RIDETHERISK
About the Project & About Me
💡 About the Project
Permafrost degradation and massive glacier retreat caused by global warming have a direct impact on mountain areas, leading to a significant increase in rockfall events. Climate trends indicate that their frequency will continue to rise in the foreseeable future. The growing number of people and infrastructures in high-mountain regions increases vulnerability, underlining the urgency for accurate rockfall hazard and risk assessment. Recognizing and predicting rockfalls and their effects is essential to create safe and resilient mountain infrastructures and open-pit working environments.
RIDETHERISK project (GA 101103401 https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/101103401 ) aims to improve the knowledge and predictability of rockfall hazard and its consequences, i.e., the risk, by developing a new physically-based method to simulate rockfall propagation that accounts for block fragmentation upon impact. The project also seeks to quantify damages in different contexts, both civil and industrial (such as mining), filling a critical knowledge gap and raising awareness of this destructive natural phenomenon.
🎯 Main Objectives:
- Enhance rockfall hazard prediction by defining analytical solutions for fragmentation and implementing a physically-based trajectory model for fragmental rockfall.
- Develop a fully time-integrated quantitative risk assessment (QRA) method for fragmental rockfalls, able to quantify social and economic damages on transportation infrastructures and open-pit mining activities.
- Facilitate and promote the use of the developed method by applying it in two real contexts (Alpine environment and mining sites) and drafting technical guidelines for experts, encouraging adoption by policymakers and stakeholders to properly manage the risk.
The project, strated in November 2023, has been carried out at the University of Newcastle (Australia) for 18 months, followed by a 12-month return phase at Politecnico di Torino (Italy).
Outputs
📂 Open & Accessible Outputs
All RIDETHERISK deliverables, including scientific publications, conference presentations, technical reports, and outreach material, are Open Access and publicly available.
You can explore and download them for free via Zenodo:
https://zenodo.org/communities/ridetherisk
You can explore and download them for free via Zenodo:
https://zenodo.org/communities/ridetherisk
Key Achievements:
- Physically based modeling: Developed new analytical solutions and trajectory models to simulate rock block fragmentation upon impact, significantly improving hazard prediction.
- Innovative QRA method: Introduced a fully time-integrated Quantitative Risk Assessment capable of estimating both social (e.g., fatalities, delays) and economic (e.g., infrastructure losses) consequences for mountain transport routes and open-pit mining.
- Real-world application: Applied the method in real Alpine and mining environments to produce technical guidelines. These are designed to assist experts, policymakers, and site managers in better understanding, planning, and mitigating rockfall risks.
About me
I am a researcher in civil and environmental engineering, specializing in natural hazards, hazard analysis and mitigation, with a focus on rockfall. Winner of the highly competitive European Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant (HORIZON-MSCA-2022-PF-01), I am currently a Marie Curie Researcher (https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/ 101103401) at Politecnico di Torino (POLITO) with a project related to fragmentation processes in rockfall propagation and risk analysis in mountain and mining contexts, during which she carried out part of her research activities (1.5 year) at the Centre for Geotechnical Science and Engineering at the University of Newcastle, Australia.
Previously I was a fixed-term Assistant Professor, and formerly a postdoctoral fellow at POLITO, I have been conducting her research mainly on the topics of risk analysis and design of structural mitigation measures for the past 8 years.
After obtaining her Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering, devoted to debris flow, her research focused on rock slope instability phenomena. She is an active member of the Rockfall Protection Engineering Research Center and the Multidisciplinary Interdepartmental Center SISCON at POLITO.
I have authored 63 publications (34 in international peer-reviewed journals and 29 in conference proceedings) and contributed to 28 research projects funded by the EU, national and local governments, and industry. I am serving on the editorial boards of two peer-reviewed journals, Environmental and Mining Geoengineering and Geosciences, and reviews for several international journals.
I have participated in scientific and/or organizing committees for 10 conferences (3 national, 7 international).
I hold the Italian scientific qualification for Associate Professor in both “Excavation Engineering” and “Geotechnics.” Since 2018, I have been an adjunct professor at Politecnico di Torino, supervising 14 master’s theses and co-supervising 2 doctoral students.
Previously I was a fixed-term Assistant Professor, and formerly a postdoctoral fellow at POLITO, I have been conducting her research mainly on the topics of risk analysis and design of structural mitigation measures for the past 8 years.
After obtaining her Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering, devoted to debris flow, her research focused on rock slope instability phenomena. She is an active member of the Rockfall Protection Engineering Research Center and the Multidisciplinary Interdepartmental Center SISCON at POLITO.
I have authored 63 publications (34 in international peer-reviewed journals and 29 in conference proceedings) and contributed to 28 research projects funded by the EU, national and local governments, and industry. I am serving on the editorial boards of two peer-reviewed journals, Environmental and Mining Geoengineering and Geosciences, and reviews for several international journals.
I have participated in scientific and/or organizing committees for 10 conferences (3 national, 7 international).
I hold the Italian scientific qualification for Associate Professor in both “Excavation Engineering” and “Geotechnics.” Since 2018, I have been an adjunct professor at Politecnico di Torino, supervising 14 master’s theses and co-supervising 2 doctoral students.