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Lecture

Eco-morphology of Fluvial Areas: Geneva and Thiele Rivers

In course

ENV-418: River eco-morphodynamics and bioengineering

The course deals with the interactions between hydraulics, solid transport by hauling and the watercourse space at the origin of the morphology and richness of habitats. Regime theory is presented and the quality of a stream's habitat is assessed. ...

Description

This lecture explores the eco-morphology of fluvial areas, focusing on the Geneva and Thiele rivers. It covers the geographical and hydrological context, historical background, restoration projects, constraints, and the comparison of different restoration approaches. The presentation delves into the challenges faced, such as flood risks, ecological deficits, and the need for revitalization. It discusses the impact of human activities on water quality, biodiversity, and landscape improvement. The lecture also highlights the evolution of riverbeds, ecological assessments, and proposals for enhancing watercourses. Various restoration projects and their outcomes are analyzed, emphasizing the importance of balancing infrastructure development with ecological conservation.

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Related concepts (32)

Flood

A flood is an overflow of water (or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrology and are of significant concern in agriculture, civil engineering and public health. Human changes to the environment often increase the intensity and frequency of flooding, for example land use changes such as deforestation and removal of wetlands, changes in waterway course or flood controls such as with levees, and larger environmental issues such as climate change and sea level rise.

Water quality

Water quality refers to the chemical, physical, and biological characteristics of water based on the standards of its usage. It is most frequently used by reference to a set of standards against which compliance, generally achieved through treatment of the water, can be assessed. The most common standards used to monitor and assess water quality convey the health of ecosystems, safety of human contact, extent of water pollution and condition of drinking water.

Biodiversity loss

Biodiversity loss includes the worldwide extinction of different species, as well as the local reduction or loss of species in a certain habitat, resulting in a loss of biological diversity. The latter phenomenon can be temporary or permanent, depending on whether the environmental degradation that leads to the loss is reversible through ecological restoration/ecological resilience or effectively permanent (e.g. through land loss).

Biodiversity

Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic (genetic variability), species (species diversity), and ecosystem (ecosystem diversity) level. Biodiversity is not distributed evenly on Earth; it is usually greater in the tropics as a result of the warm climate and high primary productivity in the region near the equator. Tropical forest ecosystems cover less than 10% of earth's surface and contain about 90% of the world's species.

Measurement of biodiversity

Conservation biologists have designed a variety of objective means to empirically measure biodiversity. Each measure of biodiversity relates to a particular use of the data. For practical conservationists, measurements should include . For others, a more economically defensible definition should allow the ensuring of continued possibilities for both adaptation and future use by humans, assuring environmental sustainability. As a consequence, biologists argue that this measure is likely to be associated with the variety of genes.

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