David Milan : Recent advances and application of new technologies in gravel-bed river science

On The January 25, 2021

10:00 to 12:00
Visio-conference

This presentation reviews the progress that has been made in monitoring sediment transport processes and morphological change in gravel-bed rivers over the last decade, and outlines how new technologies are being used in ongoing collaborative projects with EVS Lyon and INRAE Grenoble.

Gravel-bed rivers provide some of the most ecologically important habitat in the World. However, the historic management of river catchments including flow regulation, forestry, intensive agriculture, flood defence and channelisation, have damaged many of these habitats. Sustainable management and restoration of gravel-bed rivers requires a better understanding of the response of channel morphology to changes in flow and sediment transport, caused by poor river management, and needs to factor in the influence of climate change.
The past decade has seen radical advances in technologies that may be used to monitor processes in gravel-bed rivers. In particular remote sensing approaches provide very detailed information on morphological changes from the scale of a single grain to the river catchment. Technologies also now permit real-time monitoring of sediment transport.



David Milan is a Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography at the University of Hull, UK; and a 2020-2021 fellow of the Collegium de Lyon.