Dr. Francesco Caponi
Dr. Francesco Caponi
Lecturer at the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering
Additional information
Research area
Francesco Caponi's research focuses on the interactions between biotic and abiotic components of river systems, combining numerical modelling and observations. The main research area is the study of the feedback mechanisms between riparian vegetation and river morphodynamic processes. His research includes also the quantification of the effect of flow regime alterations, such as hydropeaking, on vegetation recruitment and river habitat.
Currently, he is mainly working on modeling plant seed dispersal by water in rivers within the research program "Wasserbau und Ökologie".
Latest scientific output
Cunico, I., Bertoldi, W., Caponi, F., Dijkstra, H. A., & Siviglia, A. (2024). River ecomorphodynamic models exhibit features of nonlinear dynamics and chaos. Geophysical Research Letters, 51, e2023GL107951. https://doi.org/10.1029/2023GL107951
Vanzo, D, Looser M., Vetsch D.F., Fink S., Caponi F. (2023) River Hydrodynamics and Seed Establishment Processes: A 2D Modelling Approach Proceedings of the 40th IAHR World Congress, 21-25 August 2023 Vienna, Austria https://doi.org/10.3850/978-90-833476-1-5_iahr40wc-p0367-cd
Caponi, F., Daniel A.S. Conde, Vetsch, D. F. (2023) Numerical modelling of river hydro-morphology impact on plant seed dispersal. Proceedings of the 40th IAHR World Congress, 21-25 August 2023 Vienna, Austria,https://doi.org/10.3850/978-90-833476-1-5_iahr40wc-p0413-cd
Caponi, F., Vetsch, D. F., & Vanzo, D. (2023). BASEveg: A python package to model riparian vegetation dynamics coupled with river morphodynamics. SoftwareX, 22, 101361. https://doi.org/10.1016/J.SOFTX.2023.101361
See others on Google Scholar or Research Gate
Employment
02/2023 - 06/2023, Visiting Scientist, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL), Birmensdorf, Zurich
06/2021 - present, Senior Scientific Assistant at Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology, and Glaciology (VAW), ETH Zurich, Switzerland.
10/2015 - 05/2021, Scientific Assistant at Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology, and Glaciology (VAW), ETH Zurich, Switzerland.
Education
10/2015 - 01/2020, PhD, Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology, and Glaciology (VAW), ETH Zurich, Switzerland. Project: BASEveg Ecomorphodynamic modelling for gravel bed rivers
10/2012 - 07/2015, Master Degree in Environmental and Land Engineering, University of Trento, Italy
09/2009 - 09/2012, Bachelor Degree in Environmental and Land Engineering, University of Trento, Italy
Membership
| Since | Membership |
|---|---|
| 2022 | AVETH Counseling |
| 2018 | American Geophysical Union (AGU) |
| 2018 | European Geosciences Union (EGU) |
Honours
| Year | Distinction |
|---|---|
| 2019 | Best Student Presentation at River, Coastal, and Estuarine Morphodynamics Symposium (RCEM), Auckland, New Zealand |
Additional information
TiRiLab: Ticino Rivers Lab
TiRiLab is a river research and education laboratory in environmental engineering at ETH Zürich. It is a collaborative project between IfU and VAW at ETH Zürich and the Land Department of Canton Tessin which is providing funding.
TiRiLab offers Master students in Environmental Engineering at ETH Zürich opportunities for MSc Projects and MSc Theses. Students work on river case studies in Ticino and gain experience in practical problem-solving and hands-on experience with GIS, numerical simulation with BASEMENT, and other methods and tools applied to problems of hydrological and hydromorphological assessment of Alpine rivers and their ecosystem services.
Project webpage: https://hyd.ifu.ethz.ch/education/tirilab.html
BASEveg
BASEveg is a python package that couples a river hydro-morphodynamic simulator (BASEMENT) with a model for vegetation dynamics.
Project webpage: https://basement.ethz.ch/download/tools/BASEveg.html
Course Catalogue
Spring Semester 2025
| Number | Unit |
|---|---|
| 101-0269-00L | River Morphodynamic Modelling |