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

Infrastructure Systems in Urban Water course in the Master in Environmental Engineering

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 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.

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

Recent publications

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

Gobatti, L., Bach, P., Scheidegger, A., Leitão, J.P. (2023). Using satellite imagery to investigate Blue-Green Infrastructure establishment time for urban cooling. Sustainable Cities and Society, 97, 104768. doi: 10.1016/j.scs.2023.104768 

Nascimento, N., Armitage, N., Rodriguez Sanches, J.P., Leitão, J.P. (2023). Editorial: UWJ special edition on water management in developing countries. Urban Water Journal. doi: 10.1080/1573062X.2023.2266635

Peleg, N., Torelló-Sentelles, H., Mariéthoz, G., Leitão, J.P., Marra, F. (2023). Brief communication: the potential use of low-cost acoustic sensors in short-term flood warnings. Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences. doi: 10.5194/nhess-2022-257

Figueroa, A., Hadengue, B., Leitão, J.P.,  Blumensaat, F. (2023). A framework for modelling in-sewer thermal-hydraulic dynamic anomalies driven by stormwater runoff and seasonal effects. Water Research, 229. doi: 10.1016/j.watres.2022.119492

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