Category: News

Threatened rivers – a global perspective

Webinar: Monday 17 March 6:00-8:00 Pacific time

Presented by the interdisciplinary School of Water of the University of Lyon (EUR H2O
As part of its World Water Week events, the University of Lyon presents this webinar on large
scale pressures and impacts on the river networks and associated ecosystems. It Includes
presentations on threats to global biodiversity by Michele Thieme (WWF USA), the slow-moving
disaster on the Mekong River and Delta by Matt Kondolf (UC Berkeley), river intermittency at
the global scale by Mathis Messager (INRAE Lyon), and urbanization effects on riverscapes by
Fanny Bourgeau (ENS Lyon). More info here.

Professor Kongjian Yu, Peking University
Wednesday 19 March, 1-2pm Rm 305 Wurster Hall

Kongjian Yu is a leading landscape architect in China. He is a scholar of landscape architecture and urban resilience, the founding dean of Peking University’s College of Architecture and Landscape, and the founder of Turenscape. He grew up in a small village in South China during the turbulent 1960s and 1970s. Today, he draws on his rural upbringing for insights in working with earth and water. By integrating this foundational experience with advanced contemporary sciences and design aesthetics, he has emerged as a pioneering figure in innovative design practice. Yu will describe experimental projects addressing challenges arising from China’s rapid industrialization and urbanization, including efforts to protect and restore both urban and rural ecologies through his concepts of Sponge City and Negative Planning. His professional and academic pursuits reflect a significant narrative of counter-currents and leading the tides, mirroring the dramatic transformations that have characterized China over the past 60 years. Among his many recognitions, he was elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He received his Doctor of Design degree from Harvard University.

Professor Yu’s talk is sponsored by Riverlab. He will also give a keynote lecture in the
Berkeley Water Day event the following day, 20 March.

Berkeley Water Day: Addressing Water Challenges of a Changing Climate.

Join us on Thursday, March 20th, 2025 at the Banatao Auditorium in Sutardja Dai Hall, UC Berkeley, for an exciting day filled with discussion and innovative solutions to water challenges. 

Hear from renowned experts like Dr. Kongjian Yu on flooding and Dr. Menachem Elimelech on water scarcity, followed by dynamic lightning talks from Berkeley faculty. Engage with a panel of policy makers and industry leaders on California’s water risks and how research can shape the future. This event will also feature a student poster session highlighting cutting-edge research happening across campus. Coffee, snacks, and lunch provided for registered
attendees!

Register Here: Berkeley Water Day: Addressing Water Challenges of a Changing Climate

Urban Creeks and the Unhoused
A panel discussion Tuesday 18 February 2025
3-5pm Rm 305 Bauer Wurster Hall, UC Berkeley

Creeks have always attracted the unhoused, offering relatively natural settings, water sources, and
commonly quieter environments than alternatives such as freeway underpasses. With increasingly
costly housing, the SF Bay region has experienced increasing populations of unhoused along urban
creeks. This intersection of the state’s massive housing shortage with the urban stream network
drives a set of issues, including the risk of flooding the people who live along these creeks and the
impacts of these encampments on water quality of the streams. There are no easy solutions, but
perhaps we can learn something from recent experience in the urban and peri-urban streams of
Contra Costa County, where issues are brought into sharp focus.

The panel featured insightful presentations from Amanda Booth (City of San Pablo), Daniel Barth (SOS Richmond), O’Neill Fernandez (SOS Richmond), Chris Lim (Contra Costa RCD), and Mark Boucher (Contra Costa County Flood Control & Water Conservation District). After presentations, panelists and audience members engaged in discussion. This Riverlab event was part of the class Rivers & Cities (LA254-3) in the Dept of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning, UC Berkeley.

The symposium was an in-person, free and open to the public event hosted on Saturday, December 7, 2024 9.30 am, 112 Bauer Wurster Hall, UC Berkeley.

PROGRAM:

9:30: Welcome by Zan Rubin (Balance Hydrologics and UC Berkeley)
Keynote Presentation by Erin Bray (San Francisco State University)
River mechanics for river restoration: How rivers warm and river rocks round (see bio
and abstract below)
 
10:30-12:00 Student Presentations
 
The Hydrologic and Geomorphic Response to Beaver Arrival on Rush Creek
 
Contrasting Goals and Outcomes: Comparing Restoration on Codornices and Wildcat
Creeks
 
A Decade Later: The Impacts of the Eden Landing Ecologic Reserve
 
Lost in Time: Evaluating step pool habitat two decades after restoration on Codornices
Creek
 
Assessing the Role of Marsh Restoration on Sedimentation, Flood Management, and Sea-
Level Rise: A Case Study of Walnut Creek
 
Cows and Water: How Grazing Alters our Waterways
 
12:00- 12:30 Concluding Panel: Reflections from Erin Bray (San Francisco State) and
Tami Church (US Army Corps of Engineers)

Keynote Talk Abstract:
River mechanics for river restoration: How rivers warm and river rocks round
Along many rivers dams trap sediment and water released from the dam is cool and clear.
Downstream of the dam, temperature variability is controlled by climate that warms or
cools the water, the flow magnitude, and spectral properties of the water and the river’s
bed sediment. Separately, the grain size and shape of sediment on the bed is controlled by
the sediment supplied from hillslopes and fluvial sources, and the flow-driven abrasion
that contributes to particles getting smaller and rounder as they are transported along
stream. We developed a numerical river energy balance model to understand the controls
to river temperature. The Fluvial Energy Balance Model (FLUVIAL-EB) couples a full-
spectrum radiation balance model with turbulent heat fluxes, bed conduction, advection,
diffusion, and a 1D channel flow model over the length of the river, and is applied to
investigate temperatures along the San Joaquin River. We show that variations in the river temperature are sensitive to changes in the albedo of the sediment on the riverbed,
especially at smaller discharges and along abrupt gravel-to-sand transitions from dark
gravel to bright sand. A separate laboratory study uses a rock tumbler and angular rocks
sourced from nearby hillslope environments to investigate how river rocks round as they
tumble along river distances, to understand whether grain size reductions as opposed to
rounding is the dominant factor leading to sediment mass lost during abrasion. These two
studies highlight the importance of geomorphic processes on river sediment and
temperature, both of which support salmon spawning habitat.
 
Keynote Speaker:
Erin Bray is an Assistant Professor in the School of the Environment at San Francisco
State University (formerly the Department of Earth and Climate Sciences) where she leads
the Rivers Lab. Her research focuses on hydrology and fluvial geomorphology, with
emphasis on river processes and river restoration. Previously, she was an Assistant
Professor at California State University Northridge where she served as the Co-Lead for
the Water Science Program. Dr. Bray was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of
California, Berkeley, and the University of California, Santa Barbara, supported under a
fellowship from the Delta Stewardship Council. She received her Ph.D. from the
University of California, Santa Barbara, her M.A. from Brown University, and her B.S.
from Cornell University. Dr. Bray’s research focuses on hydrology and fluvial
geomorphology, with an emphasis on river processes, river restoration, and water
resources management. She has developed a model that, together with field measurements
and climate data, can be used to study impacts of flow releases from dams and climate on
the energy balance and water temperature of rivers. She also conducts in-situ field
measurements of saturated hydraulic conductivity to better understand the impacts of
sediment transport, sediment permeability, and flow on patterns of hyporheic exchange,
and how those patterns generate and sustain physical processes that support salmon
spawning habitat.

Over 30 participants joined the shortcourse Geomorphic and Ecological Fundamentals of River Restoration at Sagehen Ck Field Station near Lake Tahoe in August.  Weather conditions were ideal, and participants got wet wading in Sagehen Creek and swimming in Lake Tahoe.  They saw a wide range of completed projects as well as sites slated for restoration, and made proposals for most effective restoration approaches.  Each evening participants enjoyed discussion of the day’s adventures followed by a gourmet meal in plein air.  Next year’s shortcourse is set for 18-22 August.  Registration opens in January.

The paper Flood diversions and bypasses: Benefits and challenges, published by Dr Anna Serra-Llobet and co-authors, has been recognized by John Wiley & Sons publishers as one of the most-cited papers in the journal WIREs Water.

The paper is freely available on open-access here.

University of California Berkeley
Institute of International Studies, Philosophy Hall, Room 223
Monday, November 13, 2023 9am-12pm

Flood losses are increasing worldwide because of expanding urbanization in flood-prone lands and flood peaks super-charged by climate change. Across the globe, countries struggle to manage flood risk, drawing upon insurance, structural measures, and land use regulations. What can we learn from these international experiences to inform strategies in North America? In this workshop, a group of researchers, practitioners and policy-makers from the United States, Canada, and the European Union review the state of the art in flood risk management with emphasis on the interface between insurance, mapping, and land use planning regulations.

More event details here.

Efforts to conserve Lake Tahoe
Dr. Sudeep Chandra, Univ Nevada Reno

Friday (11/3) from 12-1pm in Mulford Room 36, UC Berkeley.

Dr. Sudeep Chandra is a Professor of Limnology in the Biology Department at the University of Nevada, Reno (USA). Sudeep Chandra serves as Director of the University’s Global Water Center: Solutions for Sustainability, the Ozmen Institute for Global Studies, and is the former Co-Director of the Lake Tahoe Science Advisory Council.

The talk is part of the Berkeley Wildlife & Conservation Seminar Series