BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Memento EPFL//
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Methodology for developing operational hydrological prediction sys
 tems
DTSTART:20131126T161500
DTEND:20131126T171500
DTSTAMP:20260428T180746Z
UID:47d88393e8f5c28491c8889f8c208b998413ba812d6e432881af9950
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Dr Massimiliano Zappa\, Mountain Hydrology and Mass Movements\
 , Swiss Federal Institute for Forest\, Snow and Landscape Research WSL\, D
 übendorf (CH)\nAbstract:\nThe cook-book for developing a “new (hydrolog
 ical) model” to describe a “real process” is well understood and wid
 ely accepted. It begins with the observation of the system and ends with t
 esting the (hydrological) model against observations. In case of success t
 he model can be used\, in case of failure additional observations and more
  process knowledge needs to be accounted in the (hydrological) model. Once
  (hydrological) models are validated practical applications can be envisag
 ed.\nIn this seminar I will present the way we selected in order to setup 
 innovative operational hydrological prediction systems for practitioners a
 nd research. Similarly as for model development a cook-book can be followe
 d. In our experience we replace the “real process” with “something u
 seful you can compute in real-time” and we replace the “new model” w
 ith a “solution for supporting decision making”. Following this princi
 ple we replace “the observations” with the “dialog with end-users”
 \, so when in the end our solution doesn’t fulfils the end-user expectat
 ions\, we restart the dialog and try to improve our real-time application.
  This requires that end-users are confronted with prototypes and scientifi
 c novelty.\nI will present 4 operational systems developed in this way:\n
 • The real-time hydrological ensemble prediction systems (HEPS) for the 
 city of Zürich\, operational since 2008\n• The operational use of rainf
 all radar uncertainty for flash-flood forecasting in the Verzasca river\, 
 operational since 2007\n• The new platform “www.drought.ch” for earl
 y identification of drought in Switzerland\, operational since June 2013\n
 • The early warning tool for flash-floods based on IDF-Curves operationa
 l for Southern Switzerland since July 2013.\nMy talk should demonstrate th
 at it is possible to make scientific research using real-time data. After 
 some years of experience it is not easy to give a final word on daily rout
 ine with the operation of real-time hydrological prediction systems. If yo
 u are so lucky to have one or more end-users being interested in it\, then
  you should be ready to have a 365 days-per-year commitment to your experi
 ment. However\, being part of real-time forecast systems yields in many mo
 ments a much larger gratification and excitement than any off-line experim
 ent leading to high-impact contributions to scientific literature.\nKeywor
 ds: Floods\, Hydrological droughts\, real-time operations\, end-users\, HE
 PSDr Massimiliano Zappa is hydrologist. He works on operational flood fore
 cast systems and process related catchment hydrology. His research interes
 ts focus on spatially distributed modelling of hydrological processes at d
 ifferent spatial and temporal scales. He completed in 2002 a Phd at the In
 stitute of Atmospheric and Climate Sciences (ETH Zurich).  Part of the Ph
 .D were financed by the EU-VOLGAFOREST project. In 2003 he joined the Swis
 s Federal Research Institute WSL (head of the Hydrological Forecasts group
  since 2006) where he focussed on applied research for operational flood w
 arning systems including warning systems for the Three Gorges Dam Reservoi
 r (PR China)\, the Swiss Canton of Glarus and the city of Zürich. He has 
 been included as a national delegate in the Management Committee of COST-7
 31 (‘Propagation of Uncertainty in Advanced Meteo-Hydrological Forecast 
 Systems’) and is also National delegate in the Northern European FRIEND 
 (Flow Regimes from International Experimental and Network Data) Low-Flow w
 orking group. He has been recently involved in the FP7-Project IMPRINTS (F
 P7-ENV-2008-1-226555) and was a co-PI in a sub-project of the NRP61 progra
 m on sustainable water use.
LOCATION:GR A3 31 http://plan.epfl.ch/?room=GR%20A3%2031
STATUS:CONFIRMED
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR