Quantifying riparian vegetation dynamics and flow interactions for Nature Based Solutions using novel environmental sensing techniques

该项目旨在为我们对河流走廊中植被和水流相互作用的理解提供一个步骤性的变化，重点是为基于自然的解决方案方法创建一个基线，以实现可持续的河流管理。植被，特别是大型木质残体（LWD），对河流流量，河道形态和碳储量有显着的影响。这些相互作用在概念上是很好理解的：植被和LWD的存在所引入的流动阻力导致流量的变化，从而调节水和沉积物的运输，导致河流形态和洪水的变化。同样，这些水-植被相互作用控制着河岸带的碳储存和固碳。然而，试图量化的流量植被动态，例如在数值模型，仍然难以捉摸，由于难以准确地估计复杂的相互作用，通过时间。这是一个主要的限制，因为植被在自然河流走廊中无处不在，通常被用作洪水管理和河流恢复计划的自然解决方案的一部分。该项目将利用最先进的环境传感技术和植被功能群框架，结合空间生态技术，提供河流廊道植被流功能的数据驱动模型，以解决这些知识差距。

This project aims to deliver a step-change in our understanding of vegetation and flow interactions in river corridors, with an emphasis on creating a baseline for Nature Based Solution approaches to sustainable river management. Vegetation, and Large Woody Debris (LWD) specifically, has a significant effect on river flows, channel morphology and carbon storage. These interactions are conceptually well understood: the flow resistance introduced by the presence of vegetation and LWD leads to changes in flow which modulate water and sediment transport resulting in changes in river form and flooding. Similarly, these water-vegetation interactions control carbon storage and sequestration in the riparian zone. Yet, attempts to quantify the flow-vegetation dynamics, for example in numerical models, remain elusive due to difficulties in accurately estimating the complex interactions through time. This represents a major limitation as vegetation is ubiquitous in natural river corridors and is often used as part of Nature Based Solutions to flood management and in river restoration schemes. This project will address these knowledge gaps using state-of-the-art environmental sensing techniques and a vegetation functional groups framework in conjunction with spatial ecological techniques to deliver a data-driven model of river corridor vegetation-flow functioning.