Sediment regime disturbance of river catchments in a changing land cover context: geoenvironmental and population dynamics
In a globally changing world, sediment regime disturbance has emerged as a dominant actor in the modification of river catchments. The sediment regime refers to the sediment budget (amount, type and timing of sediment inputs, outputs and storage) of a river system. Studies of sediment regimes in medium and heavily land cover modified catchments are scarce to the extent that even the likely direction of change of sediment yield compared to background conditions is unknown. Without understanding the changes in the sediments inputs of rivers we are potentially missing half the story. The main and novel research questions within the SEDILAND project are: how (and how rapidly) land cover changes impact on the sediment regime of a river catchment and ultimately on the river channel morphology?; Is there a critical tipping point that guarantees the reversibility of the sediment regime disturbance to a pre-developed scenario?; and if not, how can we assist in fostering a better environmental and territorial management in catchments that preserve natural processes (flow and sediment regime)?. These questions will be tackled thanks to the collaboration between IPE and IHE. These institutions are world authorities on assessing changes on land cover, sediment regime and population dynamics. In turn, the applicant has a broad knowledge in the field of Geoenvironmental Processes. The applicant will be trained in leadership, management, funding, supervision and communication skills. Jointly this team is in a position to push the boundaries of sediment regime disturbance knowledge far ahead, with the ultimate intent to allow the applicant to train through research and become an independent researcher in Europe. This MSCA addresses two of the H2020 Societal Challenges: “Food security, sustainable agriculture and forestry, marine and maritime and inland water research, and the Bioeconomy”, and “Climate action, Environment, Resource efficiency and Raw materials”.