Conference Program

    General Sessions

    Theme 1. Ecohydraulics in practice: research and case studies on the practical aspects of river and floodplain management, restoration, planning, evaluation, and adaptive management, with specific sessions on:

    G1. Environmental flows

    G2. Restoring river channels

    G3. Riparian zone management and restoration

    G4. Floodplain rehabilitation

    G5. Fish passage and movement

    G6. Whole of catchment/river basin restoration

    G7. Planning and implementation processes

    G8. Any other aspect of ecohydraulics in practice

    Theme 2. Fundamentals of ecohydraulics: understanding, observing and modelling ecohydraulic patterns and processes, with specific sessions on:

    G9. Hydrology-ecology interactions

    G10. Hydraulics-ecology interactions

    G11. Vegetation and fluvial processes

    G12. Sediment-ecology interactions

    G13. Ice-ecology interactions

    G14. Water quality (including temperature)-ecology interactions

    G15. Dryland flow-ecology

    G16. Aquatic ecology

    G17. Estuarine and coastal ecohydraulics

    G18. Catchment-scale ecohydraulics

    G19. Surface-groundwater interactions

    G20. Ecohydraulic sensing and data analytics

    G21. Advances in habitat modelling

    G22. Understanding ecosystem services from aquatic systems

    G23. Human impacts on aquatic ecosystems

    G24. Any other aspect of fundamental ecohydraulics


    Special Sessions

    S1. Life Cycle Modelling in Aquatic Systems
    Convenors: Thom Hardy
    This topical area will highlight the use of emerging life cycle modeling is assessing environmental flow regimes.  Emphasis will be placed on integration of ecohydraulics and ecohydrology for simulating population level responses to changes in flow regimes and include other factors such as water quality, water temperature, predator-prey dynamics, migration, etc.

    S2. Ecohydraulics in multi-directional flow
    Convenors: Maike Paul and Ellis Penning
    We anticipate presentations that address the effect of submerged or emergent vegetation on waves as well as papers that evaluate the effects and possible stresses of waves on biota either species specific or for entire ecosystems. The session would be explicitly open to studies from both fresh and salt water systems. In both systems very similar ecohydraulics questions arise, but the scientific communities working on these systems are not very well linked as historically they come from different scientific disciplines. However, the proposed session could provide a much needed platform for exchange. Moreover, studies that address hybrid systems such as estuaries, where flow and waves co-occur on a regular basis, are welcome.

    S3. Environmental flows from catchment to coast
    Convenors: Ellis Penning and Maike Paul
    Altered flow regimes not only affect riverine systems, but also have a significant impact on estuarine and other downstream ecosystems. Alterations in flow regimes of riverine systems lead to changes in sediment budget dynamics, water quality and estuarine and coastal ecosystem functioning. This session aims to link the flow regimes set for riverine systems to the impact this altered discharge also has on the estuarine systems in all its aspects. We welcome both fundamental and applied studies that address processes along the whole catchment in an integrated way, with an emphasis on the implications of altered discharge, sediment and water quality dynamics on the full ecosystem functioning.

    S4. Physical modelling of ecohydraulic interactions
    Convenors: Robert Thomas, Heide Friedrich and Marco Ghisalberti
    The last decade has seen a considerable rise in interest in the interactions among fluid flows, flora and fauna. Plants and animals that were previously modelled as passive or merely reactionary elements of an aquatic environment are now viewed as active agents in modifying flows of water and sediment and, through this, influencing larger-scale landscape evolution. This realization is undoubtedly a function of the improved spatio-temporal resolution of flow and topographic measurements in the field and flume, but significant challenges still remain. In this session, we seek to bring together scientists with interests in physical modelling of ecohydraulic interactions to explore these challenges, including scaling, metrology (such as quantifying both flow fields and organism motion and assessing the realism of that motion/ behaviour), and husbandry, of both fresh and salt water species.

    S5. Ecohydraulics of the river hyporheic zone in river, estuarine and coastal sediments
    Convenors: Mike Stewardson, Thibault Datry and Perran Cook
    This session focuses on interactions between surface water and boundary sediments bringing together researchers working on the hyporheic zone of rivers, estuaries and the coastal zone. The particular focus of the session is promoting discussion across the relevant disciplines including biogoemchistry, ecology, geomorphology and hydraulics. A special issue of an international journal will be prepared following the meeting presenting different disciplinary views including papers submitted by participants in the special session but also including at least one paper that may arise from ideas developed at the meeting. 

    S6. Advances in Fish Passage research
    Co-convenors: Claudio Comoglio, Olle Calles, Eva Enders, Chris Katopodis, Paul Kemp, Jarod Lyons
    The Special Session “Advances in Fish Passage research” is aimed at sharing and discussing the most updated research results that are bringing new insights and proposing new promising approaches in the field of fish passage. Contributions on the following topics are particularly welcome:

    A special issue will be prepared for a relevant international journal

    S7. Ecohydraulics of ecosystem services
    Co-Convenors: David Gilvear, Ian Maddock, Tory Milner, Michael Stewardson
    Ecosystem services in rivers are highly dependent on ecohydraulics whether in-channel, below the river bed or on floodplains. The degree of hydrological connectivity between the floodplain, channel, and hyporheos together with longitudinal fluxes through the river network are particularly important in delivering ecosystem services including supporting biodiversity benefits, water treatment, food control, and water supply. This session will consider advances in our understanding of ecosystem services provided by rivers and their dependency on ecohydraulics.

    S8. Securing Sustainable Hydropower into the 21st Century – How can ecohydraulic research support sustainable hydropower efforts?
    Co-Convenors: John Conallin, Morten Stickler, Helen Locher, Marie Eggerup, Cameron Ironside, Lee Baumgartner
    Nearly one-third of the world’s population has no access to electricity, and with uncertainty around fossils fuels and an increasing global population, this is likely to increase. Hydropower currently contributes one-fifth of the world’s power generation, and provides the majority of supply in over 55 countries. There is a global opportunity to expand hydropower development to meet the growing demand, but how to develop hydropower in a socially equitable and environmentally acceptable manner, is one of the greatest challenges at the start of the 21st century. This session will concentrate on showcasing the challenges, barriers and knowledge gaps associated within sustainable hydropower planning and operations, and how ecohydraulic research can support sustainable hydropower efforts. It will concentrate on case study examples around the world in dealing with sustainability issues. This session will be closely linked with a workshop that will concentrate on the ‘Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol’ and the implementation challenges around it for clients, companies, managers, and researchers.

    S9. Implementation and adaptive management of environmental flows: closing the knowing-doing gap
    Convenors: Angus Webb and Robyn Watts
    Countries around the world have developed legislation and policies for environmental flows, and huge amounts of research have been done. However, actual implement ion of environmental flow programs lags far behind, and examples of adaptive management are rarer still. This session will concentrate on the translation of science into action, showcasing examples where ecohydraulics research has been used to improve method for planning environmental flows, monitoring and evaluating their benefits, and using this knowledge to update management practices. Beyond this, we will investigate other barriers to implementing environmental flows, and how these might be overcome through science-management partnerships. A special issue will be prepared for a relevant international journal based on papers presented in this session. 

    S10. Integrating ecohydraulic aspects across river restoration, environmental flows and fish passage
    Co-convenors – Christos Katopodis and Keiko Muraoka
    A Workshop style format is anticipated for this Special Session to accommodate presentations for some who may have case study results, followed by structured discussion.  The idea for such a session is that integration of all ecohydraulic aspects is important and may provide synergistic effects for specific projects.  There are simple or sophisticated ways using ecohydraulics and ecohydrology to arrive at river flows for passage of fish and other aquatic organisms, e-flows (ecological, environmental or instream flow regimes), as well as flows to ensure river restoration measures are effective.  The advantage of looking at all three items, whether each one has been estimated with simple or sophisticated methods, is that often there are synergies which may provide integration opportunities for a more holistic ecohydraulic view of projects and mitigation options.  For example, fish attraction flows, e-flows and flows to ensure habitat modifications work well, serve compatible needs.  So estimating and integrating all three together rather than in isolation of each other may lead to more holistic, compatible and more balanced flow regimes for healthier rivers with good ecological status.  One of the Session/Workshop aims is to highlight the need of integration of ecohydraulic aspects.  The other aim is to publish a few contributions and a discussion paper for submission to a journal. Whether or not you will try to arrange a journal special issue on this session and the journal you will target. Target publication vehicle: Same Special Issue proposed by the Special Session on “Advances in Fish Passage research”.

    S11. Scale-hierarchic analyses of aquatic biotic community responses to changing flow environments and multiple stressors
    Co-Convenors - Kris Van Looy & Jérémy Piffady

    Large scale research efforts (macroecological and metacommunity perspectives) are needed to identify patterns and processes of changes to ecosystems and biotic communities. Too often studies of change in the occurrence of species and communities fail to identify the drivers of change, as they often lack the biogeographical context, or the fine-grained data to identify the relevant parameters and processes.  More specifically they fail to consider or express the hierarchical relationships between the drivers and stressors at different spatial scales.  Therefore, adapted methods, such as statistical hierarchical modelling, are needed to analyse the scale-hierarchic structure of environmental forcings and filterings of aquatic ecosystem functioning, and to identify the weight of the different drivers of biological change in the multiplicity and complexity of stressors and global changes occurring.  This session will bring together researchers working on scale-hierarchic problems in river systems across the world, focusing on how ecohydraulic drivers combine with other drivers at different scales to produce multi-scale patterns in river biotas.

    S12. Remote sensing applications for hydro and morphodynamic monitoring & modelling
    Convenors: George Heritage & David Milan & Neil Entwistle

    Various types of remotely sensed data are generating high density, high quality spatial information on river and floodplain/valley bottom form and process, defining features, quantifying habitat and hydraulics and investigating geomorphic dynamics and sediment budgets.

    This session provides a platform to highlight recent technical advances in remote sensing applications and associated use of the data to further our understanding of the fluvial environment. It provides an opportunity to consider a range of challenging issues linked to the accurate measurement, modelling and interpretation of eco-hydrological data across a range of spatial and temporal scales and we would welcome papers utilising data from a variety of terrestrial, aerial and aquatic platforms.

    A session is sponsored by the British Society for Geomorphology and a special issue of the Earth Surface Processes & Landforms featuring papers presented in the session is also planned.

    S13. Workshop: Global Floodplain Health

    In conjunction with session S12: Remote sensing applications for hydro and morphodynamic monitoring & modelling there will be a free early evening workshop at the conference venue on Monday February 8th aimed at commenting on the global state of floodplain systems, highlighting the fragility and increasing rarity of naturally functioning floodplains. To achieve the aims of this session, delegates are requested to collate floodplain related data from all regions where we work and conduct our research particularly linked but not restricted to the following:

 

  1. Area of valley bottom / floodplain
  2. Length of rivers
  3. Area and or valley length subject to flood protection
  4. Land use and degree of change from natural character
  5. Frequency of floodplain inundation

 

    Ideally these data will be for individual rivers or finer. 

    If you are interested please email Neil Entwistle (n.s.entwistle@salford.ac.uk)  to confirm your intention to participate in the workshop if possible also with an idea of geographical coverage and styles of data that you will be able to provide. Feel free also to suggest other data that you feel could be relevant to defining floodplain state.