GEOframe Winter School 2025

The GEOframe Winter School 2025 (GWS2025) will be will be held in Trento University (Department of Civil, Environmental, and Mechanical Engineering) on

December 02-04, 2024; January 07-10, 2025

Preliminary Program

• December 02-04, 2024: Software Installation and Geomorphological analysis of the basin – Online, via Zoom (or in-site if desired)
• January 07-10, 2025: kriging-based spatialisation of meteorological variables, energy balance and evapotranspiration estimate, snow modeling, river runoff simulation, models calibration, and verification. Hands-on seminars are also offered with the following topics: 1) satellite data for hydrological applications and 2) meteorological dataset for hydrological applications (in situ data, modeled data, real-time and forecast data) – Onsite.

Output of the school

The objective of the school is to enable the participant to set up and run the GEOframe system in their area of interest, with the spatially variable quantification of each component of the water balance (rainfall, snow, evapotranspiration, runoff, root-zone water content, and groundwater levels).

Generalities

GEOframe is not just a model but a comprehensive system for hydrology that leverages computer technology. It consists of numerous differentiated modeling solutions, totaling tens of options built upon model components. Each modeling solution represents an optimal combination of models to quantify specific components of the hydrological cycle in any study area, such as spatially varying rainfall, snow, evapotranspiration, runoff, root-zone water content, and groundwater levels, at various time resolutions ranging from sub-hourly to yearly. GEOframe utilizes the Object Modelling system framework (v3) to connect modeling components and solve specific hydrological issues, offering multiple alternatives for mathematical and numerical descriptions. This infrastructure allows the tools to adapt to the problems at hand, rather than vice versa. GEOframe has been successfully applied to hydrological simulations, from point scale to large catchments like the Blue Nile. Currently, it is being deployed in the Po River basin (the largest in Italy) and the Adige River basin, with high temporal and spatial resolution. Distributable modeling solutions calibrated and validated against measured data, such as runoff, are available for these applications. GEOframe is an open-source system built using open-source tools.

Contents of the school

GEOframe contains tens of components that cover rainfall-runoff, evaporation, transpiration, infiltration, terrain analysis tools, interpolation models, and calibration tools.
The Winter School is about using some of these tools to perform the hydrological budget of catchments. The core rainfall-runoff model are dynamical system (systems of ordinary differential equations) and the school mainly treats their theory and their use in a contemporary way as summarised in these 7 steps. Besides the lectures and the hands-on sessions, the Summer School is the occasion for discussion and experience exchange among senior scholars and young researchers.

Participants' background

Admissions are reserved for up to 30, PhD students and postdoctoral researchers, young scientists, and local authorities professionals willing to understand hydrological processes and learn the modeling procedures based on the use of the GEOframe tools. Specifically, will study and model infiltration, energy budget, vegetation transpiration, and water budget with process-based models.
All students, scientists, and professionals are asked to upload a CV and a motivation letter when applying.

Workload and credits

The Winter School, which is to be held in English, consists of 8 hours/day of activities for 8 days.

The first three days, December 02-04 (included) 2024, will be dedicated to the installation of the GEOframe-OMS system tools and geomorphological analysis of
the basin. Lectures will be brief and dedicated to informatics and the exploiting of the concepts of modeling by components, digital twin Earth. Most of the time will be used
for supporting participants’ installations.

The other four days (January 07-10, 2025) will cover:

• Meteorological variables interpolation with Kriging techniques
• Short and longwave radiation estimate and simplified evapotranspiration methods
• Rainfall-runoff modelling (as explained in these 7 steps) and calibration

Location and timing

University of Trento Polo Mesiano, H1 Room and Online.
The three days on informatics, installations, and geomorphological analysis of the basin (December 02-04 2024) will be also online.
The other days (January 07-10 2025) will be onsite. The schedule will be 9-13 and 14-18 CET on each of the days. Lectures and workouts will be recorded and immediately posted on the VIMEO Channel of the School. Therefore, they could be followed offline. Special agreements will be arranged to support abroad students
with fuse issues.

Participation costs

A subscription to the class is necessary for anyone who wants to attend the course. For Researchers, PhD students, and scientists who want the certificate of attendance and
specific support on their application, the Course costs 210 Euros.
The certificate is issued after the presentation of a small simulation project for which appropriate tutoring will be provided during and after the Winter School.

Please visit and register at the official registration form (Link will be updated soon) of the school.

The cost of the school is free for Students of the Hydrological Modelling Classes at the University of Trento; for Ph.D. students of the University of Trento DICAM and C3A programs; for the participants of the PRIN Waterstem, COACH-WAT, and SUNSET project; for the participant of the project “Studio delle caratteristiche idrologiche del Distretto del fiume Po mediante l’applicazione della modellistica GEOframe”; for Young Hydrological Society Italian members and the Società Idrologica Italiana (SII).

Scientific Committee

Prof. Giuseppe Formetta, Ph.D; 
Ph.D., Eng. Marialaura Bancheri;
Prof. Riccardo Rigon, Ph.D.

Organising Committee

Prof. Giuseppe Formetta, Ph.D; 
Ph.D., Eng. Marialaura Bancheri;
Ph.D., Eng. Concetta D’Amato,
Ph.D., John Mohd Wani,
Eng. Shima Azimi,
Ms., Sc. Martin Morlot,
Eng. Daniele Andreis,
Eng. Gaia Roati,
Eng. Riccardo Busti 
Prof. Riccardo Rigon, Ph.D.

Organising Institutions

• Department of Civil, Environmental and Mechanical Engineering, University of Trento
• Center Agriculture Food Environment, University of Trento
• Institute for Agricultural and Forest Systems in the Mediterranean, National Research Council, Ercolano NA, Italy

Contacts

For further information write to: abouthydrology [at] google.com, giuseppe.formetta [at] unitn.it, or the Secretary of the Class dott. Lorena Galante, lorena.galante [at] unitn.it

Other information

The GSS2025 talks and labs will be recorded and publicly available during the School for self-training through the GEOframe blog.
Information about past Schools can be found here.