Luigia Brandimarte

Associate Professor and Docent in hydraulic engineering

Director of Studies at SEED

Faculty Member of ABE Faculty Board

Education Leaderof SATORI Research Lab

Vice-chairDocent Committee KTH/ABE

Cluster leaderfor the Water and Society cluster at KTH Water Center https://www.kth.se/water where I am responsible for coordinating research activities and events focused on the two-way interaction between water and society.

My research focuses on flood risk management and climate adaptation under changing environmental and societal conditions.

A main pillar of my research is the role of risk and uncertainty in supporting the decision making process viahydraulic and hydrological modelling. I have explored new methods to estimate uncertainty and better support the design of river engineering structures (levees, detention basins).

The other broad pillar of my research is theinterplay between natural hazards and society.I have looked at the mutual interaction between flooding and societies through system dynamics and agent-based modelling approaches, trying to capture the underlying dynamics between these two spheres. I have also been addressing socio-hydrological interactions through empirical methods, to understand whether any socio-hydrological archetypes can be spotted in specific locations where the interaction between humans and flooding is quite intertwined, like for example in Bangladesh.

I have a strong interest in the development ofengineering educationand have been investigating and implementing new, creative, teaching tools to stimulate students’ creativity, interest in learning and a flexible attitude needed to address current societal multi-facet challenges.

My main research interests are:

o   Reliability of hydraulic structures

o   Interaction between water and society

o   Nature-based solutions for hazard mitigation

o   Compound hazards and Earth Observations

o   Creative teaching tools in engineering education

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I am  currently supervising the research work carried out by five PhD students:

1. Fredrik Schück, on how organisations in Motala Ström catchment (Sweden) react and shape ongoing and future impacts from hydrological extremes in the catchment. The goal of Fredrik's thesis is to study feedback loops between authorities, organisations and the industry and the hydrological system at the catchment scale. To study this, Fredrik will couple hydrologic and agent-based models with the aim to find the dynamics between water management and impacts. The PhD is funded by the project Rättvist vatten project.

2. Gabriele Bernardis, on the seasonal forecasting of drought-to-floods eventsthrough the integration of multi-source Earth Observation data, advanced machine learning technique and data assimilation. This PhD is funded by Rymdstyrelsen through the CHEF project, whose ultimate goal is to support more resilient, data-driven responses to consecutive hydrometeorological hazards.

3. Nat Arslan, in collaboration with Lina Rahm at the department of History and Philosophy. Nat research focuses on Digitalization, Artificial Intelligence and Sustainability. Nat’s PhD is funded by ABE/KTH initiative on AI and sustainability.

4. Marlon Vieira Passos, on innovative methods to evaluate risks and impacts from multiple hydro-climatic events, at local and national levels. Marlon is looking at identifying hotspots, trends and compound effects of floods, droughts, and heatwaves; and assessing vulnerability and resilience of hydro-climatic hazards on critical infrastructure and society. Marlon is an industrial PhD student based at Stockholm Environmental Institute.

5. Shuang Hao, on Effects of Climate Fluctuations on Water Reservoir Operation Planning.The goal of her study is to account for effects of climate change on hydropower operations by developing statistical methods for assessing relevant climate indicators, develop methods for including these indicators in long-term operational planning models and assess the relative importance of climate fluctuations for hydropower production. This project was funded by Energy Authority.

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Past PhD students:

Riccardo Biella at Uppsala University (Sweden), Disentangling the nexus between climate information and (mal)adaptation in socio-ecological systems(December 2025)

Sara Lindersson, Uppsala University (Sweden),The use of global data to uncover how humans shape flood and drought risk(September 2023)

Ferdous Ruknul, IHE Delft (NL), Socio-Hydrological dynamics in Bangladesh Understanding the interaction between hydrological and social processes along the Jamuna floodplain(January 2020)

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Ongoing Main Projects

• 2026-2028, PI for HumanizingClimate Services: funded by Formas, Action!, 400 000 euros

• 2026-2029, PI for CHEF: funded by Swedish National Space Agency, 500 000 euros

• 2025-2027, PI for Creative Teaching Tools, funded by KTH, 120 000 euros

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I was honored to receive the 2022 KTH Pedagogical Prize for my cross-disciplinary and creative teacching approach. Here an article about the prize and its motivation:

Taking learning out of the classroom | KTH

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I was inivted to discuss my view on education at KTH Fikasnack Podcast:

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2fNJ0UkYcd79EnXfIA6y0w?si=f682cad532604a4e

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1N1H_YwnIk

KTH Play: https://play.kth.se/media/t/0_npbmyhyq

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