Courses on Climate Change and Adaptation - Spring 2024

Next Spring I am teaching two courses on climate change and adaptation at the University of Bologna. The courses will be delivered in hybrid mode, that is, in physical presence and streaming. In case streaming is not available, video of the lectures will be made promptly available soon after the each lecture is closed.

The courses are:

  • Science of climate change and climate actions - 3 credits, 24 hours. It is a soft skill course. It is available to be included in the study plan of any student at Unibo. The approach is mainly narrative, with very limited reference to mathematics. It focuses on the scientific basis of climate and related solutions. 200 seats are available, interested students are advised to be very prompt to include the course in their study plan and seats usually run out within a few hours from the opening of the subscriptions. Please note that I cannot offer any support on subscriptions as I have no control on this process.
    Lectures will start on February 19, 2024 and will go on until end of April. Lectures will be on Monday, from 14:30 to 17:30 in room 2.7B in Via del Risorgimento 2, Bologna, main building, second floor. 
  • Climate change adaptation - 6 credits, 48 hours. It is a course delivered at the School of Engineering that can be attended as an elective subject by any student at Unibo (but please check the guidelines and regulation of your study plan). The approach is both narrative and quantitative, with some reference to mathematical modelling and specific reference to water resources and water related climate impacts and threats. To facilitate attendance to non-engineering students the mathematical details will be confined to few lectures and the exam will take place with different questions for engineering versus non-engineering students. It is an innovative approach and therefore I will do my best to make students comfortable and allow an interdisciplinary approach. The course adopts experimental teaching methods and thus 40% of the lectures will be delivered online. The course includes 8 hours of exercises at the personal computer. These are not compulsory. Exercises will be developed in close cooperation with the teacher.
    Lectures will start on February 19, 2024 and will go on until end of May. Lectures will be on
    - Monday, from 9:00 to 12:00 in room TA10, in Via Terracini 28, Bologna, main building, first floor;
    - Thursday, from 9:00 to 11:00, in streaming.

The table of contents of "Science of Climate Change and Climate Actions"  is as follows:

  • Climate history: observed data, proxy data, climatic variability (glaciations, solar activity, climate cycles).
  • Advanced techniques for environmental monitoring.
  • Climate physics and modeling.
  • Modeling of climate related processes: water cycle and natural hazards.
  • Solutions for climate change mitigation.
  • Solutions for climate change adaptation.
  • Climate analysis with open data and open software.

The tutorials used last year for the above lectures are available here.

The table of contents of "Climate change adaptation"  is as follows:

The tutorials used last year for the above lectures are available here.

Students are warmly invited to consider attending "Climate change adaptation" if seats of "Science of climate change and climate actions" are not available anymore and their study plan allows that.
For any additional information please email me.

Thank you for your interest.
Best,
Alberto