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SUMMARY:Relevance of Geotechnical Engineering for the Conservation of the 
 Historic City of Venice
DTSTART:20181207T121500
DTEND:20181207T130000
DTSTAMP:20260505T064509Z
UID:2fa5e172e9c78fa80dda193c26eda0ab389950c334cdd94604df3b45
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Prof. Paolo Simonini\, Department ICEA\, University of Padova\
 , Italy\nThe worldwide-known historic city of Venice continues to preserve
  a rather precarious equilibrium with the surrounding lagoon\, although th
 e margin of security is being eroded at an ever increasing rate. The rate 
 of environmental deterioration is being accelerated by the increasing freq
 uency of the flooding of the historic city – referred as to ‘acqua alt
 a’ (i.e. literally ‘high water’) - caused by the natural eustatic ri
 se of the sea level\, by natural subsidence and by a regional man-induced 
 subsidence\, the latter particularly important between 1946 and 1970.\nFro
 m the late ‘60\, several geotechnical studies on geotechnical were carri
 ed out and\, to keep under control the evolution of subsidence\, a continu
 ous survey activity was at that time initiated and prosecuted up to nowada
 ys.\nBut the continuous increase of the annual frequency of the city flood
 ing causing additional environmental damages\, induced the Italian Governm
 ent to start with several projects\,  the MOSE project - involving the de
 sign and construction of movable gates located at the three lagoon inlets\
 , the INSULAE project\, namely the artificial elevation of islands\, on wh
 ich the historic buildings are founded\, and other smaller projects\, such
 \, for instance\, improvement of old building foundations\,  erosion miti
 gation intervention in the lagoon including the reinforcement of the exist
 ing jetties at the  inlets\, fish farm reopening ect.\nStarting from the 
 historic subsidence evolution\, the seminar will provide a short overview 
 of some relevant geotechnical issues that have been and have to be solved 
 to realize the interventions to protect Venice and the surrounding lagoon 
 from the increasing environmental deterioration.\n\nSHORT CV\n\nPaolo Simo
 nini\, MSc\, PhD\, Professor of Geotechnical Engineering at the University
  of Padova\, Padova\, Italy.\n\nStudies:\n1981\, Graduation with honors in
  Civil Engineering (MSc)\, University of Padova (UNIPD)\;\n1987: Doctoral 
 Degree at the Technical University of Torino in Geotechnical Engineering.\
 n \nCarrier history:\n 1987-89: Teaching assistant at the University of 
 Trento\;\n1990-1998: Research assistant of Geotechnical Engineering at UNI
 PD\;\n1998-2004: Associate Professor at UNIPD\;\n2005: Professor of Geotec
 hnical Engineering at UNIPD. \n2009-2012: President of the Civil Engineer
 ing Council\;\n2012-2015: President of the School of Engineering\, Univers
 ity of Padova.\n2015-2018: President of the Italian Academic Society of Ge
 otechnical Engineering\n2016-2019: Co-Founder and Vice-President of the Ci
 vil and Industrial Safety Engineering Master Course.\n2016-2018: President
  of the National Committee for Professorship Selection.\n\nFocus on recent
  research: \nStudies on geotechnical engineering for the preservation of 
 historic city of Venice\, namely the San Marco Square Project\, to protect
  the most famous island of San Marco against recurrent flooding.\n \nSite
  testing: Use of CPTU to predict maximum stiffness in soils\; Applicabilit
 y of SCPTU and SDMT to characterize the soils of the Venice Lagoon\; CPTU 
 calibration to predicting secondary compressions in sands and silts\, MPM 
 numerical modelling of CPTU penetration\;\n \nSite monitoring: Use of InS
 AR to monitor settlements on coastal structures\; landslide monitoring and
  data interpretation\, use of optical fibers to monitor subsurface groundw
 ater flows\; \n\nLandslide: Evaluation of impact forces on structures rea
 lized to protect against rapid landslide and debris flow with MPM.\n\nStud
 ies on erosion processes and instability of leveee and dams in the Venetia
 n Plain.\n\nSome recent expert activities:\n \nMember of the AGI Committe
 e for standards in site investigation practice and of the AGI-AICAP Commit
 tee for standards in ground anchors.\n \nMember of Scientific Council of 
 International Research Society Interpraevent. The Research Society works t
 o set up preventive protection against disasters and supports interdiscipl
 inary research to protect our living space against flooding\, debris flow\
 , avalanches and mass movements.\n\nOfficial member of the Material Point 
 Method Community (Univ. Cambridge\, UPC Barcelona\, TU Delft\, TU Hamburg-
 Harburg\, Deltares\; Virginia Tech\, UC Berkeley).\n \nMember of the Muni
 cipal Committee for the preservation of the Chapel of Scrovegni\, the most
  relevant example of Giotto Painting in Italy.
LOCATION:CM 1 221 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==CM%201%20221
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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