At the 94th ICOLD Annual Meeting & Symposium, held in Guadalajara from May 23 to 29, RSE was actively engaged across Technical Committees, European Club activities, Young Professionals Forum and Symposium’s technical sessions, showcasing the expertise developed within the Ricerca di Sistema research framework.

Technical Committees
Antonella Frigerio, Giorgia Faggiani, Andrea Abbate e Marco Tangi actively participated in the Technical Committees (TCs) meetings, held on May 23-24.
Antonella Frigerio, Chair of TC-A on Computational Aspects of Analysis and Design of Dams, led the Committee meeting with the support of Giorgia Faggiani. The discussion focused on upcoming activities, including the organisation of the next Benchmark Workshop on numerical analysis of dams, planned in Romania in 2027, and the integration of advanced modelling approaches and AI tools in dam behaviour analysis.

Andrea Abbate and Marco Tangi participated in the workshops organised by TC-J o

n Sedimentation of Reservoirs and TC-S on Flood evaluation and dam safety, starting to be involved in the respective TC. The workshops reported some experiences from the current Committee members, showing interesting case study analyses and methodologies applied to existing dams, reservoirs and hydropower plants around the world.

During the General Assembly (28 May), the ICOLD Board has approved the following appointments:
– Giorgia Faggiani as member (formerly co-opted member) of TC-A on Computational Aspects of Analysis and Design of Dams;
– Marco Tangi as co-opted member of TC-J on Sedimentation of Reservoirs;
– Andrea Abbate as co-opted member of TC-S on Flood evaluation and dam safety.

Andrea Abbate also contributed to TC-Y on Climate Change, whose activities are closely aligned with the “Risorsa idrica e sistema energetico” research project, with further involvement under evaluation.

ICOLD European Club (EurCOLD)
At the ICOLD European Club meeting (24 May), Antonella Frigerio, Chair of the European Working Group on Penstocks, Pressure Shafts and Pressure Tunnels, presented the ongoing work on the development of a structured series of Bulletins covering design, monitoring, safety, and case studies. The progress report also included contributions to scientific publications and the planned organisation of a dedicated workshop in Perugia (Italy) in 2027.

Young Professionals Forum (YPF)
Andrea Abbate and Marco Tangi actively engaged in the Young Professionals Forum, contributing to discussions on emerging challenges and reinforcing the role of early-career researchers within the ICOLD community.

Symposium contributions

RSE contributed to the Symposium with two technical presentations:
Giorgia Faggiani gave a talk on the paper “Numerical Investigation of the Cracking Behaviour of Concrete Dams Using the XFEM Approach”, co-authored with Martina Colombo and Piero Masarati, highlighting the potential of advanced modelling techniques for simulating crack initiation and propagation.

Marco Tangi gave a talk titled “An Integrated Modelling Approach for Watershed Sediment Yield Estimation and Reservoirs Siltation Management”, prepared in collaboration with Andrea Abbate, addressing key challenges in sediment management through an integrated modelling chain.

RSE disseminated the results and competencies developed within its research activities, bringing them into an international context.