Although their presentations were not recorded, we are also grateful to our previous invited speakers as well. These include:
Tropical dams and river water quality: the Zambezi River-Kariba Dam system

Elisa Calamita
Ph.D. student at Institute of Biogeochemistry and Pollutant Dynamics, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Contact Information: elisa.calamita@usys.ethz.ch
Elisa graduated in Environmental
Engineering at the University of Trento (IT). Her Master thesis dealt
with the analysis and modelling of river thermal dynamics. After her
master, she worked at University of Trento as a scientific collaborator,
investigating lake surface thermal dynamics using remote sensing data.
She is currently a Ph.D. student at ETH Zurich, working on the impact of
dams on river water quality at low latitudes (DAFNE project https://dafne.ethz.ch/).
Abstract
The fast growing African population triggers a
rising demand of water, food and energy. Such needs lead to major anthropogenic
pressures on African River systems. Among others, the ongoing boom of dam
constructions will affect river water quantity and quality. In my current Ph.D.
project, we investigate the Zambezi River – Kariba Dam system: this case study
can help to shed some light on the water quality alteration by large dams in
tropical regions. In particular, we characterize Kariba Lake’s internal
stratification dynamics to understand how this man-made lentic system plays a
major role for the downstream Zambezi River’s thermal and oxygen regimes. In
this seminar I present some results of the Kariba Lake dynamics together with
the outcomes of our water quality monitoring campaign across the Zambezi River
Basin. Finally, I will discuss the relations between lake dynamics, dam
management and river water quality alterations.
Hydropower and local river water temperature dynamics: challenges and opportunities of a modelling approach

Dr Davide
Vanzo
Researcher
at the Surface Waters - Research and Management Department of the Swiss
Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag),
Switzerland.
Contact Information: davide.vanzo@eawag.ch
Dr
Davide Vanzo gained his Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering at the
University of Trento (IT), working on the modelling and quantification
of hydro- and thermopeaking alterations in rivers. He then joined the
Laboratory of Hydraulics, Hydrology and Glaciology of ETH Zurich (CH),
where he mainly focused on gravel-bed river morphodynamic modelling. At
Eawag he is investigating the water thermal heterogeneity in rivers
affected by hydropower production. His current research interests lie on
two main topics: first, the development and application of numerical
models for river eco-hydraulic problems such as pollutant and thermal
transport-dispersion. The second topic concerns with the development of
novel and efficient numerical solutions for the investigation of river
hydro-morphodynamic processes.
Abstract
Temperature
is a fundamental physical property of flowing waters and it plays a key role in
several ecological processes. Among others, it influences the rate of
biogeochemical processes, the behavior of macroinvertebrates, and it affects
different fish lifestages. Hydropower production might affect the natural
thermal regime at different spatial and temporal scales. In particular, the
sub-daily flow fluctuations due to hydropower production (hydropeaking) can
also alter the river water temperature (thermopeaking). Understanding and
modelling the water temperature variability under hydropeaking conditions, can
positively contribute to a better characterization of physical habitat
dynamics. In this context, numerical models are valuable tools for the
assessment of water quality and ecosystem integrity. The exploitation of
depth-averaged two-dimensional (2D) models has grown rapidly in last decades:
however the routine application of 2D models for ecohydraulic investigations
can still be inhibited by numerical challenges, such as the computational costs
and the robustness in simulating unsteady, transient and shallow flows.
Forecasting climate change scenarios in Myanmar using MRI-AGCM3.2S
Dr Win
Win Zin
Professor,
Department of Civil Engineering, Yangon Technological University
Contact Information: winwinzin@ytu.edu.mm
Dr Win Win Zin graduated
as Civil Engineer at Yangon Technological University, Myanmar in 1987. She
received her Master degree from Karlsruhe University, Germany in 2000.
She got Ph.D degree (Sandwich) from Karlsurhe University and Yangon
Technological University in 2009. She is serving as a Professor at the
Department of Civil Engineering, Yangon Technological University. She is
enthusiastic in research and is conducting as a project leader with
international collaboration. She is conductingacting projects with Delft
University of Technology, IHE (Delft),University of Bonn, Kiel University and
University of Tokyo. Currently she is conducting research on flood inundation
mapping and climate change. Apart from her academic duties, she is positioned
as member of Executive Committee, Myanmar National Committee on Large Dams
(MNCOLD) as well.
Abstract
In the present study, MRI-AGCM3.2S was used to
simulate both the present-day climate (1981-2005) and projected climate for
near future (2020-2044) and far future (2075-99) under the IPCC A1B scenario.
MRI-AGCM3.2S is developed by the Meteorological Research Institute (MRI) and
Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA). In this research, 84 stations are considered
to calculate the rainfall percentage departure of Myanmar. 43 stations are
considered to calculate the temperature change of Myanmar. The bias-correction
was performed using two different techniques: linear scaling and lumped
quantile mapping. Bias correction is capable of improving the GCM-simulated
outputs to a certain degree. When only few stations are located within the
region, these data sets do not capture the realistic distribution in this large
area. In that case, it is difficult to obtain actual distribution from very
limited number of observation. It is seen observed that lumped quantile mapping
method is better than linear scaling method. Performance of bias correction was
quantified by coefficient of determination (R2) and root mean square error (RMSE).
It was seen that maximum temperature will increase 0.2 °C to 1.6 °C and 0.7 °C
to 3.6 °C during (2020-2044 ) and ( 2075-2099), respectively. In some regions
of Myanmar, rainfall is expected to increase in 2030s, and in most regions,
rainfall is expected to increase in 2080s. Projections of future climates are
the basis for climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction planning.
Survey of the combination of sediment replenishment with an artificial flood as a measure to increase habitat suitability

Dr. Severin
Stahly
Mr.
Severin Stahly is currently a PhD at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne
(Switzerland). He graduated as Environmental Engineer at the Swiss Federal
Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) in 2015. In his bachelor studies he
followed the major Renewable Energy Technologies and in the master studies
Hydraulic Engineering and Urban Water Management. He conducted his master
thesis at the University of Auckland (New Zealand) comparing sampling
methodologies of grain size distributions, using traditional pebble count and
semi-automatized photo-sieving methods. After completing the master studies he
moved to Lausanne where he started a PhD at the Laboratory of Hydraulic
Constructions (LCH) at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL). In
his PhD he has been focusing on the further development of the
hydro-morphological index of diversity (HMID), resulting in the definition of a
holistic field sampling procedure. More recently, he has diversified his
research area by incorporating the study of artificial flood events downstream
of dams and the effect of sediment replenishment and their impact to restore
the diversity of hydraulic habitats and geomorphological patterns. By October 2018 he has a visiting PhD at IHE Delft Institute for Water
Education at the Department of Water Science and Engineering collaborating with
Prof. Mario Franca regarding ecological response of artificial floods.
Abstract
Floodplains
downstream of a dam, where the natural flow regime is replaced by a constant
residual flow discharge, often lack sediment supply and periodic inundation due
to the absence of natural flood events. In the work presented, a flood with a
one-year return period was released from an upstream reservoir combined with
downstream sediment replenishment. The aim was to enhance hydraulic
habitat conditions in the Sarine river downstream of the Rossens dam in
Switzerland where a constant residual discharge of about 3 m3/s
is released since the dam construction in 1948.
A novel configuration of sediment
replenishment was applied and consisted of four sediment deposits distributed
as alternate bars along the river banks, a solution which was previously tested
in laboratory. The morphological evolution of the replenishment and of the
downstream riverbed were surveyed including pre- and post-flood topography. The
hydro-morphological index of diversity (HMID) was used to evaluate the quality
of riverine habitats in the analyzed reach. It is based on the variability of
flow depth and flow velocity. The combination of the artificial flood with
sediment replenishment proved to be a robust measure to supply a river with
sediment and to enhance habitat suitability. As a comparison, the same pre- and
post-flood analyses were conducted at the Spol river where artificial floods
have been released periodically for more than 18 years, allowing the comparison
of two river systems with a different management practice.
Dynamics of gravity currents flowing up a slope

Dr. Claudia
Adduce
Associate
Professor Department of Engineering Roma Tre University
Via Vito Voterra 62, 00146 Rome, Italy
claudia.adduce@uniroma3.it
Claudia Adduce is Associate Professor at the Department of
Engineering of Roma Tre University (Italy), where she completed her PhD in
Civil Engineering in 2004. She received the Arthur Thomas Ippen Award 2019 from
IAHR. During her professional career, she spent invited research stays as
Visiting Professor at several universities and research institutions as the
Laboratory of Geophysical and Industrial Flows (France), Instituto Superior
Tecnico (Portugal), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (USA) and Ecole
Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (Switzerland). Her research interests and
contributions are in laboratory and numerical modelling of stratified flows as
gravity currents and internal solitary waves, local scouring due to turbulent
water jets, eddies interacting with seamounts and islands, sloshing due to
stratified fluids. Her research has been published in 30 journal papers with
862 citations and h-index of 17. She has been the leader and coordinator of
several international and national projects. She is member of the Editorial
Board of Environmental Fluid Mechanics and Mathematical Problems in Engineering
and she is member of the Leadership Team of the IAHR-Europe Regional Division
and the Leadership Team of the IAHR Experimental Methods and Instrumentation
Committee.
Abstract
Gravity
currents are flows, generated by a density difference between two fluids,
caused by gradients of temperature, salinity or particles in suspension.
Gravity currents can occur both in nature as oceanic overflows, sea breeze
fronts, avalanches, turbidity currents, and in industrial processes as
accidental gaseous releases or buoyancy-driven ventilation processes.
These currents flow over complex boundaries as salt wedges occurring in
estuaries, propagating upslope over a complex bathymetry and affecting
the river flow, sea breeze penetrating inland and interacting with an
upsloping topography and the gravity currents flowing up a slope and
produced by internal solitary waves breaking at the continental shelf.
Along their path, gravity currents entrain ambient fluid with a decrease
in density. The presence of a bottom upslope can affect the interfacial
mixing with implications on sediment transport. Numerical models not
resolving small-scale mixing processes use entrainment parameterizations
affecting the evolution of gravity currents and need small-scale
experiments as benchmark to reproduce interfacial mixing. To this
purpose, a series of laboratory and numerical experiments (LES)
simulating gravity currents flowing up a slope are performed.
Bridging disciplines to explore the water food energy nexus

Dr.
Caitlin Grady is currently an Assistant Professor of Civil and Environmental
Engineering and Research Associate in the Rock Ethics Institute at Penn State.
Previously she served as a Management Analyst and negotiator for the U.S.
Department of State, an Energy Policy Analyst for the U.S. Department of Energy
and a Legislative Assistant for The U.S. House of Representatives. She
received her bachelor’s degree from Virginia Tech in Science and Technology
Studies, and her master’s and doctoral degree from Purdue University in the
Agricultural and Biological Engineering Department and the School of Civil and
Environmental Engineering, respectively. Dr. Grady’s research interests revolve
around the transdisciplinary nature of water resources, particularly within the
water, energy, and food security international development community.
Abstract
Water, food, and energy security remain the top development challenges of
the decade, and perhaps the century. In recent decades, billions of
people have obtained access to more food, better nutrition, electricity,
improved water, and basic sanitation facilities worldwide. The negative
consequences of lack of resources are enormous and include environmental
degradation, political and economic insecurity, and social strife. On the
other side of the spectrum, resource over-extraction has the potential to cause
widespread interlinked climatological, human health, and global environmental
consequences.
This presentation will showcase boundary spanning research on quantifying
and understanding management strategies in the Water-Food-Energy Nexus.
First, this presentation will explore bridging disciplines using tools derived
from network theory and urban metabolism models to explore resource consumption
in 65 major U.S. cities. Beyond the United States we will also discuss
recent work on the next generation of a worldwide water, food, and energy
integrated framework seeking to understand the state of multiple resources to
improve resource management, economic outcomes, population livelihood, and
public health.
Multi-scale fluvial remote sensing: from large scale planning to restoration monitoring

Fluvial
Geomorphologist
Research Director at the National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS)
University of Lyon
Herve
Piegay, research director at the National Center of Scientific Research, got
his Ph.D. in 1995 on the interactions between riparian vegetation and channel
geomorphology. Since 1995 he is continuing his studies at the University of
Lyon (Ecole Normale Superieure of Lyon), France. He is a fluvial
geomorphologist involved in integrated sciences for rivers, strongly
interacting with hydraulic engineers, freshwater ecologists and practitioners
(Water Agencies, Regions, Ministry of Ecology, French agency for biodiversity,
Compagnie Nationale du Rhone, EDF). He is strongly involved in river
management, planning and restoration, developing methodological frameworks and
tools using GIS and remote sensing. He has contributed to more than 200 papers
in peer-review journals and book chapters and has coordinated several edited
books such as Tools in Fluvial Geomorphology – Handbook for ecologists and
practitioners with M.G. Kondolf (2003, 2015), Gravel-bed rivers 6 : From
process understanding to river restoration with H. Habersack and M. Rinaldi
(2007) or fluvial remote sensing for science and management with P. Carbonneau
(2012). He got in 2018 the Linton Award of the Bristish Society for
Geomorphology.
Abstract
Fluvial
remote sensing is becoming a very critical issue to better understand river
processes and changes, target management actions at regional scale, diagnose
river status and promote adaptive strategies through intensive channel
monitoring. A few examples from South-east France are introduced and discussed.
Sediments in suspension in a river, should they stay or should they go?

Carmelo Juez,
Researcher
Instituto Pirenaico de Ecologia, Consejo Superior de
Investigaciones Cientificas (IPE-CSIC), Campus de Aula Dei, Zaragoza,
Spain.
Email
address: carmelo.juez@ipe.csic.es
He graduated as Industrial Engineer at Universidad de Zaragoza (Spain)
in 2010. Afterwards, he conducted a Master degree in Fluid Mechanics, focusing
on computational fluid-dynamics techniques. In 2010, he joined the
Computational Hydraulics Group at Universidad de Zaragoza and he worked in both
research and consulting projects, as well as a software developer for
geomorphological flows (sediment transport in fluvial environments and landslides
in steep areas). Additionally, efficient computation with up-to-date
techniques, such as OMP parallelization and GPU, were also considered during
his work. Finally, he obtained his PhD degree at Universidad de Zaragoza in
2014 and he was a post-doctoral associate at the Universite Catholique de
Louvain (Belgium) prior to moving to Lausanne in 2015. His research at Ecole
Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (Switzerland) has been focused on assessing
the hydraulic and morphological impact of restoration activities in rivers
(e.g. bank lateral embayments or sediment replenishment). More recently, he has
diversified his research area by incorporating the study of urbanization
processes at the river basin scale. Urbanization processes imply changes in the
land use and ultimately, the alteration of the hydraulic and geomorphological
properties of the river basin.
Abstract
River restoration works often include measures
to promote morphological diversity and enhance habitat suitability. One of
these measures is the creation of macro-roughness elements, such as lateral
cavities and embayments, in the banks of channelized rivers. However, in flows
that are heavily charged with fine sediments in suspension, such as glacier-fed
streams and very low-gradient reaches of large catchment rivers, these lateral
cavities may trap these sediments.
Consequently, the morphological changes
may be affected, and the functionality of the restoration interventions may be
compromised. In this seminar, a research study will be presented that aimed at
evaluating the influence of these bank lateral embayments on the transport of
fine sediments in the main channel. Multiple laboratory tests with different
geometrical configurations of lateral embayments were tested with uniform flow
charged with sediments. Surface PIV, sediment samples and temporal turbidity
records were collected all through the experiments. The results of these
experiments led to identify the channel geometry and the shallowness of the flow
as the governing parameters of the sediment trapping efficiency of the bank
lateral embayments. Furthermore, the morphological resilience to flow
fluctuations of the fine sediment deposits settled inside the bank lateral
embayments was also assessed. It was observed that the morphological resilience
of the sediment deposits is strongly dependent on the flow field and the mass
exchange between the main channel and the lateral embayments. This mass
exchange is modulated by the geometry of the cavities and the magnitude of the
hydrographs applied. The presentation will conclude with a comparative study of
the performance of two numerical schemes based on the Shallow Water Equations:
a 1-st order numerical scheme and an arbitrary order WENO-ADER scheme. The results
obtained indicate that the 1-st order numerical scheme fails in reproducing the
complexity of the flow present in a channel with bank lateral embayments
(vortex shedding, gravitational waves) even when refining the mesh. On the
contrary, the high order numerical scheme can cope with such flow features and
it can thus be an attractive solution for modelling environmental flows in such
bank lateral embayments.
Turbidity currents: engineering and geological implications
Dr.
Sequeiros currently works in the Shell Integrated Gas team in Rijswijk within
the Metocean discipline. He has more than 10 years in the oil & gas and
dredging industry. He received his bachelor’s degree in civil and hydraulic
engineering from the National University of La Plata, Argentina. He has been
interested in gravity flows since completing his Doctorate at the of the
University of Illinois on sediment transport/erosion associated to turbidity
currents.
Abstract
Turbidity currents belong to the larger family of density currents, with the
presence of sediment held in suspension by fluid turbulence differentiating
them from other density currents driven by differences in temperature or
concentration of dissolved substances. The weight of the suspended particles
drives the water flow, instead of the water driving the sediment particles as
it is for example the case of sediment transport in rivers. They are arguably
the main mechanism of sediment transport from shallow to deep waters in
submarine environments, resulting in the incremental development of sedimentary
deposits called turbidites with potential for hydrocarbon reservoirs.
Additionally, the study of turbidity currents has significant application for
subsea and pipeline engineering as they can cause major damage to submarine
telecommunication cables, pipelines, instrumentation, and equipment.
Complex future: a story of water and the surfaces it shapes
Dr. Heide
Friedrich
Civil
and Environmental Engineering Department, Faculty of
Engineering, University of Auckland.
Heide
Friedrich leads the Water-worked Environments Research Group
(water.auckland.ac.nz) and is the Deputy Head (Research) in the Department of
Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Auckland, New Zealand.
She has over 15 years’ experience, both in industry and academia, having worked
and lived in Germany, Taiwan, UK, Australia and NZ. Her main research focus is
on studying the physical processes in natural aquatic environments, such as
rivers, and how water interacts with and shapes its surroundings.
Abstract
Historically,
hydraulic engineering was one of science’s leading edge disciplines. Design
standards have somewhat simplified the work of a hydraulic engineer in the last
century, but the fundamentals of hydraulic engineering are still governed by
extreme complexity. More recently, we have seen hydraulic engineering
laboratories moving away from the more traditional hydraulic structure
projects, to areas such as general fluid mechanics and ecohydraulics. Yet,
physical hydraulic modelling is also making a comeback in recent times. I
present, from a hydraulic engineering laboratory viewpoint, the change that is
presently taking place on how we study large-scale water resources processes,
thus tackling problems of vital importance to a prosperous society, often
associated with natural hazards, e.g. flood risk, river morphological changes,
tsunami resilience. I present work from my own research group to show the
challenges we deal with. Our future looks rosy, especially if we team up with
the various water-associated stakeholders.