Massimiliano Fazzini

Skiability conditions in several skiing complexes on Piedmontese and Dolomitic Alps

Nivo-meteorological data from six daily recording stations located in the Italian Alps (three in the Piedmont Region, to the West, and three in the Dolomites, to the East), operating since 1991 and representative for quite large areas, have been analysed in order to point out nivometric regimes. The data gathered were also used to infer time and space distribution of parameters (thickness of snow cover, wind intensity, air humidity, amount of liquid precipitation and daily minimum, average and maximum air temperature) affecting skiability, and therefore influencing the touristic potential of alpine area.

The Climate of Ethiopia

Several papers have been published on different issues regarding the climate of Ethiopia or of some specific region. This presentation attempts to revise the knowledge of the climate of Ethiopia by means of updated, longer time series and including a larger number of meteo-stations than previous studies. Basic climatic parameters such as temperature, rainfall, relative humidity, wind, evapotranspiration, and aridity are considered and their spatial distribution is analyzed. The main results of such elaborations have been regionalized to obtain climatic maps by means of geostatistical interpolation, also taking into account topogeographic variables. These parameters were also used to update the Koppen classification of the Ethiopian territory. Climate change is a very important issue with worrying repercussions on agriculture and hence the social and economic development of the country. Trends of temperature and annual, spring, and summer rains were interpolated for the last 3–5 decades. Temperature shows a markedly increasing trend especially as regards the minimum values, whereas annual rainfalls tend to decrease with the spring, ‘small rains’ decreasing at faster rate.

Extremely dry and warm conditions in northern Italy during the year 2015: effects on the Po river water

The presented research highlights relationships between the climatic anomalies that occurred in northern Italy in 2015 and the water system of Po river. We investigated the effect of anomalous high temperature and paucity of meteoric precipitation on the Po river discharge and water geochemistry. The new geochemical data, carried out on river water sampled at Pontelagoscuro (close to the city of Ferrara) and in the delta, have been compared with an extended dataset collected since 2009. The comparison emphasizes that water samples of 2015 were characterized by a high electrical conductivity due to high concentrations of conservative ionic species (e.g. Na, Cl, SO4) and nutrients such as nitrate. Oxygen and hydrogen isotopes, particularly sensitive to the observed climatic changes, reveal in a δ18O-δD diagram evaporative trends (highlighted by displacement from the Meteoric Water Lines) with a magnitude that was not recorded in the last years. The monitoring is currently in progress to develop functions that relate geochemical parameters to the evolving meteo-hydrological conditions.

Analysis of spatial and temporal distribution of precipitation in Trentino (Italian Eastern Alps): Preliminary Report.

The records of 92 pluviometric stations located in the Trentino Province (Italian Eastern Alps) were analyzed in order to find significant features in their spatial and temporal distribution. Differentiation of climatic regimes was detected, as well as the influence of many topographic-geographic parameters. Analyses of the data from the 20 stations with the best continuity of records indicate some periodic trends, with a major influence of those having a wavelength of ca. 26.7, 36.9 and 13.5 years. Also non strictly periodic Mediterranean oscillations influences the precipitation in the study area.

Soil erosion in the Zim Potok watershed, Polimlje river basin, Montenegro.

The negative impact of sediments on the environment and water resources is widely acknowledged with many watercourses in Montenegro and in the South Eastern European Region. To reduce sediment exports from the big river basins discharging to the accumulations, it is essential to identify the sources: critical sub basins and the quantity of its sediment yield and runoff. The off-site impacts of runoff and eroded soil, eutrophication of water bodies, loss of reservoir capacity, muddy flooding of roads and communities, are increasingly recognised. Establishing the correlation between on-site erosion rates with offsite impacts is complicated because of the limited data on soil erosion processes in Montenegro and the dynamic nature of this process over space and time. The use of computer-graphic methods allowed the quantification of the environmental effects of soil erosion. We used modelling of sediment yield and runoff for calculation of soil erosion intensity for a Zim Potok watershed of Polimlje, Montenegro. Ecological factors, which are the basis for the calculation of soil erosion intensity, are included in the IntErO simulation model, with the Erosion potential analytical method of Gavrilovic embedded in the algorithm of this computer-graphic method. Our results shown that the calculated maximal outflow from the river basin may be 144 ms for the 100 years return time flood. The sediment yield was calculated as 689 m3yr, specific 155 m3kmyr. The important results of this study are the determination of erosion processes in the study watershed and new particular information about the recent state of runoff and sediment yield in formats that can facilitate its efficient management and protection, illustrating the possibility of sediment yield modelling with such

Water–Rock Interaction and Lake Hydrochemistry in the Main Ethiopian Rift

This study investigates the halogen budget of the Main Ethiopian Rift (MER) lithologies and water, and on the basis of new laboratory experiments gives insights on the water–rock interaction processes which ultimately mobilize fluoride in the environment. The halogen composition, and in particular, the chloride content of MER lakes is also taken into consideration to evaluate compositional variation occurred during the last 80 years that have to be mainly related evaporative effects. The evaporation trends are also investigated on the basis of new analyses of stable isotopes of oxygen and hydrogen that are compared with those available in the literature since the 1970s. In such complex scenario, although the average annual temperature increased ~1 °C in 30 years, we did not observe systematic trends valid for all the investigated lakes. The record defined for the last 30 years by δ18O–δD denote fluctuations of the climatic parameters with extreme evaporation preceding the year 2005, then declining to more “normal” conditions. The relation between the observed climatic parameters and the water isotopic composition suggests that the study lakes quickly respond to the environmental changes, possibly within one (or two) year(s). We therefore suggest to continue the data acquisition of climatic and hydrochemical parameters in order to implement the existing hydro-archive that could be useful to point out possible environmental changes.