Pertti Ala-aho

Ala-aho has dual appointment as a Tenure Track Professor funded by Maa- ja Vesitekniikan Tuki, and Academy of Finland Research Fellow.

Academy of Finland research fellow project (2022-2027) <<Correcting a bias undermining the global importance of snowmelt>> seeks to better understand the role of snowmelt for water resources. The project develops isotope hydrology methods to "fingerprint" and track the snowmelt water in the environment. The presently used snowmelt isotope fingerprints are smudgy and a poor representation of the actual snowmelt water. With improved methods Ala-aho aims to unravel how snowmelt contributes to "blue water", used by societies and "green water" used by the ecosystems.

The tenure track professor's research on <<Digitalization and Hydrological modeling>> aims to better use emerging and existing digital monitoring technologies in hydrological modeling. Currently, the vast digital datasets are underexploited in modeling frameworks. Ala-aho works to unlock the enormous potential in merging data and models for frameworks that allow better decision-making tools for society.