ENAC Seminar Series by Dr Sebastian Schwindt
Event details
| Date | 15.03.2023 |
| Hour | 09:00 › 10:00 |
| Speaker | Dr. Sebastian Schwindt |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
| Event Language | English |
09:00 – 10:00 – Dr Sebastian Schwindt
Group leader, University of Stuttgart, DE
The Connectivity of Hydraulic Systems: Principles, Challenges, and Innovations
The connectivity of water resources in space and time is crucial for maintaining and recreating a sustainable environment with high biodiversity. Operational corridors connecting hydraulic systems in three spatial dimensions also enable the fourth connectivity dimension, which is time. Historically, engineering practices have disrupted connectivity, putting at risk ecosystem services such as the provisioning of clean water, mitigation of flood risk, or soil conservation. Today, hydraulic engineering aspires to evolve into a discipline that repairs past damage, restores connectivity, and helps reduce the impact of climate change on the environment.
This lecture will discuss the principles of vertical and longitudinal connectivity disruptions, how connectivity agents can be measured or modelled, and the lecture will offer perspectives on solutions. Cutting-edge fieldwork technology, for instance, provides insights into the composition of the surface of a riverbed and its connection with the subsurface. Fieldwork data also inform computer models, such as deterministic or data-driven algorithms. Computer models produce almost complete pictures of processes in hydraulic systems, and artificial intelligence can make these models more accurate and highly efficient. High computing accuracy and efficiency are particularly necessary for simulating and developing strategies to preserve the capacity of water storage resources and mitigate potential climate-change-driven hazards. Ultimately, this lecture will feature a promenade through approaches to reconnecting impaired hydraulic systems with application examples and will pinpoint critical future challenges.
Short bio:
Since 2020, Dr sc. (PhD) Sebastian Schwindt (he/him) leads the hydro-morphodynamics modelling group at the Institute for Modelling Hydraulic and Environmental Systems (IWS) at the University of Stuttgart, Germany. With his group, he develops data streams for bringing real-world ground truth into computer models to understand and re-engineer four-dimensional connectivity. Their fieldwork and computer models embrace freshly developed devices for sediment analysis and novel data-driven techniques to inform deterministic numerical models and prepare hydraulic systems for a changing climate. The hydro-morphodynamics research group is currently attracting attention for its strong commitment to Open Science on hydro-informatics.com and pioneering research on riverbed clogging through international collaboration.
Before 2020, Sebastian Schwindt completed his Bachelor's (2010) and Master's (2012) studies in Environmental Engineering at the Technical University of Munich, Germany. After a detour into the private hydropower sector, he accomplished his Civil Engineering doctorate on sediment-laden flow-structure interactions through physical laboratory experiments at EPFL in 2017. Afterwards, he pursued postdoctoral research at the University of California, Davis, USA, with an emphasis on the lateral connectivity and ecohydraulic enhancement of California’s Yuba River based on remote sensing (lidar) imagery and numerical models.
Group leader, University of Stuttgart, DE
The Connectivity of Hydraulic Systems: Principles, Challenges, and Innovations
The connectivity of water resources in space and time is crucial for maintaining and recreating a sustainable environment with high biodiversity. Operational corridors connecting hydraulic systems in three spatial dimensions also enable the fourth connectivity dimension, which is time. Historically, engineering practices have disrupted connectivity, putting at risk ecosystem services such as the provisioning of clean water, mitigation of flood risk, or soil conservation. Today, hydraulic engineering aspires to evolve into a discipline that repairs past damage, restores connectivity, and helps reduce the impact of climate change on the environment.
This lecture will discuss the principles of vertical and longitudinal connectivity disruptions, how connectivity agents can be measured or modelled, and the lecture will offer perspectives on solutions. Cutting-edge fieldwork technology, for instance, provides insights into the composition of the surface of a riverbed and its connection with the subsurface. Fieldwork data also inform computer models, such as deterministic or data-driven algorithms. Computer models produce almost complete pictures of processes in hydraulic systems, and artificial intelligence can make these models more accurate and highly efficient. High computing accuracy and efficiency are particularly necessary for simulating and developing strategies to preserve the capacity of water storage resources and mitigate potential climate-change-driven hazards. Ultimately, this lecture will feature a promenade through approaches to reconnecting impaired hydraulic systems with application examples and will pinpoint critical future challenges.
Short bio:
Since 2020, Dr sc. (PhD) Sebastian Schwindt (he/him) leads the hydro-morphodynamics modelling group at the Institute for Modelling Hydraulic and Environmental Systems (IWS) at the University of Stuttgart, Germany. With his group, he develops data streams for bringing real-world ground truth into computer models to understand and re-engineer four-dimensional connectivity. Their fieldwork and computer models embrace freshly developed devices for sediment analysis and novel data-driven techniques to inform deterministic numerical models and prepare hydraulic systems for a changing climate. The hydro-morphodynamics research group is currently attracting attention for its strong commitment to Open Science on hydro-informatics.com and pioneering research on riverbed clogging through international collaboration.
Before 2020, Sebastian Schwindt completed his Bachelor's (2010) and Master's (2012) studies in Environmental Engineering at the Technical University of Munich, Germany. After a detour into the private hydropower sector, he accomplished his Civil Engineering doctorate on sediment-laden flow-structure interactions through physical laboratory experiments at EPFL in 2017. Afterwards, he pursued postdoctoral research at the University of California, Davis, USA, with an emphasis on the lateral connectivity and ecohydraulic enhancement of California’s Yuba River based on remote sensing (lidar) imagery and numerical models.
Practical information
- General public
- Invitation required
- This event is internal
Organizer
- ENAC
Contact
- Cristina Perez