Il premio Bernardi 2025 è stato vinto dal progetto:
“PIX2PEAKS – From PIXels to PEAKS: image velocimetry to support time of concentration estimation in ungauged catchments”
a cura del dott. Francesco Alongi (Università degli Studi di Palermo) e della dott.ssa Giulia Evangelista (Politecnico di Torino)
Estimating design flood hydrographs in ungauged catchments remains a longstanding challenge for applied hydrology. One of the difficulties lies in determining the critical time scale for basin hydrological response, such as the time of concentration. Despite the high sensitivity of design flood peaks and volumes to the estimated time parameter value, robust, hydraulically grounded, and commonly accepted methods for its determination are still lacking. The PIX2PEAKS project seeks to fill this gap by experimentally validating newly proposed scaling relationships for average flow velocities within a small Sicilian catchment, and evaluating their potential to enhance time of concentration estimates.
PIX2PEAKS employs the Large-Scale Particle Image Velocimetry (LS-PIV), a non-intrusive optical technique that tracks surface flow velocities using high-resolution video recordings. This method overcomes limitations of traditional velocity measurement approaches that require direct water contact and are often impractical during high-flow or flood conditions. Through targeted field campaigns during seasonal high-flow conditions, the project will collect flow velocity data across multiple stream reaches, enabling an analysis of spatial velocity patterns and their relationship with the catchment’s geomorphological features.
By leveraging flow velocity measurements and linking them to geomorphological parameters such as hydraulic lengths, average slopes and upstream contributing areas, PIX2PEAKS aims to refine operational criteria for estimating the basin time of concentration, thereby improving flood hydrograph predictions in ungauged or poorly gauged catchments. The project’s approach combines state-of-the-art velocity measurement techniques with classic geomorphological principles, offering a hydraulically sound, cost-effective framework for replicable hydrological assessments.
The expected outcome is to provide some concrete guidance for both the scientific community and practitioners on estimating the time of concentration in small catchments, relying on manageable data such as observed flow velocities and applying an experimental technique traditionally reserved for purely hydraulic applications.
Il Premio Paolo Bernardi, sostenuto da CAE SpA, è un tributo alla memoria e alla brillante carriera dell’Ing. Bernardi nel campo dell’idrologia operativa e della strumentazione idrologica. Il premio è rivolto a progetti di ricerca applicata per l’avanzamento della pratica operativa nell’ambito delle soluzioni non strutturali basate sul monitoraggio in tempo reale dei fenomeni per la gestione e mitigazione del rischio dovuto a eventi idro-meteorologici estremi e per la gestione delle risorse idriche.
Di seguito il bando completo, con scadenza 20 giugno 2025, ed il relativo modello di domanda