Amilcare M Porporato

Research Area(s): Hydrology
Geophysics
Nonlinear Dynamics
Water, Resources and Treatment
Environmental Impacts
Environmental Engineering

Amilcare Porporato earned a Master Degree in Civil Engineering (summa cum laude) in 1992 from Polytechnic of Turin and his Ph.D. in 1996 from Polytechnic of Milan. He was appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Hydraulics of the Polytechnic of Turin in 1995 and received tenure in 1998. He moved to Duke University in 2003, where he is 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.

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 member of the editorial board of Advances in Water Resources and Hydrological Processes. 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 100 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).

TEACHING (Spring 2010)

Representative Publications (More Publications)

1. Porporato, A. and Rigby, J.R. and Daly, E., Irreversibility and fluctuation theorem in stationary time series, Physical Review Letters, vol. 98 no. 9 (2007), ppt. 094101 - , [PhysRevLett.98.094101] [abs]
   
2. Daly, E. and Porporato, A., Intertime jump statistics of state-dependent Poisson processes, Phys. Rev. E, Stat. Nonlinear Soft Matter Phys. (USA), vol. 75 no. 1 (2007), ppt. 11119 - 1 , [PhysRevE.75.011119] [abs]
   
3. Daly, E. and Porporato, A., State-dependent fire models and related renewal processes, Phys. Rev. E, Stat. Nonlinear Soft Matter Phys. (USA), vol. 74 no. 4 (2006), ppt. 41112 - 1 , [PhysRevE.74.041112] [abs]
   
4. Daly, E. and Porporato, A., Impact of hydroclimatic fluctuations on the soil water balance, Water Resources Research, vol. 42 no. 6 (2006), ppt. 06401 - , [2005WR004606] [abs]
   
5. Rodriguez-Iturbe, I. and Isham, V. and Cox, D.R. and Manfreda, S. and Porporato, A., Space-time modeling of soil moisture: Stochastic rainfall forcing with heterogeneous vegetation, Water Resources Research, vol. 42 no. SUPPL (2006), ppt. 06 - 05 , [2005WR004497] [abs]
   
6. Katul, G. and Porporato, A. and Cava, D. and Siqueira, M., An analysis of intermittency, scaling, and surface renewal in atmospheric surface layer turbulence, Physica D (Netherlands), vol. 215 no. 2 (2006), ppt. 117 - 26 , [004] [abs]
   
7. Daly, E. and Porporato, A., Probabilistic dynamics of some jump-diffusion systems, Phys. Rev. E, Stat. Nonlinear Soft Matter Phys. (USA), vol. 73 no. 2 (2006), ppt. 26108 - 1 , [PhysRevE.73.026108] [abs]
   
8. Isham, V. and Cox, D.R. and Rodriguez-Iturbe, I. and Porporato, A. and Manfreda, S., Representation of space-time variability of soil moisture, Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A, Math. Phys. Eng. Sci. (UK), vol. 461 no. 2064 (2005), ppt. 4035 - 55 , [1568] [abs]
   
9. Daly, E. and Porporato, A., Some self-similar solutions in river morphodynamics, Water Resources Research, vol. 41 no. 12 (2005), ppt. 12503 - , [2005WR004488] [abs]
   
10. Camporeale, C. and Perona, P. and Porporato, A. and Ridolfi, L., On the long-term behavior of meandering rivers, Water Resources Research, vol. 41 no. 12 (2005), ppt. 12403 - , [2005WR004109] [abs]
    
11. Racca, E. and Porporato, A., Langevin equations from time series, Physical Review E - Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics, vol. 71 no. 2 (2005), ppt. 027101 - , [PhysRevE.71.027101] [abs]
    
12. Daly, E. and Porporato, A., Similarity solutions of nonlinear diffusion problems related to mathematical hydraulics and the Fokker-Planck equation, Phys. Rev. E, Stat. Nonlinear Soft Matter Phys. (USA), vol. 70 no. 5 (2004), ppt. 56303 - 1 , [PhysRevE.70.056303] [abs]
    
13. Poggi, D. and Porporato, A. and Ridolfi, L. and Albertson, J.D. and Katul, G.G., The effect of vegetation density on canopy sub-layer turbulence, Boundary-Layer Meteorology, vol. 111 no. 3 (2004), ppt. 565 - 587 , [73] [abs]
    
14. Poggi, D. and Porporato, A. and Ridolfi, L. and Albertson, J.D. and Katul, G.G., Interaction between large and small scales in the canopy sublayer, Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 31 no. 5 (2004), ppt. 05102 - 1 , [2003GL018611] [abs]
    
15. Porporato, A. and D'Odorico, P., Phase transitions driven by state-dependent Poisson noise, Phys. Rev. Lett. (USA), vol. 92 no. 11 (2004), ppt. 110601 - 1 , [PhysRevLett.92.110601] [abs]
    
16. D'Odorico, P. and Laio, F. and Porporato, A. and Rodriguez-Iturbe, I., Hydrologic controls on soil carbon and nitrogen cycles. II. A case study, Advances in Water Resources, vol. 26 no. 1 (2003), ppt. 59 - 70 , [S0309-1708(02)00095-7] [abs]
    
17. Laio, F. and Porporato, A. and Revelli, R. and Ridolfi, L., A comparison of nonlinear flood forecasting methods, Water Resources Research, vol. 39 no. 5 (2003), ppt. 21-24 - , [2002WR001551] [abs]
    
18. Poggi, D. and Porporato, A. and Ridolfi, L., Analysis of the small-scale structure of turbulence on smooth and rough walls, Physics of Fluids, vol. 15 no. 1 (2003), ppt. 35 - 46 , [1.1521728] [abs]
    
19. Porporato, A. and D'Odorico, P. and Laio, F. and Rodriguez-Iturbe, I., Hydrologic controls on soil carbon and nitrogen cycles. I. Modeling scheme, Advances in Water Resources, vol. 26 no. 1 (2003), ppt. 45 - 58 , [S0309-1708(02)00094-5] [abs]
    
20. Ridolfi, L. and D'Odorico, P. and Porporato, A. and Rodriguez-Iturbe, I., Stochastic soil moisture dynamics along a hillslope, Journal of Hydrology, vol. 272 no. 1-4 (2003), ppt. 264 - 275 , [S0022-1694(02)00270-6] [abs]
    

• 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.