This document outlines a doctoral research project by Michele Bottazzi focusing on irrigation theory and practice at the catchment scale, emphasizing water management to reduce agricultural water consumption amidst increasing drought occurrences. It discusses various research activities, case studies on sensor deployment for leak detection, and the implementation of the kriging component in hydrological models, including applications to specific agricultural scenarios. Additionally, it identifies challenges in evapotranspiration measurement and proposes future directions for research in this area.

1. Coping with transpiration theory and practice
of irrigation at catchment scale using modern
information and modelling
Doctoral School in Civil, Environmental & Mechanical Engineering |
XXXII°Cycle
October 10, 2017
Candidate:
Michele Bottazzi
Supervisors:
Prof. Riccardo Rigon
Prof. Maurizio Righetti

2. ISTITUTIONAL & RESEARCH ACTIVITIES

3. Istitutional & Research activities Research topic Case Studies
EDUCATION & TRAINING
Summer schools, Workshops & Courses
→ Statistical methods and data analysis;
→ Intelligent optimization for data science;
→ Machine learning;
→ Acquedotti e fognature (teaching assistant);
→ Winter school: Advanced numerical methods for free surface;
→ Summer school: Principles of catchment-scale hydrological
modelling;
→ Summer school: Hydrometeorological extremes: processes, models
and human impacts;
→ Seminary: Gestione e riabilitazione delle infrastrutture idrauliche
(GERI);
→ Workshop: Isotope-based studies of water partitioning and
plant-soil interactions in forested and agricultural environments;
→ Workshop: Introduction to R for data analytics.
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4. Istitutional & Research activities Research topic Case Studies
OPTIMAL SENSOR DISPLACMENT & LEAKAGES DETECTION
→ Method for the optimal sensor
displacement in a distribution
network
→ Sensors installed on Egna
network
→ Leakages detection based on
Differential evolutive - Particle
swarm optimization (DEPSO).
Case study:
• Apulian network (synthetic)
• Egna
• Levico
• Laives
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5. Istitutional & Research activities Research topic Case Studies
KRIGING COMPONENT IN OMS3
Implementation of the Kriging component in the NewAge model based
on OMS3 framework.
−→ J-Grass-NewAge is a semi-distributed, componente based,
hydrological model.
−→ OMS3 is a Java-based framework for the environmental modelling,
able to support Fortran, C/C++, Python and R languages.
Precipitation and temperature spatialization on the Isarco basin (Bancheri et al.,
2017)
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6. Istitutional & Research activities Research topic Case Studies
PUBBLICATIONS
Paper:
→ Bancheri M., Serafin F., Bottazzi M., Abera W., Formetta G., Rigon R.,
The design and implementatation of Kriging models in the Object
Modelling System v.3. [In submittion to Environmental Modelling
& Software]
→ Bort Giorgio C.M., Bottazzi M., Righetti M., Optimal selection and
monitoring of nodes aimed at supporting leakages identification in
WDS networks. [In submittion to Procedia Engineering]
Conference paper:
→ Bottazzi M., Raniero W., Bort Giorgio C.M., Righetti M., Bertola P.,
Metodo di selezione ottimale dei nodi di monitoraggio. Seminary:
Gestione e Riabilitazione delle Infrastrutture Idrauliche (GERI)
→ Rigon R., Bancheri M., Serafin F., Abera W., Bottazzi M., Strategies
for estimating the water budget at different scales using the
JGrass-NewAGE system. AGU session H024: Balancing the Water
Budget: A Physical Basis for Quantifying Water Fluxes Using Data
and Models
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7. RESEARCH TOPIC

8. Istitutional & Research activities Research topic Case Studies
RESEARCH TOPIC
→ The main purpose is to work on the water management in order to
reduce the water consumption in agriculture.
→ Water scarsity is a big issue for the society, especially for
agriculture.
→ Increase of drought events frequency even in mid latitude region,
like Italy.
→ Big impact on areas with an economy agricultural-based, like for
example the North-East Italy.
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9. Istitutional & Research activities Research topic Case Studies
WATER CONSUMPTION
Agriculture water
consumption
Irrigation
water losses
Pipe leakages
Inefficient
irrigation
techniques
Crop water
demand
Soil water
losses
Evapo
transpiration
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10. Istitutional & Research activities Research topic Case Studies
Why is the evapotranspiration the
keystone?
→ We already have tools for the leakage detection;
→ Not always possible to apply drop by drop irrigation;
→ We have also equations for evaluating evapotranspiration, but …
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11. Istitutional & Research activities Research topic Case Studies
EVAPOTRANSPIRATION
Recent studies (Schymanski, S. J., & Or, D. 2017) reveal important
omissions in transpiration in the Penman-Monteith formula:
λvET =
∆(Rn − G) + ρacp(δe)ga
∆ + γ(1 + ga/gs)
(1)
→ neglect two-sided exchange of sensible heat by a planar leaf;
→ wrong representation of hypostomatous leaves.
∆ET ∼ 50%
Neglecting the feedback between temperature and radiative exchange
can lead to additional bias.
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12. Istitutional & Research activities Research topic Case Studies
FUTURE MAIN TASK
Main task of second year:
→ Implementation of the transpiration corrected in accord to
Schymanski, S. J., & Or, D. (2017) inside the GEOframe system (e.g.
Bancheri, 2017);
→ Extending it from leaf to forest:
→ Use the Leaf Area Index(LAI);
→ Different irradiation on different leaf;
→ Insert a phenology model, involving carbon cycle;
→ Evaluation of the turbolence fluxes contribute to evapotranspiration;
→ Application to the case study.
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13. CASE STUDIES

14. Istitutional & Research activities Research topic Case Studies
CASE STUDIES
This tool will be applicated to different case studies:
→ Apple crops in Val di Non, Val di Sole and Val Venosta, in collabora-
tion with the Bozen University (Prof. Maurizio Righetti) and Eurac (Dr.
Giacomo Bertoldi);
→ First studied separatly then matched with NET3.
→ one between the Blue Nile in collaboration with CIAT (International
Center for Tropical Agriculture), Dr. Wuletawu Abera or the Cauca
basin, in collaboration with the Cauca University (Leonairo Pencue-
Fierro)
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15. Istitutional & Research activities Research topic Case Studies
THANKS FOR
YOUR ATTENTION
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16. Istitutional & Research activities Research topic Case Studies
ESSENTIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY
• Schymanski, Stanislaus J., and Dani Or. ”Leaf-scale experiments re-
veal an important omission in the Penman-Monteith equation.” (2017)
• Bancheri M. ”A flexible approach to the estimation of water budgets
and its connection to the travel time theory.” (2017)
• Formetta G., Antonello A., Franceschi S., David O. and Rigon R. ”The
informatics of the hydrological modelling system JGrass-NewAge.”
(2012)
• Formetta G., Antonello A., Franceschi S., David O., and Rigon R. ”Hy-
drological modelling with components: A GIS-based open-source frame-
work.” (2014)
• Willmer C., & Fricker M. ”Stomata.” (1996)
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17. Istitutional & Research activities Research topic Case Studies
APPENDIX
→ Leaves with stomata on both the upper and lower leaf are called
amphistomatous leaves;
→ Leaves with stomata only on the lower surface are hypostomatous;
→ Leaves with stomata only on the upper surface are epistomatous or
hyperstomatous. (Willmer, C., & Fricker, M., 1996)
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18. Istitutional & Research activities Research topic Case Studies
APPENDIX
λvET =
∆(Rn − G) + ρacp(δe)ga
∆ + γ(1 + ga/gs)
(2)
λv = Latent heat of vaporization (J · g−1
)
ET = Mass water evapotranspiration rate (g · s−1
· m−2
)
∆ = Rate of change of saturation specific humidity with air temperature
(Pa · K−1
)
Rn = Net irradiance (W · m−2
)
G = Ground heat flux (W · m−2
)
ρa = dry air density (kg · m−3
)
cp = Specific heat capacity of air (J · kg−1
· K−1
)
δe = specific humidity (Pa)
ga = Conductivity of air, atmospheric conductance (m · s−1
)
gs = Conductivity of stoma, surface conductance (m · s−1
)
γ = Psychrometric constant ( ≈ 66PaK−1
)
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