faculty.Amilcare Porporato

Amilcare Porporato, Associate Professor

Amilcare Porporato earned a Master’s Degree in Civil Engineering (summa cum laude) in 1992. He obtained his Ph.D. in Hydraulic Engineering from Polytechnic of Turin, in 1996. Porporato was appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Hydraulics of the Polytechnic of Turin in May 1995 and received his tenure in January 1998. From November 2001 to August 2003 he was Associate Professor at the same Polytechnic. Since September 2003, he is an Associate Professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering of Duke University.

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 Research Associate at Princeton University (USA), Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering from 1999 to 2001.

His main research interests regard near-wall turbulence dynamics, nonlinear analysis of hydrologic time series, stochastic soil moisture dynamics and water balance, soil-atmosphere interaction, and ecohydrology.

Since 2004, Porporato is Editor of Water Resources Research (AGU) and has also been referee and reviewer for various international journals and agencies. He has been chairman and convener of the Ecohydrology sessions of the AGU Spring Meeting in 2001 and 2002 and of the EGU in 2004. Porporato has been part of the Italian research groups of Turbulence and Vorticity and of Climate, Soil and Vegetation Interaction, an advisor for the real-time forecasting in the Piedmont Region.

Porporato’s didactic experience comprises courses in Fluid Mechanics, Hydraulics, Hydraulic Constructions, Statistical and Physical Hydrology, Environmental Fluid Mechanics, Ecohydrology, Engineering Data Analysis, 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.

Education

• M.S. Civil Engineering, Polytechnic of Turin, Italy, 1992

• Ph.D. Hydraulic Engineering, Polytechnic of Turin, Italy, 1996

Professional Experience

• Associate Professor, Duke University, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. 2003- present.

• Associate Professor, Department of Hydraulics, Transport and Civil Infrastructure, Polytechnic of Turin, Italy. 2001-2003.

• Research Associate, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Center for Energy and Environmental Studies, Princeton University. 1999-2001.

• Assistant Professor with Tenure, Department of Hydraulics, Transport and Civil Infrastructure, Polytechnic of Turin, Italy. 1998-2001.

• Research Associate, Environmental and Water Resources Division, Department of Civil Engineering, Texas A&M University, 1998.

• Assistant Professor, Department of Hydraulics, Transport and Civil Infrastructure, Polytechnic of Turin, Italy. 1995-1998.

• Registered Professional Engineer, Turin Province, Italy

Sample Publications [complete publication list]

Porporato A. and Ridolfi L. (1997). Nonlinear analysis of river flow time sequences. Water Resources Research 33(6), 1353-1367.

Rodriguez-Iturbe I., Porporato A., Ridolfi L., Cox D. and Isham V. (1999) Probabilistic modelling of water balance at a point: the role of climate, soil and vegetation. Proceedings of the Royal Society, series A, 455, 3789-3805.

Porporato A., D’Odorico P., Ridolfi L. and Rodriguez-Iturbe I. (2000) A spatial model for soil-atmosphere interaction: model construction and linear stability analysis. Journal of Hydrometeorology, 1(1), 61-74.

Porporato A. and Ridolfi L. (2001). Multivariate nonlinear prediction of river flow. J. Hydrology, 248, 109-122.

Porporato A., Laio F., Ridolfi L., and Rodriguez-Iturbe I. (2001) Plants in water controlled ecosystems: Active role in hydrological processes and response to water stress. III. Vegetation water stress. Advances in Water Research, 24, 725-744.

Porporato A. and I Rodriguez-Iturbe (2002) Ecohydrology – A challenghing multidisciplinary research perspective. J. Hydrol. Sci., 47(5), 811-822.
Poggi D., Porporato A., Ridolfi L. (2003) Analysis of the small-scale structure of turbulence on smooth and rough walls. Phys. Fluids 14(12), 4278-4283.

Porporato A., D’Odorico P., Laio F., and I. Rodriguez-Iturbe (2003) Hydrologic controls on soil carbon and nitrogen cycles. I  Modeling scheme. Adv. Water Res, 26(1), 45-58.

Porporato A., Laio F., Ridolfi L., Caylor K., and Rodriguez-Iturbe I. (2003) Soil moisture and plant stress dynamics along the Kalahari precipitation gradient. J. Geophys. Res., 108(D3), 4127-4134.

Poggi P., Porporato A., Ridolfi L., Katul G., and J. Albertson (2002) The effect of vegetation density on canopy sub-layer turbulence. Boundary-Layer Meteorology, (In press).

Porporato A., D’Odorico P., Phase transitions driven by state-dependent Poisson noise, Phys. Rev. Lett. 92(11), 110601, 2004.

D’Odorico P., Porporato A., Preferential states in soil moisture and climate dynamics, Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 101(24), 8848-8851, 2004.

Porporato A., Daly E., and I. Rodriguez-Iturbe, Soil water balance and ecosystem response to climate change, Am. Nat., 164(5), 625-633, 2004.

Rodriguez-Iturbe I. and A. Porporato, Ecohydrology of water controlled ecosystems: plants and soil moisture dynamics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 2004.

Honors and Awards

• 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.

Professional and Service Activities

• Editor of Water Resources Research (AGU) 2004-present.

• Reviewer for various international journals and agencies.

• Member of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) since 1999 and of the International Association of Hydrologic Sciences (IAHS) since 2004.

• 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 funded by the 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.

• 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 funded by the 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.

Current and Ongoing Research

Main research interests: near-wall turbulence dynamics, nonlinear analysis of hydrologic time series, stochastic soil moisture dynamics and water balance, soil-atmosphere interaction, and ecohydrology.

Specific projects:
Transferring alterations in rainfall regime to soil-plant dynamics in mesic grasslands: impact of frequency and intensity of rainfall in the tall grass prairies of Konza (KS).

Field and modeling analysis of soil biogechemical response to increased CO2 atmospheric concentration and nitrogen fertilization at the Duke Forest site.