Committee
If you would more information on members of the organising committee or like to join please email us
Daniel S. Hayes
Role: chair
Organization: University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, department: Institute of Hydrobiology and Aquatic Ecosystem Management, country: Austria
Email: daniel.hayes@boku.ac.at
I am a freshwater ecologist with experience in applied research. I am fueled by my curiosity for understanding how river ecosystems work in order to contribute to the maintenance of ecologically-healthy rivers while guaranteeing sustainable management of water resources. I am particularly excited about developing holistic solutions for restoring modified rivers for environmental and social benefit, as well as communicating such findings to a broader audience. My PhD work within the framework of the doctoral program FLUVIO focused on restoring flows in modified rivers. As a Post-Doc, I continue working in the field of ecohydrology, with a particular focus on flow-ecology relationships in hydropeaking rivers.
Joël is a PhD student at the Institute of Environmental Engineering at ETH Zürich, Switzerland. He investigates the impacts of fluctuating flow on the early life stages of salmonid fish, for instance downstream of hydropower plants. To measure differences of fry emergence and dispersal in the field Joël uses camera systems, electrofishing, and tagging of fish. He continues his modelling work on stranding and drift of parr in fluctuating flows, which he started during his master’s in environmental engineering at ETH Zurich.
Ana Adeva-Bustos
Role: co-chair
Organization: SINTEF Energi AS, department: Water Resources, country: Norway
Email: ana.adeva.bustos@sintef.no
Ana is a researcher at SINTEF in the Water Resources team. She has recently finished her PhD at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway. During her four-year PhD program, she has been working on tools and methods to support a more environmental and sustainable management in Norwegian regulated rivers. With emphasis on the potential of integrated tools and methods such as hydraulic modelling, individual based models, hydropower, and habitat modelling, for generating results that are end-user/stakeholder oriented. Her current interest research topics are: impacts from stressors (e.g. hydropower, climate change) on river eco-hydraulics, mitigation measures and cost-effective decision support systems in regulated rivers through the use of Bayesian Networks.
Davide Vettori
Role: secretary
Organization: Politecnico di Torino, department: Department of Environment, Land and Infrastructure, country: Italy
I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Environment, Land and Infrastructure Engineering (DIATI) at the Politecnico di Torino with extensive experience in the study of flow-vegetation interactions via laboratory and field experiments. I conduct multidisciplinary research in the fields of ecohydraulics and environmental fluid mechanics. My current research interests cover a broad range of topics including flow-biota interactions, turbulence in open-channel flows, hydrodynamics of deformable bodies, interactions between vegetation and morphodynamic processes, and plant biomechanics.rn
Hannah Schwedhelm
Role: Commitee Member
Organization: Technical University of Munich, department: Chair of Hydraulic Engineering, country: Germany
Email: hannah.schwedhelm@tum.de
I am a PhD Student at the Chair of Hydraulic Engineering at the Technical University of Munich. I graduated at TUM in the Master Degree of Environment Engineering focusing on Hydraulic Engineering and Water Resource Management. I am interested in rivers in their natural state as well as in rivers impacted by hydropower plants. As part of my research, I focus on sediment transport and morphological processes in rivers influenced by hydropower. I would like to gain specific knowledge in order to minimize the impact of hydropower plants on the morphological processes to reduce the effect of anthropogenic changes on the river ecosystem.
Mahmoud Awadallah
Role: Commitee Member
Organization: ETH Zürich, country: Switzerland
Email: awadallah@vaw.baug.ethz.ch
Mahmoud Awadallah is currently a PhD student at the Laboratory of Hydrology, Hydraulics, and Glaciology at ETH Zürich, Switzerland. His research focuses on understanding the interaction between morphodynamic processes and fluvial habitat dynamics. Before pursuing his PhD, he earned his master’s degree and worked as a scientific research assistant at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway. During this time, he explored the field of ecohydraulics and contributed to assessing the application of Green LiDAR technology in ecohydraulics and flood risk management.
Matteo Redana
Role: community manager
Organization: University of Aberdeen, department: UNMC, country: UK / Malaysia
Email: r02mr18@abdn.ac.uk
I am a final year PhD in the department of Biology of the University of Aberdeen. I worked for five years in the environmental engineering private sector, then I got a Master degree in physical Geography at the University of Turin (UniTO) and Politecnico di Torino (PoliTO). My research is focused on the thermal aspects of freshwater systems, with particular attention to the effect of water flow alteration on water temperature. A key methodological aspect of my research is the use of remote sensed thermal data, particularly using UAV technology and their integration with satellite data. A second field of research is represented by the application in ecological context (in particular thermal physiology) of Distributed Lag Non-Linear Models (DLNM), a class of model that allow to estimate non-linear and delayed relations between an environmental exposures and a physiological response. In addition, I am currently collaborating with the University of Nottingham Malaysian Campus (UNMC) on the definition of functional flows for the Baleh HEP project.
Kevin Merl
Organization: University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, department: Institute of Hydrobiology and Aquatic Ecosystem Management, country: Austria
Email: kevin.merl@boku.ac.at
Kevin studied Civil Engineering and Water Management, his thesis focused on sediment transport and bank dynamics of the river Thaya. He is still continuing his Master studies in Applied Limnology (when he has time). He is currently a PhD student at the Institute of Hydrobiology and Aquatic Ecosystem Management (IHG) at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna (BOKU). His research focuses on the impact of hydropower on high alpine river systems. The main part of his dissertation deals with the evaluation of hydro-peaked rivers and the assessment of mitigation measures using juvenile fish as an indicator.
Jan De Keyser
Role: Commitee Member
Organization: University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, department: Institute of Hydraulic Engineering and River Research, country: Austria
Email: jan.de-keyser@boku.ac.at
Jan De Keyser studied environmental engineering in his master’s and is now a Ph.D. student and scientific project assistant at the Institute of Hydraulic Engineering and River Research at the University of Natural Researches and Life Science, Vienna. For his master’s thesis, he studied the effects of flush events on the suspended sediment concentration in the River Isère in France while doing an internship at the Institute of Environmental Geosciences in Grenoble. He is currently working on a project on sustainable small-scale hydropower development in Central Asia. Together with several partners, he is developing a decision support system to show stakeholders the remaining small-scale hydropower potential in the region and help them exploit it in a sustainable way.
Desmond Anim
Role: social media manager
Organization: Monash University, department: Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities, country: Australia
Email: desofosa@gmail.com
Desmond is a Research Associate in Urban Water Management at the Cooperative Research Centre for Water Sensitive Cities, Monash University, Australia. He holds a PhD in Water Science and Engineering from the University of Melbourne. Desmond’s research interest is in the area of urban water management research where he uses field measurement and numerical modelling approaches to study coupled interactions between landscapes and waterways. He is focused on fundamental and applied interdisciplinary research in the field of ecohydrology, geomorphology and ecohydraulics particularly in the context of physical and ecological management of freshwater systems.
Davide Vanzo
Organization: Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (KIT), department: Institute for Water and Environment (IWU) , country: Germany
Email: davide.vanzo@kit.edu
I am a researcher at the Institute for Water and Environment (IWU) of Karlsruhe Institute for Technology (KIT), Germany. I am an Environmental Engineer by training, with a strong background in hydro- and morphodynamic model development. During my PhD studies I focused on the development of assessment and modelling tools for hydro- and thermopeaking alterations in rivers. My current research focuses on the development of numerical models for environmental problems with specific focus on river eco-hydraulics such as fine sediment, pollutant and thermal transport in rivers.