Giulio Castelli

PhD Dissertation: 20/07/2018

Curriculum: Agro-Forestry Engineering

Supervisor: Prof.ssa Elena Bresci

Profile

Giulio Castelli holds a MSc in Environmental Engineering and a PhD (with Honors) in Sustainable Management of Agricultural Forestry and Food Resources from the University of Florence. During his studies, he focused on water harvesting, water resources management and participatory approach to development. He worked for Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS) in Sudan. He carries out research in South and Central America and Africa and he collaborates with The World Bank and with Mani Tese and ICU – Istituto per la Cooperazione Universitaria NGOs. He is currently developing his research focusing on wadi hydrolgy and climate feedbacks in arid catchments with the Water Harvesting Lab. He is member of the volunteering association Ingegneria Senza Frontiere.

Visiting Postdoc:

Stockholm Resilience Center and Department of Physical Geography, Stockholm University, 13.01.2019 – 23.01.2019.

Research interests and PhD project

• Assessment of soil-water-vegetation-atmosphere feedbacks, with reference to the possibility of managing local climate in agro-ecosystems.
• Remote Sensing of the hydrological cycle: surface processes, vegetation and crop development, including water productivity, and soil moisture
• Participatory design and management of traditional irrigation systems
• Hydrological modelling and water management in semi-arid to hyper-arid areas
• Ecosystem services
• Soil and Water conservation in arid areas

Key publications

• Castelli, G., Oliveira, L.A.A., Abdelli, F., Dhaou, H., Bresci, E., Ouessar, M., 2019. Effect of traditional check dams (jessour) on soil and olive trees water status in Tunisia. Sci. Total Environ. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.06.514
• Castelli, G., Castelli, F., & Bresci, E. (2019). Mesoclimate regulation induced by landscape restoration and water harvesting in agroecosystems of the horn of Africa. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 275, 54–64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2019.02.002
• Certini, G., Castelli, G., Bresci, E., Calamini, G., Pierguidi, A., Villegas Paredes, L. N., & Salbitano, F. (2019). Fog collection as a strategy to sequester carbon in drylands. Science of The Total Environment, 657, 391–400. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.12.038
• Castelli, G., Bresci, E., Castelli, F., Hagos, E. Y., & Mehari, A. (2018). A participatory design approach for modernization of spate irrigation systems. Agricultural Water Management, 210, 286–295. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2018.08.030

Full publication list

Scopus Profile

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0209-0869

Conference talks full list

Awards

• Thesis Award “CeTAmb LAB” 2014, 1st Prize. Special Section “Water as Common Good: Appropriate Technologies for the province of Brescia and International Cooperation”. Università degli Studi di Brescia
• PhD student award “Adriano Guarnieri” XI International AIIA Conference “Biosystems Engineering addressing the human challenges of the 21st Century” – Italian Association of Agricultural Engineering
• Honorary Mention – Prize Evaristo “Ivo” Ricchetti 2018 for young researchers - XIII Meeting of the Hydrogeology and IT-Geosciences sections of the Italian Society of Geosciences
• Roland Schlich Travel Support award for EGU 2019. European Geosciences Union (EGU)