About Me

Senior researcher (tenured)

ResearcherID: F-5292-2012

Scopus author ID: 34870089600

ORCID: 0000-0002-7371-0543

Google Scholar

Adjunct Professor at ETH Zurich (Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatics engineering)

Infrastructure Systems in Urban Water and Urban Drainage Planning and Modelling courses in the Master in Environmental Engineering

Water module (with Prof Peter Molnar, ETHZ) in the Master of Landscape Architecture

Climate-adapted water management: dealing with surface runoff and utilising blue-green infrastructures lecture (with Ms Silvia Opliger, VSA) in the CAS Natural Hazard - Risk Management

Research interests

My research involves the development of new methods to improve urban hydrology/ hydraulic modelling accuracy, taking advantage of newly available data resources: (i) identify urban water systems features (e.g. sewer inlets and manholes) from aerial imagery obtained using Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), and (ii) estimate flow velocity and surface water depth from videos acquired from urban surveillance cameras and social media images, respectively.

I am also interested in the development of urban flood models to more realistically assess urban flood risk. This focus on the development of improvement of one-dimensional (1D) overland flow models and development of novel data-driven flood models. The ultimate goal is to investigate fast but accurate models targeted to be used in real-time flood forecasting applications.

More recently, I have been exploring the potential of urban water to mitigate heat wave impacts in cities. Urban water is essential to sustain urban greenery and can also be a resource to increase evaporative cooling when used to actively water impervious pavements. 

In addition, I am also investigating Infrastructure Asset Management methods aiming at improving the industry’s perennial need for more efficient infrastructure, including blue-green infrastructure, geared to reducing costs and risks while increasing its performance and flexibility.

Recent publications

Fappiano, F., Maurer, M., Leitão, J.P. (in press). Coupling sewers to the surface: systematic approaches to correct data discrepancies for 1D-2D drainage modelling. Journal of Hydrology, 132239. doi: 10.1016/j.jhydrol.2024.132239

Chen, J., Bach, P.M., Nice, K., Leitão, J.P. (in press). Modelling urban heat to support the spatial planning of liveable cities. Science of the Total Environment, 176925. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.176925

Peleg, N., Wright, D.B., Fowler, H.J., Leitão, J.P., Sharma, A., Marra, F. (2024). A simple and robust approach for adapting design storms to assess climate-induced changes in flash flood hazard. Advances in Water Resources. doi: 10.1016/j.advwatres.2024.104823

Li, S., Leitão, J.P., Wang, Z., Bach, P.M. (2024). A drainage network-based impact matrix to support targeted blue-green-grey stormwater management solutions. Science of the Total Environment, 912, 168623. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.168623

Wang, W., Wang, Z., Guan, M., Wani, O., Leitão, J.P. (2024). Evaluation of stormwater mitigation performance with LID infrastructures, in-sewer space, and real-time control strategies. Journal of Hydrologic Engineering, 29(5). doi: 10.1061/JHYEFF.HEENG-6185 

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