Andrea has more than 25 years’ international experience in geologic studies for large civil works, especially in the field of dam design and hydropower.

A graduate in Geological Sciences from the University of Florence in 1991, Andrea acquired his knowledge in the geology field mainly on site, working together with the renowned geologist Alessandro Cacciarini (35 years’ experience as a geologist, hydrogeologist and photo-interpreter), former collaborator of SP particularly in the field of dam design.

Andrea began his collaboration with Studio Pietrangeli in 1997 but joined definitively in 2003 and since then, thanks to his great skills and dynamic outlook, he has become SP’s chief geologist, responsible for the geological studies of most of the firm’s main dam design.

He has directed all the geological studies for the recently completed dam design projects, as Gibe III (1870 MW) on Omo River and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance (6000 MW) under construction on the Blue Nile, both in Ethiopia.

Always ready and willing to take part in missions anywhere he is needed, he loves mainly exploring unspoiled sites to study the suitability and the feasibility of the dam design projects. In this way he manages to combine his two passions: outdoor adventure and geology.

An expert in dam design, Andrea produces accurate, customised geological studies of the sites and personally prepares the foundation mapping for dams, hydropower plants and appurtenant works. Furthermore, he carefully studies and prepares the geological and geotechnical characterization of any excavation fronts, leading a team of brilliant geologists trained by himself.

A passionate researcher, Andrea has gained extensive experience in dam design through surface geological surveys, classification and characterization of soil and rock materials, data reduction for numerous geotechnical laboratory tests, planning and supervision of geological investigations, and seismic hazard assessments.

His remarkable expertise covers all the fields of geological and geotechnical studies applied to dam design and hydropower plants, including hydro-geology, structural geology, engineering geology, photo-interpretation, cartography, tele-detection of satellite imagery and onsite verification of satellite interpretation.