Luca Ciabatta, PhD

DSC_7155-56
Luca Ciabatta

Researcher
Via della Madonna Alta 126, 06128 Perugia, Italy
Email: luca.ciabatta@irpi.cnr.it
Office Phone: +39 0755014-407 Mob. +39 3332098101

GOOGLE-SCHOLAR – SCOPUS – RESEARCH GATE – LINKEDIN – ORCID – GITHUB

Biography

Luca Ciabatta was born in Perugia, Italy, in 1985. He took his M.S. degree in Geological Sciences and Technologies with excellence, from the University of Perugia, in May 2012. In February 2013 he received a Scholarship to carry research at the Research Institute of Geo-Hydrological Protection (IRPI) of the National Research Council (CNR) of Perugia under the topic: “Applied research, monitoring services and hydrological modeling for the estimation of the water content of the soil for the mitigation of geo-hydrological risk”. Since December 2014, he is a Research Fellow at the Reseach Insitute for Geo-Hydrological Protection. His research interests mainly regard the use of satellite data for hydrological applications and natural hazards mitigation. He is involved in satellite data validation activities, in the development of satellite-derived rainfall datasets and in the development of hydrological models. Since April 2018, he is a Researcher at IRPI. In June 2018 he took his Ph.D. (with excellence) in Civil and Environmental Engineering jointly from the University of Florence and from Vienna University of Technology with the thesis “Evaluation of satellite rainfall estimates for hydrologic and geo-hydrologic hazards prediction”.

Research interests

The research activity of Luca Ciabatta regards the use of satellite rainfall and soil moisture data for hydrological applications, with a focus on the mitigation of natural hazards. His research interests include:

  • Hydrological and land surface water balance modeling
  • Rainfall estimation through soil moisture data
  • Spatial and temporal variability of rainfall and soil moisture
  • Floods and landslides hazards assessment through remote sensing information

Awards and Recognitions

  • 2019: Winner of the ESA-Copernicus Excellence Award (https://www.esa.int/Applications/Observing_the_Earth/ESA_EGU_announce_Excellence_Award_winners)
  • 2014: “Nature Research Highlights” for the paper: “Detecting rainfall from the bottom up”. Nature, 509, 262–263 per l’articolo: “ Brocca, L., Ciabatta, L., Massari, C., Moramarco, T., Hahn, S., Hasenauer, S., Kidd, R., Dorigo, W., Wagner, W., Levizzani, V. (2014). Soil as a natural rain gauge: estimating global rainfall from satellite soil moisture data. Journal of Geophysical Research, 119(9), 5128-5141, doi:10.1002/2014JD02148”

Projects

Luca Ciabatta participated to several research projects in the frame of Italian and European programs and funded by International space agencies (ESA, EUMETSAT), in collaboration with Italian and International institutions.

International projects

      • Participation. ESA 4DMED-Hydrology. 2021-2023 (999000 €)
      • Participation. European Space Agency (ESA). DTE Hydrology
      • Participation. FFG Cooperative R&D Project. Resolving the Daily Water Cycle over Land with Radar Satellites. DWC-Radar.
      • Participation. European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT). Satellite Application Facility on Support to Operational Hydrology and Water Management (H SAF). Third Continuos Development and Operational Phase. 2017- 2022.
      • Participation. European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT). Satellite Application Facility on Support to Operational Hydrology and Water Management (H SAF). Fourth Continuos Development and Operational Phase. 2022- 2027.
      • Participation. European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT). GLOBAL-SM2RAIN. November 2017- June 2019.
      • Co-Participation. European Commission. INTERREG V-B Adriatic-Ionian ADRION Programme 2014-2020. MUltiHAzard framework for water related risks management (MUHA). 2019-2021.
      • Participation. Earth Observation Data Centre for Water Resource Monitoring (EODC). 37 years of soil moisture derived rainfall: application of SM2RAIN to the CCI soil moisture product, algorithm improvement and product validation. January 2015- December. 2016.

National Projects

      • Principal Investigator. HYDRO-CFD, Regione Umbria, 2020-2022.
      • Participation. Italian Civil Protection Department (DPC). Agreement between the Department of Italian Civil Protection and CNR. IRPI-CNR 24164/2015. February 2013- September 2016.
      • Partecipation. Regione Umbria. Ricerche applicate e servizi di monitoraggio e modellistica idrologica per la stima del contenuto d’acqua del suolo di supporto alle attività del Centro Funzionale della Regione Umbria per la mitigazione del rischio idrogeologico. February 2013 – July 2014.
      • Participation. Ministry of Education University and Research (MIUR). Innovative Earth Observation Technologies (OT) for the study of the climate change impacts on the environment (OT4CLIMA). September 2018 – February 2021.
      • Participation. Fondazione Cariplo. A New integrateD hydROgeological Model to assEss landsliDes and flood prone Areas in Oltrepò Pavese (ANDROMEDA). May 2018 – July 2020.
      • Unit responsibility. Regione Marche. Accordo di collaborazione per lo studio delle relazioni esistenti tra piogge, umidità del suolo e fenomeni franosi volto alla definizione delle condizioni idrologiche responsabili dell’innesco di frane indotte da pioggia nel territorio della regione marche tra il Servizio Protezione Civile – Centro Funzionale Multirischi della Regione Marche e l’Istituto di Ricerca per la Protezione Idrogeologica (IRPI) del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche (CNR). March 2020 – Febraury 2022.

Academic and lecturing

  • In the last 7 years, he delivered +30 hours of lectures on application of remote sensing for hydrology for the Italian Civil Protection Department and for EUMETSAT H SAF.
  • He has directed 5 M.Sc. theses and has been tutor of students in the hydrology and geology research areas at the CNR, University of Perugia, Siena and Bologna.

International activities

Pubblications

Under review

      • Brocca, L., Massari, C., Camici, S., Ciabatta, L., …, Fernandez, D. (…). The Digital Twin Earth for the water cycle: mapping the future with high-resolution earth observation. submitted to Frontiers in Science. .

      Mosaffa, H., Filippucci, P., Massari, C., Ciabatta, L.,Brocca, L. (…). SM2RAIN-Climate, a monthly global long-term rainfall dataset for climatological studies. submitted to Scienfic Data. .

PEER-REVIEWED JOURNAL PAPERS

2023

        1. Bordoni, M., Vivaldi, V., Ciabatta, L., Brocca, L., Meisina, C. (2023). Temporal prediction of shallow landslides exploiting soil saturation degree derived by ERA5-Land products. Bulletin of Engineering Geology and the Environment, 82, 308, doi:10.1007/s10064-023-03304-2. .
        2. Tramblay, Y., El Khalki Mahdi, Ciabatta, L., Camici, S., Hanich, L., El Mehdi Saidi, M., Ezzahouani, A., Benaabidate, L., Mahé, G., Brocca, L. (2023). River runoff estimation with satellite rainfall in Morocco. Hydrological Sciences Journal, 68(3), 474-487, doi:10.1080/02626667.2023.2171295. https://doi.org/10.1080/02626667.2023.2171295.

2022

        1. Filippucci, P., Brocca, L., Quast, R., Ciabatta, L., Saltalippi, C., Wagner, W., Tarpanelli, A. (2022). High resolution (1 km) satellite rainfall estimation from SM2RAIN applied to Sentinel-1: Po River Basin as case study. Hydrology and Earth System Science, 26, 2481-1497, doi:10.5194/hess-26-2481-2022. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-26-2481-2022.

2021

        1. Bordoni, M., Vivaldi, V., Lucchelli, L., Ciabatta, L., Brocca, L., Galve, J.P., Meisina, C. (2021). Development of a data-driven model for spatial and temporal shallow landslides probability of occurrence at catchment scale. Landslides, 18, 1209–1229, doi:10.1007/s10346-020-01592-3. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-020-01592-3.
        2. Brunetti, M.T., Melillo, M., Gariano, S.L., Ciabatta, L., Brocca, L., Amarnath, G., Peruccacci, S. (2021). Satellite rainfall products outperform ground observations for landslide forecasting in India. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 25, 3267–3279, doi:10.5194/hess-25-3267-2021. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-25-3267-2021.
        3. Volpe, E., Ciabatta, L., Salciarini, D., Camici, S., Cattoni, E., Brocca, L. (2021). The impact of Probability Density Functions assessment on model performance for slope stability analysis. Geosciences, 11(8), 322, doi:10.3390/geosciences11080322 https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences11080322.

2020

        1. Brocca, L., Massari, C., Pellarin, T., Filippucci, P., Ciabatta, L., Camici, S., Kerr, Y.H., Fernández-Prieto, D. (2020). River flow prediction in data scarce regions: soil moisture integrated satellite rainfall products outperform rain gauge observations in West Africa. Scientific Reports, 10, 12517, doi:10.1038/s41598-020-69343-x. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-69343-x.
          Press: CNR, CNR-IRPI
        2. Camici, S, Massari, C., Ciabatta, L., Marchesini, I., Brocca, L. (2020). Which rainfall metric is more informative about the flood simulation performance? A comprehensive assessment on 1318 basins over Europe. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 24, 4869–4885, doi:10.5194/hess-24-4869-2020. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-4869-2020.
        3. Massari, C., Brocca, L., Pellarin, T., Abramowitz, G., Filippucci, P., Ciabatta, L., Maggioni, V., Kerr, Y., Fernández-Prieto, D. (2020). A daily/25km short-latency rainfall product for data scarce regions based on the integration of the GPM IMERG Early Run with multiple satellite soil moisture products. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 24, 2687–2710, doi:10.5194/hess-24-2687-2020. https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-24-2687-2020.

2019

        1. Bauer-Marschallinger, B., Naeimi, F., Cao, S., Paulik, C., Schaufler, S., Stachl, T., Modanesi, S., Ciabatta, L., Massari, C., Brocca, L., Wagner, W. (2019). Towards global soil moisture monitoring with Sentinel-1: harnessing assets and overcoming obstacles. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 57(1), 520-539, doi:10.1109/TGRS.2018.2858004. https://doi.org/10.1109/TGRS.2018.2858004.
        2. Brocca, L., Filippucci, P., Hahn, S., Ciabatta, L., Massari, C., Camici, S., Schüller, L., Bojkov, B., Wagner, W. (2019). SM2RAIN-ASCAT (2007-2018): global daily satellite rainfall from ASCAT soil moisture. Earth System Science Data, 11, 1583–1601, doi:10.5194/essd-11-1583-2019. https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-11-1583-2019.
          Press: BLOG Natural Hazards, ISMC.
        3. Massari, C., Maggioni, V., Barbetta, S., Brocca, L., Ciabatta, L., Camici, S., Moramarco, T., Coccia, G., Todini, E. (2019). Complementing near-real time satellite rainfall products with satellite soil moisture-derived rainfall through a Bayesian inversion approach. Journal of Hydrology, 573, 341-351, doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2019.03.038. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2019.03.038.
        4. Salciarini, D., Brocca, L., Camici, S., Ciabatta, L., Volpe, E., Tamagnini, C. (2019). Physically-based approach for rainfall-induced landslide projections in a changing climate. Proceedings of ICE – Geotechnical Engineering, 172(6), 481-495, doi:10.1680/jgeen.18.00216. https://doi.org/10.1680/jgeen.18.00216.

2018

        1. Bauer-Marschallinger, B., Paulik, C., Hochstöger, S., Mistelbauer, T., Modanesi, S., Ciabatta, L., Massari, C., Brocca, L., Wagner, W. (2018). Soil moisture from fusion of scatterometer and sar: closing the scale gap with temporal filtering. Remote Sensing, 10(7), 1030, doi:10.3390/rs10071030. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs10071030.
        2. Brunetti, M.T., Melillo, M., Peruccacci, S., Ciabatta, L., Brocca, L. (2018). How far are we from the use of satellite data in landslide forecasting? Remote Sensing of Environment, 210, 65-75, doi:10.1016/j.rse.2018.03.016. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2018.03.016.
        3. Camici, S., Ciabatta, L., Massari, C., Brocca, L. (2018). How reliable are satellite precipitation estimates for driving hydrological models: a verification study over the Mediterranean area. Journal of Hydrology, 563, 950-961, doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2018.06.067. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2018.06.067.
        4. Ciabatta, L., Massari, C., Brocca, L., Gruber, A., Reimer, C., Hahn, S., Paulik, C., Dorigo, W., Kidd, R., Wagner, W. (2018). SM2RAIN-CCI: a new global long-term rainfall data set derived from ESA CCI soil moisture. Earth System Science Data, 10, 267-280, doi:10.5194/essd-10-267-2018. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/essd-10-267-2018.
        5. Jalilvand, E., Tajrishy, M., Brocca, L., Massari, C., Hashemi, S.A.G., Ciabatta, L. (2018). Estimating the drainage rate from surface soil moisture drydowns: application of DfD model to in situ soil moisture data. Journal of Hydrology, 565, 489-501, doi: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2018.08.035. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2018.08.035.
        6. Massari, C., Camici, S., Ciabatta, L., Brocca, L. (2018). Exploiting satellite-based surface soil moisture for flood forecasting in the Mediterranean area: state update versus rainfall correction. Remote Sensing, 10(2), 292, doi: 10.3390/rs10020292. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/rs10020292
        7. Santi, E., Paloscia, S., Pettinato, S., Brocca, L., Ciabatta, L., Entekhabi, D. (2018). On the synergy of SMAP, AMSR2 and SENTINEL-1 for retrieving soil moisture. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 65, 114-123, doi:10.1016/j.jag.2017.10.010. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jag.2017.10.010.
        8. Santi, E., Paloscia, S., Pettinato, S., Brocca, L., Ciabatta, L., Entekhabi, D. (2018). Integration of microwave data from SMAP and AMSR2 for soil moisture monitoring in Italy. Remote Sensing of Environment, 212, 21-30, doi:10.1016/j.rse.2018.04.039. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2018.04.039.
        9. Thaler, S., Brocca, L., Ciabatta, L., Eitzinger, J., Hahn, S., Wagner, W. (2018). Effects of different spatial precipitation input data on crop model outputs under a Central European climate. Atmosphere, 9(8), 290, doi:10.3390/atmos9080290. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos9080290.

2017

        1. Brocca, L., Crow, W.T., Ciabatta, L., Massari, C., de Rosnay, P., Enenkel, M., Hahn, S., Amarnath, G., Camici, S., Tarpanelli, A., Wagner, W. (2017). A review of the applications of ASCAT soil moisture products. IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, 10(5), 2285-2306, doi:10.1109/JSTARS.2017.2651140. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/JSTARS.2017.2651140
        2. Brocca, L., Ciabatta, L., Massari, C., Camici, S., Tarpanelli, A. (2017). Soil moisture for hydrological applications: open questions and new opportunities. Water, 9(2), 140, doi:10.3390/w9020140. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/w9020140
        3. Ciabatta, L., Marra, A.C., Panegrossi, G., Casella, D., Sanò, P., Dietrich, S., Massari, C., Brocca, L. (2017). Daily precipitation estimation through different microwave sensors: verification study over Italy. Journal of Hydrology, 545, 436-450, doi: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2016.12.057. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2016.12.057
        4. Massari, C., Su, C.-H., Brocca, L., Sang, Y.F., Ciabatta, L., Ryu, D., Wagner, W. (2017). Near real time de-noising of satellite-based soil moisture retrievals : An intercomparison among three different techniques. Remote Sensing of Environment., 198, 17-29, doi:10.1016/j.rse.2017.05.037. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2017.05.037
        5. Tarpanelli, A., Massari, C., Ciabatta, L., Filippucci, P., Amarnath, G., Brocca, L. (2017). Exploiting a constellation of satellite soil moisture sensors for accurate rainfall estimation. Advances in Water Resources, 108, 249-255, doi: 10.1016/j.advwatres.2017.08.010. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.advwatres.2017.08.010.

2016

        1. Brocca, L., Pellarin, T., Crow, W.T., Ciabatta, L., Massari, C., Ryu, D., Su, C.-H., Rudiger, C., Kerr, Y. (2016). Rainfall estimation by inverting SMOS soil moisture estimates: a comparison of different methods over Australia. Journal of Geophysical Research, 121(20), 12062-12079, doi:10.1002/2016JD025382. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2016JD025382
        2. Brocca, L., Massari, C., Ciabatta, L., Wagner, W., Stoffelen, A. (2016). Remote sensing of terrestrial rainfall from Ku-band scatterometers. IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, 9(1), 533-539, doi:10.1109/JSTARS.2015.2508065. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/JSTARS.2015.2508065
        3. Ciabatta, L., Brocca, L., Massari, C., Moramarco, T., Gabellani, S., Puca, S., Wagner, W. (2016). Rainfall-runoff modelling by using SM2RAIN-derived and state-of-the-art satellite rainfall products over Italy. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 48, 163-173, doi:10.1016/j.jag.2015.10.004. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jag.2015.10.004
        4. Ciabatta, L., Camici, S., Brocca, L., Ponziani, F., Stelluti, M., Berni, N., Moramarco, T. (2016). Assessing the impact of climate-change scenarios on landslide occurrence in Umbria region, Italy. Journal of Hydrology, 541, 285-295, doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2016.02.007. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2016.02.007
        5. Santi, E., Paloscia, S., Pettinato, S., Brocca, L., Ciabatta, L. (2016). Robust assessment of an operational algorithm for the retrieval of soil moisture from AMSR-E data in central Italy. IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, 9(6), 2478-2492, doi:10.1109/JSTARS.2016.2575361. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/JSTARS.2016.2575361

2015

        1. Brocca, L., Massari, C., Ciabatta, L., Moramarco, T., Penna, D., Zuecco, G., Pianezzola, L., Borga, M., Matgen, P., Martínez-Fernández, J. (2015). Rainfall estimation from in situ soil moisture observations at several sites in Europe: an evaluation of SM2RAIN algorithm. Journal of Hydrology and Hydromechanics, 63(3), 201-209, doi:10.1515/johh-2015-0016. http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/johh-2015-0016
        2. Ciabatta, L., Brocca, L., Massari, C., Moramarco, T., Puca, S., Rinollo, A., Gabellani, S., Wagner, W. (2015). Integration of satellite soil moisture and rainfall observations over the Italian territory. Journal of Hydrometeorology, 16(3), 1341-1355, doi:10.1175/JHM-D-14-0108.1. http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/JHM-D-14-0108.1
        3. Massari, C., Brocca, L., Ciabatta, L., Moramarco, T., Gabellani, S., Albergel, C., de Rosnay, P., Puca, S., Wagner, W. (2015). The use of H-SAF soil moisture products for operational hydrology: flood modelling over Italy. Hydrology, 2(1), 2-22, doi:10.3390/hydrology2010002. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/hydrology2010002

2014

        1. Brocca, L., Ciabatta, L., Massari, C., Moramarco, T., Hahn, S., Hasenauer, S., Kidd, R., Dorigo, W., Wagner, W., Levizzani, V. (2014). Soil as a natural rain gauge: estimating global rainfall from satellite soil moisture data. Journal of Geophysical Research, 119(9), 5128-5141, doi:10.1002/2014JD021489. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2014JD021489

REVIEWED CONFERENCE PAPERS and BOOK CHAPTERS

2019

        1. Ciabatta, L., Camici, S., Massari, C., Filippucci, P., Hahn, S., Wagner, W., Brocca, L. (2019). Soil moisture and precipitation: the SM2RAIN algorithm for rainfall retrieval from satellite soil moisture. In: V. Levizzani et al., (eds.), Satellite precipitation measurement, Springer, book chapter, in press.

2016

        1. Brocca, L., Ciabatta, L., Moramarco, T., Ponziani, F., Berni, N., Wagner, W. (2016). Use of satellite soil moisture products for the operational mitigation of landslides risk in central Italy. In: G.P. Petropoulos, P. Srivastava, Y. Kerr (eds.), Satellite Soil Moisture Retrievals: Techniques & Applications. Elsevier, Amsterdam, Chapter 12, 231-247, ISBN: 978-0-12-803388-3, doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-803388-3.00012-7. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-803388-3.00012-7
        2. Ciabatta, L., Massari, C., Brocca, L., Reimer, C., Hann, S., Paulik, C., Dorigo, W., Wagner, W. (2016) Using Python® language for the validation of the CCI soil moisture products via SM2RAIN. PeerJ Preprints, 4:e2131v2, doi:10.7287/peerj.preprints.2131v2. https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.2131v2
        3. Paloscia, S., Santi, E., Pettinato, S., Brocca, L., Ciabatta, L. (2016). Soil moisture retrieval at regional scale from AMSR2 data (Conference Presentation). Proc. SPIE 10003, SAR Image Analysis, Modeling, and Techniques XVI, 100030G; doi:10.1117/12.2245321. http://dx.doi.org/10.1117/12.2245321
        4. Santi, E., Paloscia, S., Pettinato, S., Brocca, L., Ciabatta, L., Massari, C. (2016). Soil moisture and rainfall retrieval from AMSR2 data in Italy. Proceedings 2016 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS). Beijing, China, 10-15 July 2016.

2015

        1. Ciabatta, L., Brocca, L., Moramarco, T., Wagner, W. (2015). Comparison of different satellite rainfall products over the Italian territory. In: Engineering Geology for Society and Territory, 3, 623-626, doi:10.1007/978-3-319-09054-2_124. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09054-2_124
        2. Santi, E., Paloscia, S., Pettinato, S., Brocca, L., Ciabatta, L. (2015). Robust assessment of an operational algorithm for the retrieval of soil moisture from AMSR-E data in central Italy. Proceedings 2015 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), 1288-1291, doi:10.1109/IGARSS.2015.7326010. http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/IGARSS.2015.7326010

 

Presentations

Ciabatta, L., Brocca, L., Moramarco, T., Wagner, W. “Comparison of different satellite rainfall products over the Italian territory”. IAEG 2014 Congress. 18 September 2014

Ciabatta, L., Brocca, L., Puca, S., Gabellani, S., Wagner, W., Moramarco, T. ” Integration of rainfall and soil moisture H-SAF products (H05 and H07) for hydrological applications”. H-SAF Validation Workshop, Budapest, 3-6/December 2013.

Ciabatta, L., Brocca, L., Moramarco, T. “Uso di prodotti satellitari di pioggia per applicazioni idrologiche”. H-SAF Workshop, Rome 21 June 2013.

Ciabatta, L. “Rainfall estimation through soil moisture observation”. Perugia, 12 Sept. 2013.

Comments are closed.