Professor Optical and Laser Remote Sensing, Department of Geoscience and Remote Sensing, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Delft University of Technology

Educational background: Physics (Univ. of Rome), Environmental Sciences (PhD Univ. of Wageningen)

Research Interests: Land surface processes and remote sensing with emphasis on hydrology and water management. In recent years he has coordinated a EU research project Hydrological Determinants of Agricultural Production in South America: the contribution of numerical crop growth models and remote sensing. He is currently the coordinator of a EU network dealing with Climate Impact on Water and Drylands Agriculture (CLIWARDA) This is a worldwide network with participants from China, India, Argentina, Egypt and Niger besides UK, Italy and The Netherlands. Past investigations include studies of groundwater hydrology in the deserts of Libya and Egypt, the use of advanced Earth Observation sensors systems to improve the performance of atmospheric models and irrigation water management in several countries. During the same period of time he has coordinated a series of scientific studies towards the development of the Surface Processes and Ecosystem Changes Through Response Analysis (SPECTRA) Mission for the European Space Agency. He is at present the coordinator of the FP7 ENVironment project “A protoype observation system for water resources in South – East Asia: ground and space measurements to support hydrological and atmospheric modeling of the Qinghai – Tibet Plateau (CEOP – AEGIS)” carried out by 17 organizations in 8 countries.

Previous positions:  Director, ISTITUTO PER I SISTEMI AGRICOLI E FORESTALI  DEL MEDITERRANEO – ISAFoM Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Italy;  Director of Research, Laboratoire des Sciences de l ’Image, de l ’Informatique et de la Télédétection, Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France. Section CNU 37 Environmental Physics

Profile: Development and application of active and passive optical observing systems for engineering and earth sciences