Amilcare M. Porporato

Image of Amilcare M. Porporato

Professor

Amilcare Porporato earned a Master Degree in Civil Engineering (summa cum laude) in 1992 and his Ph.D. in 1996 from Polytechnic of Turin. He was appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Hydraulics of the Polytechnic of Turin, and he moved to Duke University in 2003, where he is now Full Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering with a secondary appointment with the Nicholas School of the Environment.

In June 1996, Porporato received the Arturo Parisatti International Price, awarded by the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere e Arti. He was Research Associate at the Texas A&M University (USA) in 1998 and Visiting Scholar at Princeton University (USA), Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, from 1999 to 2001. In 2008-2009 he was the first Landolt & Cie Visiting Chair in “Innovative Strategies for a sustainable Future” at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. He was awarded the 2007 Professor Senol Utku’ award, the 2010 Earl Brown II Outstanding Civil Engineering Faculty Award, and in 2011 he received a Lagrange fellowship from the Polytechnic of Turin, the CRT bank and the ISI (Institute for Scientific Interchange). In 2012 he was elected an AGU fellow.

His main research interests regard nonlinear and stochastic dynamical systems, hydrometeorology and soil-atmosphere interaction, soil moisture and plant dynamics, soil biogeochemistry, and ecohydrology.

Porporato has been Editor of Water Resources Research (AGU) (2004-2009), and he is currently editor for Hydrological Processes. He is also member of the editorial board of Advances in Water Resources and the Hydrologic Science Journal. Among other things, he was chairman and convener of the Ecohydrology sessions of the AGU Spring Meeting in 2001 and 2002 and of the EGU in 2004-2006. Porporato has been part of the Italian research groups of Turbulence and Vorticity and of Climate, Soil and Vegetation Interaction, an adviser for real-time forecasting in the Piedmont Region (Italy), and ecohydrology (US National Academy).

Porporato's didactic experience comprises courses in Environmental Fluid Mechanics, Hydraulics, Hydraulic Constructions, Statistical and Physical Hydrology, Ecohydrology, Nonlinear Dynamics and Stochastic Processes. He has also been the didactic coordinator for the International School "Hydroaid: Water for Development", co-organized by the Polytechnic of Turin and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Porporato is author of more than 140 peer-reviewed papers, several publications presented at national and international conferences and invited talks. He is also co-author of the book "Ecohydrology of water controlled ecosystems" (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2004) and the edited the book "Dryland Ecohydrology" (Springer, 2005).

Contact Information:
Education:

PhDPolytechnic of Turin, Italy1996
MSPolytechnic of Turin, Italy1992

Research Interests:

Near-wall turbulence, nonlinear analysis of hydrologic time series, stochastic soil moisture dynamics and water balance, soil-atmosphere interaction, and ecohydrology, complexity in the environment, sustainable use of soil and water resources.

Specialties:

Hydrology
Geophysics
Nonlinear Dynamics
Water, Resources and Treatment
Environmental Impacts
Environmental Engineering

Awards, Honors, and Distinctions:

  • AGU Fellow, American Geophysical Union, January, 2012
  • Lagrange Fellow, Plytechnic of Turin, CRT bank, and Institute fo Scientific Interchange (ISI), Turin, Italy, June, 2011
  • Earl Brown II Outstanding Civil Engineering Faculty Award, Depertment of CEE, Duke University, February, 2010
  • First Landolt & Cie Visiting Chair in “Innovative Strategies for a sustainable Future” at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, August, 2008
  • Senol Utku Award, February, 2007
  • Arturo Parisati International Price, Istituto Veneto Lettere, Scienze ed Arti, Venice, Italy, June, 1997

Courses Taught:
  • CEE 690.03 - ADVANCED TOPICS

Representative Publications: (More Publications)
    • Molini, Annalisa and Katul, Gabriel G. and Porporato, Amilcare, Maximum discharge from snowmelt in a changing climate, GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, vol 38 (2011), pp. L05402 [doi] [abs].
    • Manzoni, Stefano and Katul, Gabriel and Fay, Philip A. and Polley, H. Wayne and Porporato, Amilcare, Modeling the vegetation-atmosphere carbon dioxide and water vapor interactions along a controlled CO2 gradient, ECOLOGICAL MODELLING, vol 222 no. 3 (2011), pp. 653--665 [doi] [abs].
    • Vico, Giulia and Porporato, Amilcare, From rainfed agriculture to stress-avoidance irrigation: I. A generalized irrigation scheme with stochastic soil moisture, ADVANCES IN WATER RESOURCES, vol 34 no. 2 (2011), pp. 263--271 [doi] [abs].
    • Vico, Giulia and Porporato, Amilcare, From rainfed agriculture to stress-avoidance irrigation: II. Sustainability, crop yield, and profitability, ADVANCES IN WATER RESOURCES, vol 34 no. 2 (2011), pp. 272--281 [doi] [abs].
    • Ceola, Serena and Botter, Gianluca and Bertuzzo, Enrico and Porporato, Amilcare and Rodriguez-Iturbe, Ignacio and Rinaldo, Andrea, Comparative study of ecohydrological streamflow probability distributions, WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH, vol 46 (2010), pp. W09502 [doi] [abs].
    • Rigby, J. R. and Porporato, Amilcare, Precipitation, dynamical intermittency, and sporadic randomness, ADVANCES IN WATER RESOURCES, vol 33 no. 8 (2010), pp. 923--932 [doi] [abs].
    • Molini, Annalisa and Katul, Gabriel G. and Porporato, Amilcare, Causality across rainfall time scales revealed by continuous wavelet transforms, JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-ATMOSPHERES, vol 115 (2010), pp. D14123 [doi] [abs].
    • Konings, Alexandra G. and Katul, Gabriel G. and Porporato, Amilcare, The rainfall-no rainfall transition in a coupled land-convective atmosphere system, GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, vol 37 (2010), pp. L14401 [doi] [abs].
    • Thompson, Sally E. and Katul, Gabriel G. and Porporato, Amilcare, Role of microtopography in rainfall-runoff partitioning: An analysis using idealized geometry, WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH, vol 46 (2010), pp. W07520 [doi] [abs].
    • Daly, Edoardo and Porporato, Amilcare, Effect of different jump distributions on the dynamics of jump processes, PHYSICAL REVIEW E, vol 81 no. 6 (2010), pp. 061133 [doi] [abs].
Honors and Awards
  • 1992, Magna Cum Laude distinction, Polytechnic of Turin, Italy.
  • 1996, Arturo Parisatti International Prize, awarded by the Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, Venice (Italy), for the paper “Nonlinear analysis of river flow time sequences” by Amilcare Porporato and Luca Ridolfi.
  • 2007, Professor Senol Utku Award, for best graduate student peer reviewed paper "A theoretical analysis of nonlinearities and feedbacks in soil carbon and nitrogen cycles" in Soil Biology and Biogeochemistry written with S. Manzoni, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Duke University
  • 2008-2009, first Landolt & Cie Visiting Chair in “Innovative Strategies for a sustainable Future” at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland.

    Professional and Service Activities

    • Editor of Water Resources Research (AGU) 2004-2009.
    • Editorial Board of Advances In Water Resources
    • Member of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) since 1999, European Geophysical Union (AGU), International Association of Hydrologic Sciences (IAHS).
    • Didactic Coordinator, Hydroaid: International School "Water for Development", co-organized by the Polytechnic of Turin and the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Turin, Italy, 2002-2003.
    • National Research Group for Studies on the Impact of climate, soil, and vegetation on flood dynamics, Italian Ministry of University and Scientific and Technologic Research, MURST. 2001-2004.
    • Scientific Coordinator, Project for the study the geomorphological evolution of the Pellice river. Polytechnic of Turin and the Province of Turin, Italy, 2001-2004
    • Chairman and Convener of the Ecohydrology sessions of the AGU Spring Meeting 2001 and 2002 and EGU 2004-06.
    • Scientific Coordinator, Project for real time flood forecasting for Piemonte rivers. Polytechnic of Turin and Piemonte Region, Italy.
    • Primary Investigator, National Research Group for Studies of Turbulence and Vorticity, Italian Ministry of University and Scientific and Technologic Research, MURST. 1996-2000.
    • Scientific Coordinator, Project for the study of a flood forecasting procedure for the Tanaro river, Polytechnic of Turin and City of Alba, Italy. 1996-1997.
    • Scientific Advisor, flood forecasting Piedmont Region (Italy).
    • Scientific Advisor, monitoring health of our planet, US National Academy.