Date/Time
Date(s) - Tue 9 June
10:00 - 11:00
Large wood, comprising fallen trees, trunks, and branches supplied to rivers, is crucial to fluvial ecosystems. Stationary wood interacts with water flow and sediment, shaping channel morphology and increasing hydraulic and structural diversity, thereby supporting aquatic and riparian ecosystems. Moreover, mobile wood helps redistribute organic materials and nutrients within river networks. However, in high-energy environments, like mountain rivers, the transport of wood, may worsen flood hazards by creating blockages in channels or bridges. Thus, quantifying the wood regime, defined as the supply, transport, and storage of large wood, is vital for understanding and managing fluvial systems better. This presentation will detail findings from a project supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation, employing field observations, numerical modeling, fingerprinting techniques, and machine learning to investigate large wood dynamics across various spatial and temporal scales.
Presenter: Virginia Ruiz-Villanueva works as a Professor at the Institute of Geography of the University of Bern (Switzerland) since 2023, where she leads the Unit of Geomorphology, Natural Hazards, and Risk Research. Virginia is a fluvial geomorphologist, and her research integrates fieldwork, remote sensing, geoprocessing, and numerical modelling to advance methods for monitoring and modelling fluvial systems, informing sustainable management strategies and environmental policies.
Virginia Ruiz-Villanueva obtained a BA in Earth Sciences from the University of Oviedo (Spain, 2006) and a Master’s in Geomorphology, Hydrology and Natural Risks from the Complutense University of Madrid (Spain, 2008), where she also completed her doctorate in Fluvial Geomorphology in 2013. She has worked as a postdoc and scientific collaborator at the University of Bern (Institute of Geological Sciences; 2013-2016), the Institute of Environmental Sciences (University of Geneva; 2016-2019), and the Hydraulics, Hydrology, and Glaciology (VAW) Laboratory of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH; 2019). Between 2020 and 2025, she was awarded an SNSF Eccellenza Professorship and led the River Ecosystems Research Group at the Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics of the Geosciences and Environment Faculty at the University of Lausanne.