Persone PhD CandidatesXXXVI ciclo Lorenzo Villani

XXXVI ciclo Lorenzo Villani

3rd year

Curriculum: Agricultural and Forest Engineering

Supervisor: Prof.ssa  Elena Bresci - Prof. Daniele Penna

Email: lorenzo.villani@unifi.it

Office address: via San Bonaventura 13, 50145 Firenze

Mobile phone: +39 3312087304

Profile

I graduated at the University of Florence where I obtained a bachelor's degree in Agricultural Science (110/110L) and a master's degree (110/110L) in Natural Resources Management for Tropical Rural Development. During my bachelor and master I made some Erasmus experiences of one semester in Spain, Valencia, and in the Netherlands, Wageningen, respectively. For my bachelor, I made an internship in a farm of my hometown that practices social farming, and I made the thesis based on this topic. Then, I also participated in the Erasmus Geonatura project with a week of stay at the TU Delft, I spent a couple of months in the Tigray region of Ethiopia studying a sand dam irrigation system and I have been an intern with the Dutch research center MetaMeta, supporting the Regreening Dodoma Program of Justdiggit and LEAD Foundation in Tanzania. Within this project, I collected the data for my master thesis about the impacts of trees on microclimate in agricultural landscapes. After graduating, I spent almost one year in Peru, in the Andean city of Abancay, with the EU AID Volunteer Program, supporting a local ONG with their agricultural projects in two rural communities.

Research interests and PhD project

My research interests focus on sustainable agriculture, climate change adaptation, agro-hydrological modeling, risk assessment, and water productivity and footprint. My PhD research investigates the impacts of climate change and the most effective water-related adaptation practices in a Mediterranean watershed, integrating risk assessment with climate and agro-hydrological models, with the aim to promote solutions for a sustainable and integrated agricultural water management.

Papers

• Villani, L., Castelli, G., Piemontese, L., Penna, D., & Bresci, E. (2022). Drought risk assessment in Mediterranean agricultural watersheds: A case study in Central Italy. Agricultural Water Management, 271, 107748.
• Castelli, G., Piemontese, L., Quinn, R., Aerts, J., Elsner, P., Ertsen, M., Hussey S., Filho W.L., Limones N., Mpofu B., Graber Neufeld D., Ngugi K., Ngwenya N., Parker A., Ryan C., de Trincheria J., Villani, L., Eisma, J., & Bresci, E. (2022). Sand dams for sustainable water management: Challenges and future opportunities. Science of The Total Environment, 156126.
• Villani, L., Castelli, G., Sambalino, F., Almeida Oliveira, L.A., Bresci, E., 2021. Influence of trees on landscape temperature in semi-arid agro-ecosystems of East Africa. Biosyst. Eng. 212, 185–199. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biosystemseng.2021.10.007
• Villani, L., Castelli, G., Hagos, E. Y., & Bresci, E. (2018). Water productivity analysis of sand dams irrigation farming in northern Ethiopia. Journal of Agriculture and Environment for International Development (JAEID), 112(1), 139-160. DOI: https://doi.org/10.12895/jaeid.20181.726

Conference talks and seminars

• Villani, L., Castelli, G., Yimer, E. A., Piemontese, L., van Griensven, A., Penna, D., & Bresci, E. (2022). Evaluating agricultural risks in Central Italy by coupling drought risk assessment and agro-hydrological modelling (No. Plinius17-35). Copernicus Meetings. (oral presentation)
• Villani, L., Castelli, G., Piemontese, L., Penna, D., & Bresci, E. (2022). Drought risk assessment of five coastal agricultural watersheds in the Tuscany region. AIIA 2022 (oral presentation)
• Villani, L., Castelli. G., & Bresci, E. (2022). La gestione della risorsa idrica nei seminativi e nelle colture orticole in pieno campo. Incontro Tematico: Seminativi e colture orticole in pieno campo, la gestione della risorsa idrica. Certaldo. CIA Toscana (oral presentation)
• Villani, L., Castelli, G., Piemontese, L., Penna, D., & Bresci, E. (2022). Introducing robustness evaluation and archetype analysis in drought risk assessments (No. EGU22-2675). Copernicus Meetings. (oral presentation)
• Castelli, G., Setti, A., Villani, L., Ferrise, R., & Bresci, E. (2022). Modelling the impacts of water harvesting and climate change on rainfed maize yields in Senegal (No. EGU22-9675). Copernicus Meetings. (oral presentation)
• Villani, L., Castelli, G., Sambalino, F., Oliveira, L. A. A., & Bresci, E. (2020). Integrating UAV and satellite data to assess the effects of agroforestry on microclimate in Dodoma region, Tanzania. In 2020 IEEE International Workshop on Metrology for Agriculture and Forestry (MetroAgriFor) (pp. 338-342). IEEE. (oral presentation)
• Villani, L., Castelli, G., Hagos, E. Y., & Bresci, E. (2019). Water productivity analysis of sand dams irrigation farming in northern Ethiopia. Copernicus Meetings. https://zenodo.org/record/2638264#.YDN1euhKjIV (poster session)