In the area of water, DICAM's research activity is mainly focused on the study of geophysical flows and transport mechanisms in the environment of chemical (contaminants), biological (pathogens), and physical (sediments) agents, their interaction with the environment, and management responses. In this context, particular attention is paid to understanding the complex natural processes that shape the environment and control the mass and energy exchanges active in it, and to practices for optimal management of environmental resources. The areas of specific interest concern the management of the water resource cycle (utilisation and contamination) and protection against hydrogeological instability, the development of systems for monitoring, modelling, forecasting, and representation of environmental processes, and the quantification of the effects induced by anthropogenic impact and climatic variations on the natural and built environment and on ecosystems and the services they provide to society. A distinctive element of the research activity on these topics, due to the obvious repercussions on the Department's territory of reference, is the special attention paid to the mountain environment and its multiple risk factors connected to extreme weather events (floods and hydrogeological instability), according to a quantitative approach oriented both to basic aspects and to modelling aimed at defence management and the design of related works.