I’m Francesco Sapino, a postdoc researcher at USAL. I obtained a bachelor’s degree in Energetic Engineering at the Polytechnic of Turin and a master’s degree in Environmental Economics (with honors) at the University of Turin. My MSc thesis included a visiting period at the University of Salamanca (USAL) aimed to realize a microeconomic model to evaluate the impact of the water price reform proposed by the University of Turin and the Piedmont Region Authority. After the visiting period, I joined the research group led by Dionisio Pérez-Blanco at USAL where I started a Ph.D. in Economics. I successfully obtained my doctoral degree with the “international mention” and the highest qualification (summa cum laude). My Ph.D. thesis, titled “Sustainable water management in the agricultural sector under deep uncertainty”, develops a multisystem (hydro-economic) modeling framework that can advise and identify cost-effective and robust policies that reconcile public and private interests with collectively agreed environmental goals. During my Ph.D. I realized three visiting periods at the Polytechnic University of Valencia, at the IVM (Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam), and at Fondazione CMCC in Venice. I have also been selected to present my works at relevant international conferences (AGU Fall meeting 2019, 2021, and 2022, EGU General Assembly 2020, IAHR World congress 2022, and MedGU 2022).

From May 2019 I’m part of the AWARE research team, directed by C. Dionisio Pérez Blanco. My research is focused on coupling human and natural systems in modeling frameworks that can consider the co-evolution of the systems studied, to avoid unfavorable outcomes triggered by the possible two-way feedback between these systems. The modeling framework is applicable in different study cases (see my publications) to advise policies and evaluate the effect of water scarcity and management in the agricultural sector. The innovation proposed by our methodology is to consider the concept of deep uncertainty and therefore the use of multi-model ensemble, a technique to inform robust policies under uncertainty. I am also interested in behavioral economics and in the future, I would like to introduce the concept of this theory into agricultural modeling.

I’m also an amateur documentarist, with my Master’s colleagues I write and direct FEU, a short film presented in some film festivals in Italy and Europe.

I love nature, sports and arts