Hydroecology and sustainable Floodplain Management – The Sandey floodplain as model ecosystem
Event details
| Date | 25.02.2014 |
| Hour | 16:15 › 17:15 |
| Speaker | Dr Michael Doering, Aquatic Ecology, EAWAG, CH |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
Abstract:
The Sandey floodplain in the Urbach valley (Canton Bern) is a floodplain of national importance, still retaining heterogeneous habitat structures and a dynamic discharge regime. However, this diversity is constrained by hydropower production, extensive agriculture and numerous levees for flood protection in the active floodplain.
The project Hydroecology and sustainable Floodplain Management was founded in collaboration with different interest groups (scientists, hydropower producers, cantonal and federal agencies) and combines research and practice. The aim of the project is to develop and to apply integrative methods to evaluate, to predict and to monitor floodplain development at the landscape scale. The concept links meaningful and simple applicable indicators, digital elevation models, hydraulic and hydrological discharge modelling and remote sensing. This combination allows us to quantify the impact of historical interventions and to predict the effectiveness of actions such as the removal of dams to ecology, flood protection and land use. Further, it includes a monitoring program to assess the impact of restoration actions at the long term. Thus, this approach considers socio-economic as well as ecological interests for an effective planning, evaluation and adaptation of restoration actions and intents to serve as a framework for an adaptive, integrative and sustainable river and floodplain engineering and management.
The talk will provide an overview of the overall project with a focus on ecological engineering and discuss its potential for practical application.
Short biography:
Michael Doering studied Geography with specialization in Landscape ecology and GIS. He did his PhD in structural and functional relationships in a large gravel bed river (Tagliamento NE Italy). During the past years he was coordinating an Interreg project on water scarcity in the Alps and is developing an applied research program on “Hydroecology and floodplain sustainability” involving national and international research groups and stakeholders in practice. The project is partly implemented into the recently started national research program “Wasserbau und Ökologie” of the Federal Office for the Environment (Bafu) and in close collaboration with institutes of the ETH domain (WSL, EPFL and VAW) as well as with stakeholders from different application areas such as hydropower producers, Federal and Cantonal agencies and NGOs. Further, he is involved in a long term program on the effects of experimental flooding on streams downstream of reservoirs at the river Spöl in the Swiss National Park. The main focus of these projects is to assess, evaluate and predict the consequences of human impacts and revitalization (qualitatively and quantitatively) at the landscape scale in rivers and floodplains.
The Sandey floodplain in the Urbach valley (Canton Bern) is a floodplain of national importance, still retaining heterogeneous habitat structures and a dynamic discharge regime. However, this diversity is constrained by hydropower production, extensive agriculture and numerous levees for flood protection in the active floodplain.
The project Hydroecology and sustainable Floodplain Management was founded in collaboration with different interest groups (scientists, hydropower producers, cantonal and federal agencies) and combines research and practice. The aim of the project is to develop and to apply integrative methods to evaluate, to predict and to monitor floodplain development at the landscape scale. The concept links meaningful and simple applicable indicators, digital elevation models, hydraulic and hydrological discharge modelling and remote sensing. This combination allows us to quantify the impact of historical interventions and to predict the effectiveness of actions such as the removal of dams to ecology, flood protection and land use. Further, it includes a monitoring program to assess the impact of restoration actions at the long term. Thus, this approach considers socio-economic as well as ecological interests for an effective planning, evaluation and adaptation of restoration actions and intents to serve as a framework for an adaptive, integrative and sustainable river and floodplain engineering and management.
The talk will provide an overview of the overall project with a focus on ecological engineering and discuss its potential for practical application.
Short biography:
Michael Doering studied Geography with specialization in Landscape ecology and GIS. He did his PhD in structural and functional relationships in a large gravel bed river (Tagliamento NE Italy). During the past years he was coordinating an Interreg project on water scarcity in the Alps and is developing an applied research program on “Hydroecology and floodplain sustainability” involving national and international research groups and stakeholders in practice. The project is partly implemented into the recently started national research program “Wasserbau und Ökologie” of the Federal Office for the Environment (Bafu) and in close collaboration with institutes of the ETH domain (WSL, EPFL and VAW) as well as with stakeholders from different application areas such as hydropower producers, Federal and Cantonal agencies and NGOs. Further, he is involved in a long term program on the effects of experimental flooding on streams downstream of reservoirs at the river Spöl in the Swiss National Park. The main focus of these projects is to assess, evaluate and predict the consequences of human impacts and revitalization (qualitatively and quantitatively) at the landscape scale in rivers and floodplains.
Practical information
- General public
- Free
- This event is internal
Organizer
- EESS - IIE
Contact
- Prof. Alfred Johny Wüest, APHYS & Margaretha Kamprad Chair