Egedusevic, Martina

Project Title

Natural Flood Management: assessing the impact of woodland creation on flood risk

Abstract

This PhD project therefore aims to capitalise on the opportunity presented by a new, large-scale woodland creation scheme within the Central Belt of Scotland. Long-term instrumentation and monitoring is proposed for two neighbouring catchments prioritised by the local authority's flood risk management strategy. Whilst one catchment will act as a control, the other will assess the impact of woodland planting extending across ~50% of the catchment and including a wide range of cultivation and surface water management control measures.

Data on the natural processes of hydrology, sediment and woody debris will be collected with which to document, map, analyse and understand the dynamic response of these processes to the cultivation, planting and growth. These field data will be used to develop and validate a hydrologic-hydraulic flood risk model of the catchment pre and post planting, with the intention of simulating a wide range of modelled scenarios.

Supervisors

Dr Heather Haynes and Dr Lindsay Beevers

Contact

Email: mve1@hw.ac.uk