Elena De Petrillo

Foto di Elena De Petrillo

Dottorato in Ingegneria Civile E Ambientale , 37o ciclo (2021-2024)

Dottorato concluso nel 2025

Tesi:

Unveiling invisible water flows in socio-hydrological systems (Abstract)

Tutori:

Francesco Laio Marta Tuninetti

Presentazione della ricerca:

Poster

Profilo

Argomento di ricerca

Water teleconnections in socio-hydrological systems from global to regional scales: the virtual and atmospheric networks

Interessi di ricerca

Hydrology

Biografia

My interest on the water related aspects of food production and global supply chains began in 2018 with my Bachelor's thesis, "Spatial Analysis of the Agricultural Water Footprint with Free Data Visualization Software," which explored the global spatial variability of water footprints of four main primary crops (wheat, rice, soy, and maize) and four main animal products (cattle meat, pig meat, poultry meat and cow milk) . Since then, I continued working on this analysis with three research scholarship funded by the ERC project "CWASI" ("Coping with water scarcity in a globalized world"), coordinated by prof. Francescio Laio at the Department of Encvironment, Land, and Infrastructure Engineering.
Later in 2021, I earned my Master's Degree in Environmental Engineering, (track on Natural Hazard and Civil Protection) with a thesis on the virtual water trade of transnational corporations, titled " A step forward toward the high resolution assessment of water footprint at the company’s scale". During my PhD, my research delved into the pivotal role of these key actors in driving global virtual water trade through the import and export of food commodities, and into the analysis of land-atmosphere interactions to better represent the land-water nexus when quantificating the water footprint indicator to build comprhensive virtual water trade analysis. My PhD thesis titled "Unveiling the invisible water flows in socio-hydrological systems" focuses on valuing invisible aspects of hydrological implications of global food commodities that consumers, stakeholders and policy makers may overlook. These aspects are, namely, the role of the private and corporate actions in water management and water policies of global supply chains and the land-atmosphere interactions that influences water availability for and due to food production.

Alongside my research activity, since 2018 I have been actively involved in the Water To Food project, a project born as the communication and dissemination branch of the ERC project CWASI. This activity allowed me to develop communication, public speaking and team working skills. These experties allowed me to partecipate in further activities as invited speaker or organizer in workshop, seminars and festivals. During my PhD, I made of these activities an opportunity to enrich my research of feedback and insights from the world outside academica.

Premi e riconoscimenti

  • Letter of appreciation from the Office of the Coordinator of OSCE Economic and Environmental Activities, recognizing my contributions to the youth workshop “Drops of the Future,” held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, on 19-20 September 2024. This event, organized as part of the OSCE’s Extra-budgetary project “Women, Water Management and Conflict Prevention – Phase III,” brought together diverse participants from Central Asia to engage in topic discussions on water management and conflict prevention. During the workshop, I contributed to discussions and exchanging ideas with both participants and co-organizers, fostering a collaborative and insightful environment for cooperation within the water-food-energy nexus and transboundary resources management. (2024)

Didattica

Insegnamenti

Corso di laurea di 1° livello

MostraNascondi A.A. passati

Pubblicazioni

Coautori PoliTO

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