Recruiting university : UNIBS (Italy) / Co-supervising university : UNITBV (Romania)
Summary
The main goal of this proposal is to develop strong research and analysis skills of a PhD student, including the ability to collect, generate, manage and analyse ancient cartography and spatial data, to use and develop hydrologic models, to perform and to critically discuss results. Through this project, we will provide young scientists with the opportunity to develop research skills in a stimulating interdisciplinary environment. PhD candidates will acquire specialized technical skills relevant to historical European cartography and hydrology, guided by experts also on the technical themes, and through advanced digital techniques. More specifically, the research will deal with the assessment of land use and land cover transformations over a long period (first half of the XIX century until present) with reference to some selected case studies placed in Italy and Romania. Ancient maps developed by the military service of the Habsburg Empire will be exploited to classify the land use-land cover featuring Europe in the early XIX century. Current and recent landscapes will be acquired by using the CORINE project, that monitors the present landcover transformations in Europe. This analysis is expected to reveal important information about the evolution of the cultural landscapes, agricultural and forestry practices in mountain and rural areas. The digitization of ancient maps unveils effects of the complex interaction between humans, nature and climate. In particular, the analysis will be the base to develop hydrologic analyses aimed at investigating the change in water balance (evapotranspiration, water demand and availability) in the selected case studies.
Fields of study
Cartographic heritage, Digitalization and digital tools, Heritage management, Cultural landscapes, Climate impact on mountain and rural areas
Supervisors
Roberto Ranzi (UNIBS)
Carmen Maftei (UNITBV)
Full description of the project
