Current position

• Professor of Hydraulic works and Hydrology at the Department DICAM of the University of Bologna. Alberto Montanari is currently teaching Water Resources Management M (6 European Credits ECTS), Hydraulic works (6 ECTS) and Advanced Hydrology and Water Resources Management (taught in English, 6 ECTS) in the degree programmes in Civil Engineering and Environmental Engineering at the University of Bologna. He is member of the Council of the School of Engineering and the Council of the Ph.D. programme in Civil Engineering at the University of Bologna.
• Coordinator of the Bachelor and Master Degree Programmes in Civil Engineering at the University of Bologna.
• Council Member of the School of Engineering and Arc hitecture at the University of Bologna.
• Editor in Chief from 2013 al 2017 of the scientific journal Water Resources Research, published by American Geophysical Union (wrr.agu.org).
• Chair from 2013 to 2015 of the International Scientific Decade 2013-2022 "Panta Rhei - Change in Hydrology and Society" of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS).
• Chair of the Union Award Committee of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) from 2009.
• President of the International Commission on Water Resources Systems of IAHS.
• National representative for Italy within IAHS.
• Member of the John Dalton and Henry Darcy Medal Committees of EGU.
• Member of the International Scientific Committee "Florence 2016" which is in charge of proposing solution for the mitigation of the hydraulic risk for the city.
• Chair of the Leonardo Committee of EGU.
• Council Member of the Ph.D programme in Civil, Chemical, Environmental and Material Engineering at the University of Bologna.
• Member of American Geophysical Union (AGU), EGU ed IAHS.
• Member of the Association of Professional Engineers of Reggio Emilia.

Past positions

• President of the Division on Hydrological Sciences of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) from 2007 to 2011.
• Chair from 2011 to 2013 of the Task Force of the IAHS which prepared a proposal for the scientific decade 2013-2022 of IAHS.
• From 2004 to 2013 he has been Editor of the scientific journal Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, pubished by EGU.
• From 2010 to 2013 he has bees Associate Editor of the scientific journal Survey in Geophysics, published by Springer.
• From 2011 to 2013 he has been Associate Editor of the scientific journal Hydrological Sciences Journal published by IAHS.

Scholastic career

• High School Diploma: High School Diploma in Environmental Survey and Civil Constructions obtained in 1985 in Reggio Emilia, with the maximum grade (60/60).
  
• Master Degree: Master Degree in Civil and Hydraulic engineering obtained at the University of Parma in 1992, maximum grade cum laude, by defending a master degree thesis entitled “A Water Quality Model of the Baganza River (in Italian)”, whose supervisor was Renzo Rosso.
  
• Professional habilitation: professional habilitation in Engineering obtained in Parma in 1992.
  
• Ph.D.:Ph.D. in Hydraulic Engineering obtained in 1996 by defending a Ph.D. thesis entitled "Stochastic Modelling of Hydrological Variables Affected by Long Term Persistence” (in Italian).

Academic Career

• Post-doctoral student at the University of Bologna from March 1997 to January 1998.
• Assistant Professor in Hydraulic Works and Hydrology at the Department DISTART of the University of Bologna from 1998 to 2001.
• Associate Professor at the Department DISTART (now Department DICAM) of the University of Bologna from 2001 to 2012.
• Professor at the Department DICAM) of the University of Bologna from 2012.

Research activity

Brief summary of past and current research activity

Alberto Montanari’s research activity has been always inspired by the will to contribute to solve practical engineering problems related to water, with particular focus on his native region. In particular, he focused on flood modelling and water resources management. Actually, the primary focus of Alberto Montanari is rainfall-runoff modelling and the related open research challenges for the practical application of hydrological models in engineering design.

Alberto Montanari began his research activity in 1993, by studying statistical techniques for simulating and predicting rainfall fields. The main goal of this research studies was to verify the performances of statistical methods for short term rainfall prediction, to improve the reliability flood forecasting systems. Moreover, analyses were carried out to detect the possible presence of non-stationarity in long rainfall records and assess the uncertainty in the estimation of the critical design storm. These latter analyses were carried out by referring to long rainfall records observed in Italy.

Furthermore, Alberto Montanari dedicated his attention to the development of innovative methods for generating synthetic hydrological series observed at fine time scale, in the possible presence of long-term persistence, non-Gaussianity and intermittence. Such activity has been carried out during two periods of study at the Department of Mathematics of the Boston University (USA). Then, Alberto Montanari focused on the use of statistical techniques to improve real time river flow predictions obtained through lumped and spatially-distributed rainfall-runoff models.

The current research activity is articulated in the following subjects:

1. Spatially-distributed rainfall runoff models.
2. Uncertainty analysis for hydrological models.
3. Analysis of hydrological change.
4. Drought management and environmental flow requirements.
5. Development of a statistically based framework for the application of conceptual and physically-based rainfall-runoff with uncertainty analysis.

Scientific papers and citations

Alberto Montanari is author or co-author of 135 papers published on international ISI journals (72 papers), conference proceedings or book chapters (55 papers) and edited books or monographs (8 publications).

According to the data base of the ISI Web of Science the publications by Alberto Montanari are 72. The total number of citations is 1790. The average number of citations per paper is 25.2, with a maximum of 136 citations and second value, in descending order, of 116. The H index is 24.

Editorial activity

Alberto Montanari is Editor of Water Resources Research, published by the American Geophysical Union.

He has been Editor of Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, published by the European Geosciences Union, Associate Editor of Water Resources Research, Associate Editor of Survey in Geophysics, published by Springer, Associate Editor of the journal Hydrological Sciences Journal published by the International Association of Hydrological Sciences, and Associate Editor of the scientific journal Open Civil Engineering Journal published by Bentham Science Publishers.

Alberto Montanari edited the book “Hydrological Risk - Recent advances in peak river flow modelling, prediction and real-time forecasting - Assessment of the impacts of land-use and climate changes”, published by BIOS (Italy) in 2004, and the book “Evolving Water Resources Systems: understanding, predicting and managing water-society interactions, published by the International Association of Hydrological Sciences in 2014.

Invited lectures and presentations

Alberto Montanari delivered 35 invitedtalks at national and internazional conferences and workshops. The invited talks given from 2011 are:

• 2011: "Uncertainty estimation in hydrology Incorporating physical knowledge in stochastic modeling of uncertain systems", invited talk at the Uppsala University Sweden, Uppsala 9 June 2011.
• 2012: "Hydrology of the Po River: looking for changing patterns in river discharge", invited talk at the Accademia dei Lincei, Rome 22 March 2012.
• 2012: "Towards the IAHS Scientific Decade 2013-2022", invited talk at the Hohai University, Nanjing, China, 12 May 2012.
• 2012: "Uncertainty estimation in hydrology, or Stochastic physically-based modeling of uncertain hydrological systems", invited talk at EPFL Lausanne, 12 June 2012.
• 2012: "Modelling flood change", invited talk at the Vienna University of Technology, Vienna, 4 September 2012.
• 2012: "A tribute to Vit Klemes", invited talk at the STAHY International Workshop, Tunis, 2 October 2012.
• 2012: "An overview of the Science Plan of the IAHS Scientific Decade 2013-2022", invited talk at the Delft University of Technology, Delft, 25 October 2012.
• 2013: “Impatto del cambiamento climatico sul rischio di alluvione: recenti orientamenti della ricerca scientifica nazionale ed internazionale”, invited talk at the “Giornate dell'Idrologia”, Naples, 11 January 2013.
• 2013: “Climate ChangeVerso un cambio di clima anche nella collaborazione accademica?”, invited talk at the round table of the “Marchi Lecture”, Milan, May 31st 2013.
• 2013: “Panta Rhei: The IAHS Scientific Decade 2013-2022”, invited talk at the IAHS General Assembly, July 24th, 2013.
• 2014: “Perspectives for the use of big data in environmental planning and management”, invited talk at the EGU General Assembly, April 2014.
• 2014: “Towards a theory for hydrological change”, invited talk at the EGU General Assembly, April 2014.
• 2014: “Meet the expert in hydrology - How young scientists can contribute to ‘Hydrology in a changing world’”, invited talk at the EGU General Assembly, April 2014.
• 2014: “Panta Rhei – Everything Flows: Change in Hydrology and Society - Towards a theoretical framework for change assessment and attribution in hydrology”, invited talk at the CUAHSI Biennal Meeting, West Virginia, July 2014.
• 2014: “Solving Water Crisis through Understanding of Hydrology and Human Systems: a Possible Target?”, invited talk at the AGU Fall Meeting, December 2014.

Coordination of Research Projects

• 2004-2012: Coordinator of the Working Group at the University of Bologna on "Design Flow Estimation in Ungauged Basins", within the international research initiative Prediction in Ungauged Basins (PUB) promoted by the International Association of Hydrological Sciences.
• 2007-2008 National Coordinator of the research project "Advanced Techniques for Estimating and Predicting Extreme Hydrological Events with Uncertainty Analysis (SPIE)", financed by the Italian Government.
• 2009-2012 National Coordinator Progetto of the research project "Uncertainty Analysis for Rainfall and River Flow Data and Effects on Water Resources Management", financed by the Italian Government.
• 2013-2017: Coordinator at the University of Bologna of the research project “Sharing Water-related Information to Tackle Changes in the Hydrosphere – for Operational Needs (SWITCH-ON), financed by the European Union.

Participation to International Research Projects

• 1996-1997: Post-doctoral researcher in the project "Production of precipitation scenarios for impact assessment of climate change in Europe" (POPSICLE), financed within the 4th Framework Programme of the European Union.
• 1998-2000: Associate researcher in the project "Flash-flood risk assessment under the impacts of land use changes and river engineering works" (Framework), financed within the 5th Framework Programme of the European Union.
• 2001-2002: Associate researcher in the project "Multi-sensor precipitation measurements integration, calibration and flood forecasting" (MUSIC), financed within the 5th Framework Programme of the European Union.
• 2011-2012: Associate researcher in the project "Transitions to the urban water services of tomorrow" (TRUST), financed within the 7th Framework Programme of the European Union.
• 2013-2017: Coordinator at the University of Bologna of the research project “Sharing Water-related Information to Tackle Changes in the Hydrosphere – for Operational Needs (SWITCH-ON), financed by the European Union.

Coordination of Consulting Activities

Alberto Montanari has been coordinator of 15 consulting activities dealing with river basin management, water resources management and hydraulic engineering. The last ones cosulting activities are:

• Monitoring of the new fish ramp along the Fiume Secchia at Fornace, financed by SEA Srl.
• Analysis of likely inundation scenarios of the industrial plant of Niagara Srl, financed by Niagara Srl (private company; ended in 2011)
• Analysis of the seasonal flood frequency distribution along the Blue Nile River, financed by Studio Pietrangeli Srl (professional engineers; ended in 2012).
• Assessment of the hydrological balance of the Lake of Monate, financed by Comune di Travedona Monate (ended in 2013).
• Monitoring the environmental impact of the mining activities at Cava Faraona and Cava Santa Maria (Italy), financed by Comune di Travedona Monate.

Scientific and Teaching awards

• "Young Scientist Travel Award" conferred by the European Geophysical Society during the XX General Assembly held in Hamburg (Germany) from 3 to 7 April, 1995.
• "Young Scientist Travel Award" conferred by the European Geophysical Society during the XXI General Assembly held at Den Haag (The Netherlands) from 6 to 10 May, 1996.
• Award "Best Teacher Award 2014" assigned by the Department DICAM of the University of Bologna for the Master Degree Programme in Environmental Engineering.

Other teaching and research activities

Alberto Montanari has been the promoter of the Leonardo Conference Series of the European Geosciences Union, which was started in 2009. He was Member of the International Scientific Steering Committee of the HyMEx research project from 2008 to 2012.

Activities in Academic Commissions

• President of the Permanent Research Commission of the Department DISTART of the University of Bologna from 2008 to 2010.
• President of Library Committee of the Department DISTART (and subsequently DICAM) of the University of Bologna from 2006 to 2010.
• Member of the Library G.P. Dore Committee of the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Bologna from 2008 to 2010.
• Member of the Didactic Commission of the Degree Programme in Environmental Engineering at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Bologna from 2005.
• Council member of the School in Engineering and Architecture of the University of Bologna since2012.

Activities in National and International Ph.D. Tribunals and other Evaluating Commissions

Alberto Montanari has been member of 25 commissions for the recruiting of academic positions and final Ph.D. defenses. The last committments were:

• 2011: Member of the Tribunal of the final Ph.D. defense of the Ph.D. programme in Physical Environmental Modelling at the University of Bologna.
• 2011: External opponent of the final Ph.D. defense of Ida Westerberg, at the Uppsala University Sweden.
• 2011: Member of the Tribunal of the final Ph.D. defense of Giulia Napolitano, at the University of Leeds.
• 2012: Member of the Tribunal of the final Ph.D. defense of Cara Tobin, at the EPFL Lausanne.
• 2013: Member of the Tribunal of the final Ph.D. defense of Luciano Raso, at TUD Delft.
• 2013: Member of the Tribunal of the final Ph.D. defense of Hydaiat, at Wageningen University.
• 2014: Member of the Commission for the evaluation of Greek State Universities professors.
• 2014: Member of the evaluation Commission for one position of associate professor at the University of Padua.
• 2014: Member of the Tribunal of the final Ph.D. defense of Elena Szolgayova, at the Technical University of Wien.

Activity in medal and awards committees

2009- Chair of the Union Awards and Medals Committee of the European Geosciences Union

2007- Member of the Dalton and Darcy Medal Committees of the European Geosciences Union.
• 2014: Member of the SENSE review panel for Universities in The Netherlands.

Scientific publications

ISI publications.
Conference proceedings.
Monographs.