This study investigates the surface processes taking place in an ungauged catchment in the Foro region in Eritrea (East Africa). We focus on estimating river discharge, sediment transport, and surface runoff to characterize hydrological fluxes in the area and provide a preliminary quantification of sediment transport and erosion. In this context, an overarching objective of the research is the study of the catchment associated with the Foro Dam. The latter comprises a silted reservoir formerly employed for agricultural water supply. The main traits associated with the system behavior across the watershed are assessed for a variety of combinations of the parameters governing the hydrological model selected. A detailed sensitivity analysis is performed to quantify the effects of the hydrological parameters on the estimated results. Numerical analyses are then performed to obtain an appraisal of expected water and sediment fluxes. Outputs of interest are largely dominated by the curve number parameter.

ABSTRACT:In Italy there is a very widespread multitude of buildings important and interesting in the field of Cultural Heritage. Several of them have been abandoned in the last decades and now they show all the deterioration and the structural damages due to abandon. This is also the case of about forty traditional farmsteads located in the close suburbs of the city of Milano and belonging to the local administration. Among these farmsteads, Cascina Linterno, for its rich historical background going back to the 14th century and earlier, was chosen to carry out a test in the planning process with the participation of local associations under the supervision of a group of experts in the field of structural assessment, preservation and design from Politecnico of Milan. Time and resources saving and effectiveness of appropriate activities is the main guideline of this process, where the first step consists necessarily on the topographical survey. The choice of Terrestrial Laser Scanner to carry out the survey complied naturally most necessities, but it was also meant to provide new challenges in the fruition of the point cloud by groups of experts without topographical knowledge. The aim is to analyze the procedures and the output needed by the different specialists involved in this kind of intervention on Cultural Heritage, in order to provide friendly tools to work directly on the point cloud, taking advantage of its rapidity in acquisition and of its richness of details, thus avoiding the production of traditional "lossy" layouts.

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In the early 20th century the agrarian policies of the Colonial Government in Eritrea moved from the promotion of Italian family homesteads on the highlands to the exploitation of wide semi-arid areas in the lowlands. In particular the surroundings of Tessenei, close to the Sudanese border, for its geomorphological and hydrographic features, were appropriate for a wide intensive plantation of cotton. Here in 1905 the most meaningful intervention of colonial agrarian valorisation in Eritrea was being planned, but it was realized at the end of the Twenties. Barriers, embankments, canals and drains caused then a radical change in the landscape, imposing a severe geometry over 10.000 hectares of smoothly corrugated lands around the Gash River. Production activities were mainly based on local workers: this had a dramatic impact on traditional culture and social relations, stressed by the fact that in a short while migration from Sudan and Ethiopia was encouraged. By analysing the main features of the spatial organization designed in Tessenei, an attempt to outline the relation between the colonial government and local cultural system will be made; the comprehension of this relation would be important to understand the legacies of the project and its potentialities at present.