Eco-Hydraulics
Ecohydraulics is the science that connects physical processes in natural or man made aquatic systems with ecological response. The scope ranges from the design of fish ladders to river restoration and the simulation of physical habitat quality for aquatic species. The area of modeling and simulation generally focuses on understanding the mechanisms that drive, for example, the recruitement and growth of cottonwood trees, to the development of conceptual models and further on to the development and application of numerical tools to simulate physical processes and ecological response, including individuals’, species’ or communities’ life cycle strategies. Ecohydraulics is therefore using traditional environmental hydraulics tools and then adds the interfaces to ecological response. The most typical example for this type of ecohydraulics research and application are fish habitat simulation models, such as PHABSIM. The session on Ecohydraulics within ISEH V will be focused on numerical modeling of physical processes and ecological response in aquatic ecosystems.
(The picture shows a river and juvenile Atlantic Salmon habitat quality at different flows)