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VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Memento EPFL//
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SUMMARY:Floods in forested mountain rivers\, is it all clear water? The ro
 le of organic load in fluvial ecosystems
DTSTART:20170404T111500
DTEND:20170404T123000
DTSTAMP:20260406T144349Z
UID:c3d52174b3c545a45eef9a3a03cba1db478de1ff19828bd3ac0499bb
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Virginia Ruiz-Villanueva\nFloods are without doubt the most si
 gnificant natural hazard\, causing important damages and economic losses. 
 In mountains basins\, it is well known that rivers are not carrying just c
 lear water during floods\, but significant volume of sediment (both suspen
 ded and bedload)\, and in forested areas\, large amounts of instream wood 
 can be also transported. The transport and deposition of this organic load
  may result in an increased flood hazard (e.g.\, due to a reduction of the
  cross-sectional area\, backwater effect and overflow\, aggradation\, avul
 sion or scouring) as witnessed during the large floods in 2005 in Central 
 Switzerland. However\, instream wood is a key element of the fluvial ecosy
 stem\, an important physical component that impacts fluvial morphodynamics
  and enhances the ecological diversity of rivers. But\, unless inorganic s
 ediment\, organic load has not been present in our understanding of rivers
 \, although\, instream wood is an important driver of physical and biologi
 cal complexity\, and the interactions and feedbacks between wood\, water a
 nd sediment occur at all possible scales\, from one single log\, to the su
 b-reach\, segment up to the watershed scale. Thus the challenge is to find
  sustainable conditions that can maintain wood and the good ecological sta
 tus of rivers while minimizing the potential hazards. Therefore the quanti
 fication of the instream wood dynamics (i.e.\, wood recruitment from hills
 lopes and fluvial corridor\, transport\, deposition and remobilization) is
  crucial for understanding and managing rivers. Unfortunately\, wood in ri
 vers has not been frequently monitored or measured\, and very few direct o
 bservations and data series exist worldwide. This presentation will shortl
 y describe the processes involved in the instream wood dynamics\, drawing 
 analogies with inorganic sediment. Moreover\, the talk will show the most 
 recent techniques to quantify wood in rivers\, such as the use of unmanned
  aerial vehicles\, monitoring using video cameras or numerical modelling. 
 These techniques are now being used within the context of the WoodFlow (20
 15-2019\, founded by the Federal Office for the Environment) project in Sw
 itzerland. The purpose of this project is to develop the knowledge and met
 hods to analyse instream wood dynamics in Swiss rivers. This contribution 
 will present an overview of the project and some relevant preliminary resu
 lts.\n\nDr. Virginia Ruiz-Villanueva (born in Madrid\, Spain in 1981) is p
 ostdoctoral research associate at the University of Geneva (Institute for 
 Environmental Sciences) since 2016. She previously worked also as postdoct
 oral researcher at the University of Bern (2013-2016) and obtained her PhD
  at the University Complutense of Madrid (Spain) in 2013. She is fluvial g
 eomorphologist with special interests related to hydro-geomorphic processe
 s in general. A particular focus of her current research is dedicated to t
 he monitoring and modelling of instream wood and the analysis of its influ
 ence on floods and fluvial dynamics\, including river morphology and sedim
 ent transport. Moreover she is interested in the response of rivers to flo
 od events\, including the analysis and modelling of morphodynamics and geo
 morphic changes.
LOCATION:GC C2 413 https://plan.epfl.ch/theme/generalite_thm_v2?request_lo
 cale=en&room=gc%20c2%20413&domain=places&dim_floor=2&lang=en&dim_lang=en&b
 aselayer_ref=grp_backgrounds&tree_groups=centres_nevralgiques%2Cacces%2
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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