Luca Carniello
Associate Professor
Address: Via Loredan, 20 - Padova
Phone: 049 8275757
E-mail: luca.carniello@unipd.it
Scientific sector: ICAR/01 - HYDRAULICS
Curriculum vitae
Current Position:
- Associate Professor, Department IMAGE (now Department ICEA), University of Padova, 2018-;
- Director of the LABORATORY of HYDRAULIC of the Department ICEA 2013-;
Venezia 2021 research project:
Line 1.3 Coordinator of Work Package 1.3.3 – Model intercalibration and validation
Research Interests:
Topics
- Hydrodynamics and morphodynamics of tidal systems;
- Flood propagation and hydraulic risk;
- Hydrodynamics and morphodynamics of fluvial systems;
- Geomorphology;
- Long-term ecomorphodynamic modeling of tidal systems.
Brief description
A first topic of my research focuses on tidal basin morphodynamics and geomorphology.
I developed a numerical model that aims at describing hydrodynamics and wind waves generation and propagation within shallow microtidal basins.
Such a numerical approach confirmed the prominent role of wind waves in resuspending bottom sediments in shallow tidal basins. Based on this results, a conceptual stability model has been proposed which indicates that the intertidal landscape in shallow basins is organized into a bimodal distribution of bottom elevations, with the two peaks corresponding to salt marshes and tidal flats, and few areas lying at intermediate elevations. The model shows that this bimodal distribution of elevations, in shallow waters, is mainly related to wind wave shear stress.
A sediment transport model has been developed to be coupled with the wind wave-tidal model. The sediment transport model considers a bi-granular mixture of both cohesive and non-cohesive sediments and describes resuspension, deposition and related bottom evolution in term of elevation and composition.
Considered that water and sediment temperature dynamics are a first order control of physical and biological processes in aquatic ecosystem in general, and in shallow coastal systems in particular, I recently focused my research on the temperature dynamics. More precisely, I developed a further numerical module (coupled with the hydrodynamic-wind wave-sediment transport) to describe the spatial distribution of water and sediment temperature in shallow tidal environment. The temperature module computes the energy fluxes at the water-atmosphere and water-sediment interface, and the horizontal advective heat transport due to the combined effect of tidal currents and wind waves.
Following a considerably different approach the research activities also focused on the analysis of the processes that govern the formation and evolution of tidal networks using an experimental apparatus developed in the laboratory of the Department ICEA (formerly Department IMAGE). The experiments allowed us to understand the mechanisms of formation of networks and their response to cycles of raising and lowering of the mean sea level. The future development of this line of research concerns the analysis of the effects of the cohesion of the sediment and the presence of vegetation. In parallel to these activities, conceptual (numerical and/or analytical) models have been developed for studying the long-term evolution of tidal environments considering the effect of vegetation and climate change.
The further topic of the research concerns the mathematical modelling of flood propagation in rivers and the hydraulic risk assessment. Particular attention we devoted to the analysis of levee stability and flood wave propagation over the rural and urban areas, because of levee failure due to levee-breach formation and development driven by surface erosion by flow overtopping or levee underseepage. For this research topic we are collaboration with the Veneto Region for the development of an integrated flood forecasting system that, through the cascade use of a geomorphological model and a hydrodynamic model, is able to describe the formation and propagation of a flood wave starting from the data and/or the weather forecast. This integrated system is designed to operate at the Decentralized Functional Center of Civil Protection of the Veneto region.
