Author: edit_riverlab

Dams, Sediment Discontinuity, and Management Responses in Mediterranean River Basins: Report from Conference at ENS Lyon, October 2018

River basin management has mostly concerned management of water resources, with relatively little attention paid to the sediment continuity essential to maintain downstream channel functions and coastal features.  The sediment loads of most major rivers have decreased in recent decades – as a result of extensive trapping of sediment by dams, increasingly manifest in accelerated coastal erosion and loss of delta lands.

This conference examined three large rivers in southern Europe: the Rhône, Ebro, and Po.  All have headwaters in high mountain ranges and traverse Mediterranean-climate dominated basins.  All three have experienced afforestation of their mountainous headwaters since the 19th century, which has reduced erosion rates and sediment supply to the river system.  All three have been extensively modified and impounded for irrigation water supply, hydroelectric production, flood control, and navigation, mined for production of construction aggregate, and otherwise altered for human uses, and all three evince erosion and subsidence of sediment-deprived deltas.

For each river, speakers reported on sediment discontinuity and sediment management from both geomorphic and environmental history perspectives (see programme below). One intervention, a social science perspective on sediment in the Rhône, was in the form of a half-hour video, which is available as indicated below.  In discussion, speakers and participants from the audience drew comparisons among the three river basins, noting similarities and differences.  There was broad agreement among participants that the topic as framed by the conference merits further exploration.

The conference was hosted by the Collegium – Lyon Institute of Advanced Studies and the CNRS Laboratory UMR 5600 Environnement Ville Société, and co-sponsored by the Agence Francaise de la Biodiversité, Eléctricité de France, and Companie Nationale du Rhône, in collaboration GRAIE and the Agence de l’Eau Rhône-Méditerranée-Corse.  The conference was coordinated with a broader research effort initiated by Professor G Mathias Kondolf (UC Berkeley) and Asst Professor Giacomo Parrinello (Sciences Po), The Social Life of the Sediment Balance: A Social and Geomorphic Approach to the Transformation of River Systems and Deltas, supported by the France-Berkeley Fund and a UC Berkeley Social Science Matrix-Sciences Po collaboration grant.  A follow-up workshop looking at the issues of sediment management at a river basin scale more broadly is planned for May 2019.

 

 

Continue reading

Flood management for a trans-boundary river from North to South Korea

Jaeeung Yi, Ajou University, Korea

Friday 25 January 2019, 11-12h30, Moses Hall 223

The Imjin River flows from North to South Korea, with 63 percent of its basin in the North. North Korea constructed several reservoirs in the upper Imjin River and released high flows downstream several times without warning South Korea, causing massive damage four times since 1996. The ongoing political tensions between South and North Korea makes it difficult to control floods in the Imjin River altogether. South Korea built the Gunnam flood control reservoir on the lower Imjin River (2013) and the Hantan River flood control dam on a tributary (2016), but these have been insufficient to control floods in the lower Imjin River. Improved measurement and modeling of flows into Gunnam reservoir allows us to develop reservoir operation policies to maximize the flood control benefits of two flood control reservoirs.

Jaeeung Yi is a professor at the department of civil engineering in Ajou University, Korea and he is currently a visiting scholar at the Department of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning, UC. Berkeley. His main study area is hydrology and water resources system management.

This seminar is part of the interdisciplinary faculty seminar series, Water Management: Past and Future Adaptation, presented under the auspices of the UC Berkeley Institute of International Studies.  As both the developed and developing world confront intensifying demands on rivers and other water resources, impacts are evident from extractions of water for human uses, proliferation of dams, mining sediments from river beds, and intensified land-use impacts, all exacerbated by climate change. Accelerated erosion of coasts and deltas (e.g., from sediment starvation, groundwater pumping, accelerated sea-level rise) are among the manifestations of these impacts. Our seminar takes an interdisciplinary approach these challenges by examining how societies have adapted to variability in the past (uncertainty in water supply, flood risk, etc) and considers the tools we have to manage future variability in river flows and sediment loads, including variability in water supplies, increased flood risk, and the existential threat to many coastal and riverine areas.

The Social Life of the Sediment Balance: workshop call for papers

WORKSHOP CALL FOR PAPERS
University of California Berkeley, 29-30 May 2019
Convenors: Giacomo Parrinello (Sciences Po Paris) & G Mathias Kondolf (UC Berkeley)

Fluvial geomorphology has developed a sophisticated understanding of the links between upstream basins and deltas, including the impact of dams on sediment fluxes, the consequences of sand and gravel mining, or the construction of embankments. Environmental history, historical geography, and science and technology studies (STS) have shed light on the entanglement between river systems and social dynamics, emphasizing the crucial role of technology and engineering and the complexity of policy and politics of river management. We believe that there is much to be gained in combining the insights and approaches of these disciplines to the study of sediments in river systems. The workshop will convene fluvial geomorphologists, environmental historians, historical geographers, and STS scholars with a shared interest in geomorphological change of rivers and deltas, to compare and discuss research questions, methodologies, and empirical cases. Our aim is to lay the foundation for a sustained interdisciplinary dialogue.

This workshop is part of a collaborative effort funded by grants from the France-Berkeley Fund, the UC Berkeley Social Science Matrix and Institute of International Studies, and an Emergence(s) grant from the City of Paris.  Within the limits of available budget, we will cover travel expenses and lodging of selected participants. We especially welcome applications from junior scholars (PhD candidates, postdoctoral fellows, and other early career scholars).

Your proposal should consist of an abstract (ca. 300 words) and a brief biographical note (ca. 150 words). Please submit proposals to [email protected] by 31 January 2018 with the subject “Sediment Workshop.”

Workshop call for papers flyer available for download here

Environmental Science Associates – multiple positions

Field Hydrologist (Oakland, Petaluma or SF)

https://www.paycomonline.net/v4/ats/web.php/jobs/ViewJobDetails?job=7526&clientkey=0A2A2B3498A92573DA13BE33E8BDD296

 

Hydrologist/Civil Engineer (San Diego or LA)

https://www.paycomonline.net/v4/ats/web.php/jobs/ViewJobDetails?job=7211&clientkey=0A2A2B3498A92573DA13BE33E8BDD296

 

Hydrology and Hydraulics Engineer (Sacramento)

https://www.paycomonline.net/v4/ats/web.php/jobs/ViewJobDetails?job=7527&clientkey=0A2A2B3498A92573DA13BE33E8BDD296

 

Senior Water Resources Engineer (Seattle)

https://www.paycomonline.net/v4/ats/web.php/jobs/ViewJobDetails?job=6160&clientkey=0A2A2B3498A92573DA13BE33E8BDD296

 

Restoration Design Engineer (Oakland, SF or Petaluma)

https://www.paycomonline.net/v4/ats/web.php/jobs/ViewJobDetails?job=5831&clientkey=0A2A2B3498A92573DA13BE33E8BDD296

Managing reservoir sediment in extreme conditions of Taiwan: What can we learn for California’s future?

Reservoirs play a critically important role in supplying water for human uses. However, sedimentation limits storage capabilities and increases risk for aging infrastructure. Many large reservoirs were designed to accommodate 100 years of sediment accumulation and can store centuries worth of incoming sediment before filling up completely. However, such long sedimentation horizons are rarely the…

Continue reading

Documentary Film Night, Blue Heart

DOCUMENTARY FILM NIGHT | BLUE HEART

29 November 2018, 630p-800p

World Affairs Auditorium 312 Sutter Street, Suite 200 San Francisco, CA

In the Balkans, 91% of the more than 3000 proposed dam projects involve small hydropower diversion dams. These dams reroute water, letting rivers run dry and causing irreversible damage to the watershed, wildlife and local communities. What’s more, nearly $870 million has been poured into dam construction in the Balkan region, with local governments garnering cash from these mammoth building projects, without actually delivering clean energy. The film “Blue Heart” documents these impacts and highlights efforts to stop dam construction.

Focusing on the largest undammed river in Europe—Albania’s Vjosa— “Blue Heart” tells the story of the battle to save the endangered Balkan lynx in Macedonia, and the women of Kruščica, a village in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where a lengthy protest to save the community’s only source of fresh water has been underway. The film follows some of the amazing activists fighting displacement by proposed hydropower projects, and explores what can be done to preserve the environment.

Following the screening, Britton Caillouette, filmmaker of “Blue Heart, and Matt Kondolf, Director of UC Berkeley’s River Lab, will talk about the ways that hydro dams affect the rivers, the environment, and the people who live nearby.

To sign the Blue Heart petition, visit https://blueheart.patagonia.com/take-action. To learn more about grassroots organizations and activists working to protect waterways and the environment in the Bay Area, visit Patagonia Action Works. The film is presented in partnership with  Patagonia.

 

Mapping Connected Impervious Areas in Urban Watersheds

Quantity of impervious surfaces such as buildings, roads, and parking lots, are often used as an indicator of the degree of urbanization and environmental quality in urban areas. Watersheds with high impervious surface coverage experience higher peak flows, decreased infiltration and recharge, and reduced baseflows in streams (Leopold, 1968). This causes streambeds to scour, resulting in loss and degradation of important ecological habitat in-stream and in riparian zones (Gillies, Brim Box, Symanzik, & Rodemaker, 2003).

However, the spatial distribution and connectivity of impervious surfaces as well as the characteristics of the area (e.g., soil conditions, slopes, precipitation patterns) also effect the quantity and quality of stormwater runoff (Jacobson, 2011). In effect, a landscape’s impervious area may be divided into two categories: those that drain to a pervious surface, and those that drain directly to the stormwater or stream network. Because of their direct contribution to storm flows, these directly connected impervious areas are reported to be a better indicator of hydrologic response, biologic integrity, stream alteration, and water quality than total impervious area. Despite this fact, few studies have developed simple and transferable methods for identifying these connected impervious areas. Better identification of impervious surfaces that contribute to stream degradation and alteration can then be directly linked to management actions, such as stormwater fees, tradable stormwater credits, or strategic stormwater management (Roy & Shuster, 2009).

This year, River Lab’s Anneliese  Sytsma is working with ‘Reinventing The Nations Urban Water Infrastructure‘  (ReNUWIt) – an interdisciplinary, multi-institution engineering research center funded by NSF  – to develop a simple and transferable methods of identifying these directly connected impervious areas and evaluate their role in reducing peak flows in urban areas. To do this, she is using combination of remote sensing, geospatial analysis in GIS, hydrologic analysis in ArcHydro, field survey, and stormwater modeling. She is testing her model in the Petaluma River Watershed, in Sonoma County, California.

 

Sources:

Gillies, R. R., Brim Box, J., Symanzik, J., & Rodemaker, E. J. (2003). Effects of urbanization on the aquatic fauna of the Line Creek watershed, Atlanta—a satellite perspective. Remote Sensing of Environment, 86(3), 411–422. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0034-4257(03)00082-8

Jacobson, C. R. (2011). Identification and quantification of the hydrological impacts of imperviousness in urban catchments: A review. Journal of Environmental Management, 92(6), 1438–1448. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2011.01.018

Leopold, L. B. (1968). Hydrology for urban land planning: A guidebook on the hydrologic effects of urban land use.

Roy, A. H., & Shuster, W. D. (2009). Assessing impervious surface connectivity and applications for watershed management. JAWRA Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 45(1), 198–209.

The 14th Annual Berkeley River Restoration Symposium

Saturday 8 December 2018, 9a-330p, Rm 112 Wurster Hall, UC Berkeley

This year’s Berkeley River Restoration Symposium features a keynote talk Managing river sediment in extreme conditions: lessons for California by Professor Hsiao-Wen Wang (National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan) followed by student research talks covering a wide range of restoration-related topics.  The morning will feature research projects on rural stream systems, including post-project appraisal of a Sierra Nevada meadow restoration, analysis of alternatives for floodplain restoration at the confluence of Redwood and Prairie Creeks, the use of live wood in river restoration, hydro-geomorphic drivers of coho salmon outmigration in Russian River tributaries, and an initial assessment of Curry Creek, Mount Diablo. The afternoon talks focus on smaller urban streams, including post-project appraisals of Arroyo Viejo, Santa Rosa, and Codornices Creeks, planning for San Anselmo Creek in Creek Park and Cerrito Creek in Blake Garden.  Panelists (including Lisa Hunt, Hsiao-Wen Wang, Rod Wittler, Tami Church, and Tim Pine) will comment on themes raised in the student research.

For further information, please see the symposium website. The symposium is free and open to the public.

Registration | Please register by Friday 12/07 so we can supply sufficient programs and coffee!