Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nejc Bezak

Personal information

Date of Birth: 20.06.1988
Nationality: Slovenian
Email: nejc.bezak@fgg.uni-lj.si
Phone: +386 1 425 42 07
ResearchGate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Nejc_Bezak
Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.si/citations?user=j6fuc6gAAAAJ&hl=sl&oi=ao
Contact Info: Chair of Hydrology and Hydraulic Engineering, Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering, University of Ljubljana & UNESCO Chair on Water-related Disaster Risk Reduction: Jamova 2, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

Current position

  • Associate Professor at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering, Chair of Hydrology and Hydraulic Engineering & UNESCO Chair on Water-related Disaster Risk Reduction (2024-present).

Past positions

  • Young Researcher and PhD student at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering, Chair of Hydrology and Hydraulic Engineering (2012-2016).
  • Researcher at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering, Chair of Hydrology and Hydraulic Engineering (2016-2017).
  • Assistant at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering, Chair of Hydrology and Hydraulic Engineering (2017-2019).
  • Assistant Professor at the University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering, Chair of Hydrology and Hydraulic Engineering &UNESCO Chair on Water-related Disaster Risk Reduction (2019-2023).

Education

  • PhD at the Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering (University of Ljubljana) in 2016 (Title: Fluvial transport of suspended sediments related to other hydrological processes).
  • Graduate Diploma in Civil Engineering at the Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering (University of Ljubljana) in 2012 (Title: Flood frequency analysis with peaks over threshold method and annual maximum series method).

Awards

  • Best Diploma Thesis award (Prešernova Nagrada award) for the Graduate Diploma Thesis in 2012 (Issued by University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering).
  • Award for best achievements in the field of hydrology for the year 2013 in Slovenia (Issued by Slovenian Association of Geodesy and Geophysics-IUGG member).
  • Co-supervisor of Manca Petek thesis that received University of Ljubljana Prešernova nagrada in 2018 (Issued by University of Ljubljana).
  • Student award “Best teacher” at the Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering in year 2018 (Issued by student council of the Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering).
  • World Federation of Scientists scholarship for research work in 2019/2020.
  • EUTOPIA Young Leaders Academy Member (2021-2023).
  • Danubius Young Scientist Awardee 2021 (Issued by Federal Ministry Republic of Austria Education, Science and Research).
  • Award for outstanding research and teaching achievements for young university teachers and researchers in 2021 (Issued by the University of Ljubljana).

Projects (Leader)

  • Research project: Microscale influence on runoff (Bilateral research project between Slovenia and Hungary) (Total budget: 211,000 EUR, Slovenian budget: 99,000 EUR).
  • Research project: Evaluation of hazard-mitigating hybrid infrastructure under climate change scenarios (Bilateral research project between Slovenia and Czechia) (Total budget: 564,000 EUR, Slovenian budget: 300,000 EUR).
  • Applied project: Sediment management in the Sava River basin in Slovenia (Slovenian Water Agency, project leader at Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering) (Faculty budget: 73,000 EUR).
  • Applied project: Determination of the design hydrographs for the planning of the hydropower plants in the middle Sava River reach (HSE Invest) (Total budget: 45,000 EUR).
  • Bilateral research project between Germany and Slovenia: Validation of precipitation reanalysis products for rainfall-runoff modelling in Slovenia (PRE-PROMISE) (Total budget: 15,000 EUR).
  • Bilateral project between China and Slovenia “Evaluation of intelligent learning techniques for prediction of hydrological data: useful case studies in China and Slovenia” (Total budget: 15,000 EUR).
  • Interreg TORRENT project (Leader at Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering) (Faculty budget: 57,400 EUR).
Total budget earned: approx. 980 000 EUR

 

Projects (Team member)

  • Applied project: Hydrological investigation of the August 2023 extreme flood event.
  • Research project: Hydro-ecologically based operation of run-of-river reservoirs for effective sediment management and energy production.
  • Research project: Evaluation of the impact of rainfall interception on soil erosion.
  • Applied project: Development of the MethODology to identify potEntial modes of dam failuRe aNd to estImate Structural hEalth of water management Dams (MODERNISED).
  • Applied project: Development of a methodology for assessing the extent of erosion processes and mapping the fluvial erosion hazard in areas of inland water and sea flooding.
  • Research project: Deciphering the sensitivity of rock faces to climatic changes and freeze-thaw cycles in permafrost-free regions.
  • Applied project: Estimation of the erosion and sediment transport for the Suhorica reservoir (IBE Company).
  • Applied project: Development of the methodology for the flood hydrograph calculation using extreme precipitation events (Slovenian Research Agency and Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning).
  • Applied project: Funded from the Ljubljansko barje (Ljubljana moors) Natural Park with aim to reconstruct the natural retention reservoirs Draga.
  • Applied project: Funded from the Slovenian Environment Agency about future groundwater status in Slovenia using the mGrowa model.
  • Bilateral project: University of Ljubljana-KU Leuven: Interception experimentation and modelling for enhanced impact analysis of nature based solutions (CELSA project).
  • Research project: Erosional processes on coastal flysch cliffs and their risk assessment.
  • Applied project: Investigation of the landslides and debris flows risk in the Koroška Bela area (applied project together with Geological Survey of Slovenia).
  • Research project: DAREFORT project (http://www.interreg-danube.eu/approved-projects/dareffort).
  • Research project: SedAlp project (part of the Alpine Space program): http://www.sedalp.eu/.
  • Research project: Flood analysis using Copula functions.
  • Research project: Modelling hydrologic response of nonhomogeneous catchments.
  • Research project: Studying landslide movements from source areas to zone of deposition using a deterministic approach.
  • Research project: Recognition of potentially hazardous torrential fans using geomorphometric methods and simulating fan formation.
  • Bilateral project: Germany-Slovenia Stochastic rainfall models for rainfall erosivity evaluation.
  • Applied project: Development of a unified method for estimation of benefits of constructional and non-constructional measures for flood risk reduction.
  • Research project: Cooperation (without funding) in SWITCH-ON project (e.g., http://dl-ng005.xtr.deltares.nl/view/40/).
  • Applied project: Flood safety in the Savinja catchment (hydrology/hydraulics study).

Teaching expertise

  • PhD student supervisor: Mark Bryan Alivio, Yusufa Ogunfolaji.
  • PhD student committee member: Martina Lacko (University of Zagreb), Marcos Alexopoulos (National Technical University of Athens).
  • M.S. thesis advisor: 11 students; M.S. thesis co-advisor: 6 students; B.S. thesis advisor: 6 students; B.S. thesis co-advisor: 9 students; diploma thesis co-adviser: 2 students.
  • From 2012 I have been teaching hydrology related courses at different levels (Hydrology, Hydrological Modelling, Engineering Hydraulics, Drainage and Irrigation, River Training, Ecohydrology, Water Management, Water structures, Measurements in Hydrology, Water policy, Torrent, erosion, rockfall and avalanche control, R in water management, Nature-based solutions and floods in the perspective of climate change).
  • Presentation at the R workshop organized in the scope of the Danube Conference XXIX: http://www.danubeconference.eu/workshop.php.
  • Presentation at the e-master: eMWRE.
  • Organization of the HydRoData summer school in years 2023 and 2024 (https://www.unesco-floods.eu/unesco-floods-summer-school/).

Reviewer

  • More than 70 different journals including: Journal of Hydrology (2015-present), Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (2016-present), Hydrological Processes (2018-present), Science of the Total Environment (2018-present), Environmental Modelling and Software (2018-present), WIREs Water (2019-present), Earth’s Future (2020-present), Earth System Science Data (2021-present), Catena (2021-present), Landslides (2022-present), Geomorphology (2022-present), Scientific Reports (2022-present), Earth-Science Reviews (2022-present), Water Resources Research (2022-present), Environmental Research Letters (2022-present), Climatic Change (2022-present), Geophysical Research Letters (2023-present), Land Degradation & Development (2023-present), Stochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment (2024-present), Scientific Data (2024-present), Communications Earth & Environment (2024-present).
  • Multiple funding agencies including: National Fund for Scientific and Technological Research (FONDECYT-Chile), European Research Council (ERC), NWO Talent Programme (Veni programme), The Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding (UEFISCDI, Romania).

Leading and organization experiences:

  • Leader of WG 2.5 Acceptance of Nature-based solutions & their implementation in guidelines of the IAHS HELPING initiative: https://iahs.info/Initiatives/Scientific-Decades/helping-working-groups/.
  • Topic editor of the EU Soil Observatory (EUSO) Soil Erosion workshop 2023 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2024.118319).
  • Content Administrator of the Water Science and Environmental Engineering master study programme (Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering, University of Ljubljana) (2021-present).
  • Member of the editorial board of the Zbornik radova (issued by Faculty of Civil Engineering, University of Rijeka, https://zr.gradri.uniri.hr/index.php/zr).
  • Steering Committee member of the Land4Flood Conference 2023: https://bbv.raumplanung.tu-dortmund.de/research/projects/land4flood/.
  • Guest editor: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci/special_issues/P8V19M188N.
  • Guest editor: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/land/special_issues/Y44T6HSF8D.
  • IWRA Land4flood Task Force Bureau member: https://www.iwra.org/land4flood-taskforce/.
  • COST 16209 “Natural Flood Retention on Private Land” (http://www.land4flood.eu/coregroup/) Work Group 1 (WG1) leader.
  • Host of 2 Short Term Scientific Missions (STSM) (COST Land4flood and COST Damocles).
  • Topic Editorial Board Member of the Applied Sciences journal.
  • Guest editor of the Applied Sciences special issue: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci/special_issues/soilerosion_model.
  • Guest editor of the Applied Sciences special issue: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci/special_issues/hydrologic_model.
  • COST 17109 “Damocles” 20136 “OpenSense” action MC member.
  • Co-chair of EGU 2018 session entitled Innovation in Geoscience, Hydrology and Engineering Education.
  • Scientific and Organization committee member of the World Construction Forum (WCF): https://www.wcf2019.org/.
  • Scientific and organization committee member of the 4th World Landslide Forum (WLF4): https://www.wlf4.org/hosts/.
  • Scientific committee member of the 11th, 10th and 9th Conference on Interdisciplinary Problems in Environmental Protection and Engineering (EKO-DOK: http://www.eko-dok.pl/en/).
  • Scientific committee member of the 2nd International Conference on the Sustainable Energy and Environmental Development (SEEDCONFERENCE: http://www.seed.ise.org.pl/).
  • Student representative at the doctoral study council (2014-2015).
  • Acta hydrotechnica technical editor (2014-present).
  • Cooperation in the development of the experiment Still Water Tear Away Bridges that is available to the visitors of the House of Experiments in Ljubljana and was jointly prepared by the House of experiments and Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering (UL): http://www.sos112.si/slo/tdocs/ujma/2016/284-290.pdf.
  • Organization of the summer school for primary school and secondary school students that was organized by the Faculty of Civil and Geodetic Engineering (UL) and where participants were introduced with environmental processes and measurements of these processes.
  • EGU2023 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation judge (invited).
  • Development of R Shiny apps: https://vinokurov.shinyapps.io/primer-ba/ and https://vinokurov.shinyapps.io/primer-ma/.

Membership

  • Slovenian Association of Geodesy and Geophysics (SZGG).
  • IAHS (International Association of Hydrological Sciences).
  • EGU (European Geosciences Union).
  • Network of Experimental and Representative Basins (ERB).
  • International Water Resources Association (IWRA).

Invited talks and meetings

  • Invited lecture at the UNESCO Chair 2020 Field School on Geonvironmental Disaster Reduction in Shimane University, Japan.
  • Solicited abstract in session “Knowledge transfer to society: soil education and evidence syntheses in agro-environmental sciences” that was part of the European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly 2020.
  • Invitation to participate at the “Global Soil Erosion Meeting and Land Degradation Indicators” expert meeting that is organized by the Joint Research Centre (JRC), European Soil Data Centre (ESDAC).
  • Invited lecture at 5th ReSyLAB on Landslide Modelling & Applications.

List of publications and citations

  • Full list of publications indexed in Web of Science can be found here: Web of Science.
  • Full list of publications indexed in Scopus can be found here: SCOPUS.
  • Full list of publications indexed in Google Scholar can be found here: Google Scholar.
  • Author of Textbook R software in Hydrology: Zenodo and UNESCO Chair. Slovene version: E-book with solutions of exercises.

Top 5 selected publications:

  • BORRELLI, Pasquale, et al. 2021. Soil erosion modelling: A global review and statistical analysis. Science of The Total Environment, doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.146494.
  • BEZAK, Nejc, et al. 2021. Soil erosion modelling: a bibliometric analysis. Environmental research: multidisciplinary journal of environmental sciences, ecology, and public health, doi: 10.1016/j.envres.2021.111087.
  • CHEN, Walter, HUANG, Yu-Chieh, LEBAR, Klaudija, BEZAK, Nejc. 2023. A systematic review of the incorrect use of an empirical equation for the estimation of the rainfall erosivity around the globe. Earth-science reviews. doi: 10.1016/j.earscirev.2023.104339.
  • BEZAK, Nejc, BORRELLI, Pasquale, PANAGOS, Panos. 2022. Exploring the possible role of satellite-based rainfall data in estimating inter- and intra-annual global rainfall erosivity. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, doi: 10.5194/hess-26-1907-2022.
  • BEZAK, Nejc, JEMEC AUFLIČ, Mateja, MIKOŠ, Matjaž. 2019. Application of hydrological modelling for temporal prediction of rainfall-induced shallow landslides. Landslides : Journal of the international consortium on landslides, doi: 10.1007/s10346-019-01169-9.

Citations overview (29th of October, 2024):

  • WOS: 84 records, 1,953 citations, H-Index: 23.
  • Scopus: 88 records, 2,234 citations, 24 H-Index: 24.
  • Google Scholar: 3,155 citations, H-Index: 27.

 

Research activity and citations from Dimensions tool:

Temporal and spatial citations from Web of Science: