Grecia Garcia Lugo
PhD student
Location: Room 218, Geography Buildingemail: g.garcialugo@qmul.ac.uk
PhD Supervisors: Angela Gurnell, Gemma Harvey (QMUL), Walter Bertoldi (UuniTN)
Funding: Erasmus mundus fellowship
Research Project: River channel and biological response to changes in wood and sediment dynamics: hydromorphological and ecological implications for river rehabilitation.
Research Outline: Despite a long history of management of river dimensions and dynamics across Europe, a few sites remain where it is possible to investigate semi-natural interactions between riparian vegetation, flow and sediment dynamics. This project will investigate these dynamics by combining historical information (maps, air photographs and other remotely-sensed data sources, river flow series) with contemporary field evidence from a range of sites with different energy and planform and some flume experiments. The aim will be to not only characterise the seminatural situation but to investigate periods during which specific human interventions (e.g. tree management during the second world war, Zanoni et al., 2008) have destabilised these semi-natural systems. The outputs from the research will be a conceptual model of channel style dynamics supported by empirical relationships drawn from the case study sites that are investigated. These outputs will provide important tools to underpin efforts to restore river-floodplain systems.
References: Zanoni, L., Gurnell, A.M., Drake, N., Surian, N. (2008). Island dynamics in a braided river from analysis of historical maps and air photographs. River Research and Applications, 24 (8) 1141–1159.
Background:
MSc. Joint European Masters in Water and Coastal Management (University of Plymouth, UK. Universidad de Cadiz, Spain)
Dissertation: ‘Analysis of the Offshore Wind Energy Industry. Opportunities for Andalucía’
BSc. Civil Engineering (Universidad Autonoma de Baja California, Mexico)