Hydrological response to vegetation development in Alpine areas

Vegetation has an important influence on the hydrological response of a catchment, which is of major concern in areas with to increased stress on the vegetation or when considering reforestation. For this project, you will use satellite images of the past 30 years to analyse the changes in vegetation patterns in the French Alps. You will make a hydrological exemplary catchment in this area, calibrated with measured hydrological parameters in the field. This model is then used with the historic vegetation patterns to study the changes in hydrological regime in this Area and for alpine regions in general. Our research group has expertise in the hydrology of this area and there is plenty of logistics to visit the study area several times to gather valuable information.

Supervision: Wouter Marra, Derek Karssenberg (Utrecht University)

Location: French Alps

Period: to be determined

Number of students: 1 - 4

Program/track: Earth Surface Hydrology or Natural Hazards and Earth Observation

Prerequisites: courses in spatio-temporal modelling (preferably PCRaster Python), hydrology, geomorphology, and/or natural hazards (content of project can be adjusted to your background)

Contact/info: Wouter Marra (w.a.marra@uu.nl) or Derek Karssenberg (d.karssenberg@uu.nl)