NaviSedWood
Wood and sediment sources and regimes in alpine proglacial streams: insights from the Upper Navisence catchment (VS, CH)
Challenges addressed
This project addresses challenges related to the monitoring and management of alpine stream morphodynamics, primarily driven by the complex interplay of water, sediment, and large wood. A major issue is the scarcity of data, particularly in harsh proglacial environments, making the measurement and quantification of sediment and wood transport regimes difficult. These processes significantly influence flood hazard potentials and must therefore be accurately monitored. Additionally, the project grapples with understanding the impacts of climate change, such as glacier retreat and permafrost thaw, on these alpine catchments. The complexity of establishing a long-term monitoring framework and integrating diverse data types from remote sensing, field surveys, and historical archives further intensifies the challenge.
Objectives
This project aims to setting up a long-term, monitoring of wood and sediment transport regimes in an Alpine, partially-forested catchment under glacio-nival hydrological regime. It also aims at gathering the baseline information needed to reconstruct the historical wood and sediment supply regimes in the catchment. The data collected will enhance scientific understanding of hydro-geomorphic responses to climate change in streams located in proglacial, partially-forested areas. Disseminating the research findings and ensuring the continuity of this novel monitoring framework is also part of the team’s objectives.
What are the expected outputs of this project?
- To establish a state-of-the-art monitoring framework to measure and assess the transport regimes of wood and sediment in an Alpine, partially-forested catchment experiencing glacio-nival hydrological regimes.
- To gather and consolidate baseline information required to reconstruct historical wood and sediment supply regimes in the catchment and infer their potential modifications due to climate change. This includes data on permafrost thaw, precipitation, and vegetation patterns.
- To create a comprehensive project report that shares the findings of the research. The knowledge from this report can be applied towards the design and implementation of effective flood hazard mitigation strategies and environmental resource management plans in alpine rivers.
Milestones
- June to October 2023
Establishment of the reference methodology and of the instrumentation setup for a long-term monitoring of the provenance, transport, residence time and storage of large wood and sediment
- July to November 2023
Collection of baseline data issued from the monitoring framework and from historical datasets concerning topography and land cover (photographs, maps, aerial and satellite imagery data, etc.), as well as water and sediment fluxes in the Upper Navisence catchment
- October to December 2023
Preparation of project report and dissemination of the results. Participation in a future SNSF funding call as a joint team is foreseen for continuing this monitoring
Funding
This project is financed by CLIMACT.
Cover image and photo gallery: © Ivan Pascal
Gallery
Principal investigators
Prof. Ruiz-Villanueva Virginia
FGSE, UNIL
Prof. Christophe Ancey
ENAC, EPFL
Collaborators
Antonio Abellan
Director, Centre de recherche sur l'environnement...
