Geotechnology has been recently founded as part of the new University of Milano-Bicocca (transferred from the Department of Geology, University of Milan). Its main research subjects concern the assessment of risks: hydrogeological (landslides, floods, groundwater contamination, etc.), seismic and volcanic, environmental on land and at sea. The staff is composed of about 25 persons (professors and researchers) with experience in different fields of geology and of risk assessment. Through previous positions at the University of Milan the staff developed extensive experience in the field study and modelling of debris flows in the Italian Alps and the Apennines, with a particular interest in the rainfall conditions triggering flow formation. They played a central role in analysing recent catastrophic events, in particular the 1987 Valtellina and the 1994 Piemonte disasters. These analyses have enabled a detailed database on debris flows in northern Italy to be assembled.

Personnel

The team will comprise two senior academics and two researchers, plus a senior academic at the University of Bologna.