This document contains descriptions of GRADUATION RESEARCH ... · morphodynamics of estuaries:...

This document contains descriptions of

GRADUATION RESEARCH PROJECTS

in study paths of the programmes

MSc EARTH SURFACE AND WATER

MSc EARTH, LIFE AND CLIMATE

as offered for 2018 by staff of

THE DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY

Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University

A list of project titles, sorted by study path is found on

pages 2 till 5 of this document

CONTENTS This document contains descriptions of graduation research projects in the programmes MSc Earth Surface and Water and Earth, Life and Climate as offered by staff of the Department of Physical Geography. There are 62 projects offered, of which 27 are offered in multiple programmes. Students are kindly asked to make a selection of choices from the listing provided.

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OFFERED PROJECTS BY TRACK

Earth surface and Water study path: Hydrology

Also offered in track page

Mapping the global irrigation network: Linking surface water to irrigated areas

6

A high-resolution model of a Himalayan valley and its glaciers

7

Using machine learning to predict river flow from meteorological variables in the Langtang catchment in Nepal

8

Transfer and travel times of fine

sediment in Geul River, The Netherlands

Coastal dynamics and fluvial systems 9

Historic water levels of the Rhine Coastal dynamics and fluvial systems Geohazards and Earth observation Climate reconstruction

10

Global data driven methods for Malaria epidemics risk assessment

Geohazards and Earth observation 11 - 12

Modelling droughts in the

Magdalena-Cauca macrobasin in Colombia; implications for water management

Geohazards and Earth observation 13

Impact of climate change on extremes and natural hazards in Asia


Monitoring reservoirs operations from space


Closing the water balance in the Magdalena–Cauca macrobasin in Colombia


Impact of drought occurrence and severity on land cover and degradation in north Tanzania


Hydrological modelling of the cross-boundary Yarmouk river for decision

support


Soil moisture dynamics and groundwater recharge in the Jordanian Badia


Early-warning signals of desertification (or recovery)


Re-vegetation and water availability in Mediterranean areas: a study case

in northeastern Spain


Parallel algorithms for environmental modeling¶

Coastal dynamics and fluvial systems Geohazards and Earth observation

22

Formalising interactions between environmental models


23

3

Earth surface and Water

study path: Hydrology Also offered in track page

Coupled field-agent modelling: an algebra for fields and objects


24 - 25

Evaluating hydrograph and sedigraph

characteristics as early-warning signals of soil degradation


26

Identifying systemic change in catchment hydrology


27 - 28

Streamflow prediction under different re-vegetation scenarios


29

Earth surface and Water

study path: Coastal dynamics

and fluvial systems

Also offered in track page

Suspended sediment characteristics in the Rhine River

30

Long-term trends in suspended sediment loads and composition in the Rhine River

31

Rapid assessment tool for river geometry

32

Assessment of landscaping measures in riverine environments: planning, parameterization, hydrodynamics, or

ecosystem services


Historic extreme flood modelling 34

Bifurcation stability at river bars and tidal bars

35

Hydrodynamic modelling of fluvial processes on Mars

36

Bank and levee development in rivers and estuaries: models and

experiments

37

Vegetation interacting with morphodynamics of estuaries:

models and experiments

38

Characterisation of estuaries with networks and hypsometry


Reconstruction of Palaeozoic tidal environments: effects of vegetation?

Integrated stratigraphy and sedimentary systems

40

Why does mangrove zonation exist?

Investigating coastal landscape evolution with a new ecomorphodynamic model

41

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Earth surface and Water study path: Coastal dynamics

and fluvial systems

Also offered in track Page

To carve or not to carve; on the role of species dependent bio-physical interactions in shaping inter-tidal

landscapes

42

Impacts of bio-flocculation on sediment transport

43

Impacts of plant morphology on sedimentation erosion patterns in intertidal landscapes

44

The dynamics of the Wadden Sea

during storms 45

Sediment transport on the Ameland ebb-tidal delta

46

Studying decadal developments in tides and river flow in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam

47

Modelling of multi-year aeolian sand

transport toward the foredune 48

Wind patterns in man-made coastal trough blowouts

49

Skewness and asymmetry of waves in the nearshore zone

50

Timing of aeolian sand transport

events on a narrow beach Geohazards and Earth observation 51

Sandbar-beach dynamics of a

nourished sandy coast, Egmond aan Zee


Modelling alongshore-variable dune erosion with XBeach

53

Holocene sediment trapping, preservation and reworking: a

national-coverage budget analysis for the Dutch low lands

Integrated stratigraphy and

sedimentary systems 54

Unravelling causes of subsidence in

the Irrawaddy delta, Myanmar



Modelling subsidence due to peat compaction in deltas

Integrated stratigraphy and sedimentary systems

56

Failure of underwater slopes due to

flow slides



5

Earth surface and Water study path: Geohazards and

Earth observation

Also offered in track Page

Embankment detection and ranging: mapping of flood protection structures from space

58

Spatio-temporal temperature patterns in the Grensmaas River to derive fish habitat suitability and mortality.

59

Redistribution of snow and ice through avalanches in a Himalayan catchment

60

Identifying sources of light-adsorbing

particles in the Himalayas 61

The impacts of Maasai settlement on

land use/cover changes and livelihood strategies in north Tanzania

62

Looking below the surface of the Wadden Sea: using objects to map

benthic macrofauna from space

63

Explore the treasure of modern data

to map tidal marshes 64

Spotting occupancy of burrows to help Bubonic Plague prevention, a case study in Kazakhstan

65

The rise and fall of riparian vegetation patches

66

Finding the failure plane of the Charonnier landslide in the Alps using geophysical techniques

67

Mapping the Jurassic/Cretaceous lithological units in the Buëch area in France using Sentinel-2 and ASTER

68

Redistribution of snow and ice through avalanches in a Himalayan

catchment

69

Novel air pollution exposure

modeling - Evaluating spatial-temporal aggregation as substitute for uncertain activity patterns

70

Improving air pollution mapping using Earth observation satellite

imagery

71

Personal exposure to air pollution in megacities of the world

72

Near real-time deforestation monitoring from satellite time series imagery

73

6

Earth Surface and Water Hydrology

Earth Surface and Water Coastal dynamics and fluvial systems

Earth Surface and Water Geohazards and Earth observation

Earth, Life and Climate Integrated stratigraphy and sedimentary systems

Earth, Life and Climate Climate reconstruction

Title: Mapping the global irrigation network: Linking surface water to irrigated areas

Supervision: Menno Straatsma, Rens van Beek

In cooperation with: -

Description:

Water scarcity presents a serious risk to people, industry, livestock and agriculture. The water gap, defined as the difference between water demand and water supply, is expected to increase due to changes in both the supply as well as demand. Climate

change is expected to change the water supply with varying effects per basin, while water demand is largely affected by increased population and improved living standards. Global Hydrological Models (GHMs) are regularly used in combination with water demand and supply routines to determine the water gap globally. Linking the water supply to water demand is normally carried out by a stepwise approach in which water is taken (1) from the river if a river is close by, (2) from a reservoir release upstream if present, and (3) from the non-sustainable ground water if the no surface water is

available. However, there is no physically-based link between surface water and irrigated areas, and water supply is not based on existing irrigation networks. Recently, a GIS routine has been developed to extract efficient irrigation networks from a terrain model, but this needs to be extended and validated based on additional data. Building on current work at our department on global water scarcity, activities will comprise:

• Develop a method to extract irrigation networks from OpenStreetMap together with SRTM terrain heights. A topology needs to be built to link primary irrigation canals to the main rivers, and secondary channels to the main channels. Development can

be carried out on the Nile, Indus, San Joaquin, or Rhine irrigation systems. • Parameterize and extend the existing GIS routine to extract irrigation networks from

a DTM. Apply the improved GIS routine globally on a spatial resolution of 5 arc

minutes (~10x10 km). • Determine the effects of the irrigation network on consumptive use and water

scarcity using the PCR-GLOBWB global hydrological model. Compare the modelled consumptive use against reported consumptive use.

Location: Utrecht University

Period: Autumn 2018 or in mutual consent

Number of students: 1

Programme / track: Hydrology/Earth Surface Hydrology, Physical Geography / Fluvial Systems, Physical Geography/Soil and Water Systems

Prerequisites: Land Surface Hydrology, Hydrology and Climate/Fluvial Systems and Climate Change. Recommended: Handson GIS

Contact / info: [email protected]; [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]


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Title: A high-resolution model of a Himalayan valley and its glaciers

Supervision: Remco de Kok / Walter Immerzeel


Description:

Many of the rivers in South Asia originate in the high mountains. The rainfall, snow melt and glacier melt from the mountains are therefore very important for the millions of people living downstream, who require water for irrigation, water production, sanitation, and religious practises. Due to the difficulty of taking measurements of the high

mountains, either in situ or by satellites, there is still much unknown about the processes that govern the hydrological cycle in the high mountains, such as precipitation patterns and glacier melt. In this project, you will make a new model using the SPLHY model code (www.sphy.nl) of a Himalayan valley and its glaciers, which will be more detailed than the models that are currently available. Based on available measurements from within the valley, and

the newly available ERA5 dataset, you will first make a high-resolution representation of the weather in the valley. These climatic forcings will then be coupled to the high-resolution SPHY hydrological model. At the end of the project, the aim is to be able to reasonably reproduce the glacier mass balances and the measured river run-off, and so to have a new tool to study the hydrological cycle of High Mountain Asia.

Location: Desk study

Period: 4 (2017 – 2018), 1-2 (2018-2019)


Programme / track: Earth Surface Hydrology

Prerequisites: Some programming experience would be beneficial

Contact / info: [email protected] / [email protected]

http://www.sphy.nl/



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Title: Using machine learning to predict river flow from meteorological variables in the Langtang catchment in Nepal

Supervision: Maxime Litt, Walter Immerzeel

In cooperation with:

Description:

Machine learning algorithms have become very popular in recent years and also have a wide field of application earth sciences. They can be used to predict an environmental variable from a set of measured inputs. Knowledge about the past response of the

variable with regard to the measured inputs is however necessary. During a preliminary training phase, the algorithm is trained to model the desired output, given a dataset covering a time period of measured outputs and corresponding inputs. In a second phase, the trained algorithm can be validated against another set of output and inputs valid for a different time period. Finally, once the validation is satisfactory, future predictions can be performed. Various meteorological and hydrological stations have

recorded precipitation, temperature and radiation and glacier melt relevant variables together with river flow in the Langtang catchment. The objective of this study is to test the applicability of machine learning algorithms to predict outflow in the Langtang catchment based on a set of measured meteorological variables and, if successful, predict future runoff in the catchment. The analysis will be performed in either R or Python and use will made of existing machine learning packages.


Period: September 2018 – January/February 2019


Programme / track: Earth Surface Hydrology

Prerequisites: Some programming experience would be very beneficial




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Title: Transfer and travel times of fine sediment in Geul River, The Netherlands

Supervision: Dr. M van der Perk


Description:

Intermittent sedimentation and subsequent resuspension causes considerable delays in the source-to-sink transport of fine sediment and associated nutrients and contaminants through rivers systems. The transfer rate of contaminated sediments through the river system depends on the sediment storage and release processes and their varying rates.

This study will quantify the storage and release rates and the accompanying sediment residence time of fine sediment in a reach of the Geul River. This will be achieved by means of a combination of field measurements of sedimentation and release rates in various sediment storage compartments (channel bed, channel banks and floodplains) using sediment traps and erosion pins and measurements of the metal content of the sediments. The field data will be used to develop a mathematical model of fine sediment

transfer in small gravel-bed streams.

Location: Geul River Valley, The Netherlands

Period: 4-8 weeks fieldwork in the period from September 2018

Number of students: 1-2

Programme / track: Earth Surface and Water / Coastal and Fluvial Systems or Hydrology

Prerequisites: GEO4-4436 Fluvial Systems

Contact / info: [email protected]


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Title: Historic water levels of the Rhine

Supervision: Bas van der Meulen, dr. Kim Cohen, prof. dr. Hans Middelkoop

In cooperation with: prof. dr. Jürgen Herget (University of Bonn)

Description:

In this project you will use historic data to reconstruct (1) past flooding events and (2)

long-term effects of changes in river morphology. Information on past water levels comes from marks depicting maximum water levels during flooding and from historic

measurement series of water level in the river. You will collect these two unique types of data along the Lower Rhine river in Germany and the Rhine river branches in the Netherlands, and interpret the data in a quantitative way.

Maximum water levels during large floods were in several cases marked in stone to commemorate the event (see figure). Part of the project is to study these marks and integrate them with daily measurement series of water level that are available from circa 1780 onwards for a few

locations along the Rhine. By combining the measurement series of multiple locations you will reconstruct water level gradients along the river and individual river branches at day-to-day resolution. Focus of interpretation is on (1) rapid to abrupt changes in water level related to floods

(link to historic water level marks) and (2) slow,

continuous changes related to for example changing bed levels. Identifying and linking these changes to forcing factors such as river engineering works and climate change is of particular importance to society. We will aim to publish the results in an international journal.

Historic marks depicting past water levels during Rhine river floods, Emmerich

Location: Desk study in Utrecht, site visits in NL and DE

Period: Flexible

Number of students: 1 or 2

Programme / track: Climate reconstruction Coastal dynamics and fluvial systems Geohazards and Earth observation Hydrology

Prerequisites: Course(s) on statistics Experience with Matlab or R



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Title: Global data driven methods for Malaria epidemics risk assessment

Supervision: Dr. Meng Lu ([email protected]), Dr. Derek Karssenberg ([email protected])

In cooperation with: Partners in https://globalgeohealthdatacenter.com

Description:

Malaria poses serious social and health burdens in many tropical and subtropical countries. It is widely acknowledged that the malaria transmission dynamics are closely

related to climatic and environmental factors. With the burgeoning availability of global Earth observation data, the opportunity arises to examine how a data-driven approach could contribute to global malaria epidemic risk assessing and warning. The objective of this study is to examine whether Earth observations and a data driven approach can improve understanding of the linkage between weather, surface water, vegetation, and Malaria occurrence.

Potentially, we will use open surface water products derived from high resolution (30m) satellite imagery [1] with long time series. The corresponding paper has been published in Nature in 2016 [2]. This dataset will provide us information about spatiotemporal dynamics of global surface water to link it with Malaria incidence. The time series of precipitation volumes may be from TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Missing, flew from 1997-2015) products and GPMM (Global precipitation measurement Mission, launched on Feb.27, 2014)[3]. The Land surface temperature will be derived from the Landsat

satellite product or using existing products. Besides, the project will also include local scale identification of malaria-weather relationships using precipitation and temperature data from local rainfall gauge network and meteorological stations.

The research questions are, but not confined to: what are the independent and joint effects of the above-mentioned variables on Malaria incidence? Can the Malaria

epidemics be predicted? What is the potential of Earth observations in global Malaria mapping and warning? Can the locally identified relationship be extended to global mapping? How does climate change (e.g. in extreme weather events, temperature, precipitation) affect Malaria epidemics? This interdisciplinary study will expose you to a wide range of global Earth observation products and novel data analytics methods. You will learn and develop novel

spatiotemporal statistical algorithms to analyse dynamics of global climatic and environmental factors such as precipitation, land surface temperature, water surface, and identify their joined effects and spatiotemporal predicting power on Malaria epidemics. [1] Global surface water. https://global-surface-water.appspot.com/

[2] Pekel, J. F., Cottam, A., Gorelick, N., & Belward, A. S. (2016). High-resolution

mapping of global surface water and its long-term changes. Nature, 540(7633), 418-422. [3] Global precipitation measurement: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/GPM/overview/index.html

mailto:d.karssenberg%40uu.nl

https://global-surface-water.appspot.com/

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Period: Any period


Programme / track: Geohazards and Earth Observation

Prerequisites: Earth observation, basic spatiotemporal data analysis (content of project can be adjusted to your background)

Contact / info: Meng Lu ([email protected])

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Title: Modelling droughts in the Magdalena-Cauca macrobasin in Colombia; implications for water management

Supervision: Geert Sterk, Rens van Beek

In cooperation with: Erasmo Rodriguez (UNAL, Colombia)

Description:

The Magdalena–Cauca river basin in Colombia is home to approximately 80% of the Colombian population. It is a medium size basin, draining an area of about 257,000 km2, mainly in the Colombian Andes, with a length of the main course of about 1,600

km. Large cities like Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, Barranquilla, and Bucaramanga are located in the basin with the subsequent water pollution problems. Climate variability, climate change and huge land use alterations in the Magdalena-Cauca river basin have recently resulted in the large floods that occurred at the end of the 2010 and 2011, with over 500 casualties and 2.5 Million people affected. The Magdalena–Cauca basin is the most important hydrosytem in Colombia. Despite its

importance, the hydro-dynamics of the basin are still poorly understood. Discharge is routinely measured at a large number of sub-basins, but basic data on rainfall, evapotranspiration, and soil moisture are generally lacking. A recently terminated project (eartH2Observe) has provided a large global database of water balance components over the last 30 years. This dataset may help to improve the quantification of the water balance terms of the Magdalena-Cauca basin.

Meteorological and hydrological droughts are recurrent phenomena in this watershed, but not much investigated. Currently a MSc student from UNAL is doing a spatial and temporal characterization of droughts in the basin, deriving meteorological and

hydrological droughts indices from observed and reanalysis data. The aim of this UU MSc study will be to evaluate different hydrological models for predicting drought occurrence and intensity in the Magdalena-Cauca watershed by using the results of the

Colombian MSc student. Combining the drought indices with eartH2Observe models and results will be used to evaluate the drought impacts on evapotranspiration, soil moisture storage and discharge. Depending on the interest of the student, he or she may carry out hydrological modelling him/herself, but the study can be based entirely on existing model outputs from eartH2Observe as well. An assessment of water management options will be made to assist the local water management institute IDEAM.

A three-months period of research work in Colombia, in collaboration with the Universidad Nacional de Colombia will be part of this thesis.

Location: Utrecht and Colombia (Bogota)

Period: Sept. 2018 – Feb. 2019


Programme / track: Earth Surface and Water/Hydrology Earth Surface and Water/Geohazards and Earth Observation

Prerequisites: Land Surface Hydrology

Contact / info: Geert Sterk, [email protected]


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Title: Impact of climate change on extremes and natural hazards in Asia

Supervision: Dr. N. Wanders, Dr. W.W. Immerzeel


Description:

High-mountain regions in Asia play an important water supplying role and are sensitive to climate change. Downstream areas profit from the constant and reliable release of glacial melt water. However, with increasing population growth, water demand and rising temperature, the pressure on the system has increased in the past decade. The

unsustainable use of water and increasing demands is especially evident under extreme conditions, like floods, droughts, or heatwaves. The added treat of climate change and changes in the landscape and hydrological regime are causing additional problems for the region. This study aims to quantify the changes in magnitude and occurrence of one or more natural hazards in the region (e.g. floods, droughts, heatwaves, landslides, forest fires).

First, you will review the past occurrence of natural hazards in the region based on literature and media analysis. Secondly, you will model the risks based on spatial datasets of elevation, slope, land use and climate and if time permits you will finally use climate model data to assess if the risk for a certain hazard will increase in the future.


Period: 4 (2017 – 2018), 1-2 (2018-2019)


Programme / track: Earth Surface and Water

Prerequisites: Some modelling experience would be highly recommended




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Title: Monitoring reservoirs operations from space

Supervision: Dr. N. Wanders, Prof . Dr. S.M de Jong


Description:

Reservoirs are a key component of the hydrological cycle and play an important role in managing the major river systems of the world. Unfortunately, we have poor understanding of the state and operating rules of the global reservoirs. Little information is available and reservoir managers are in general not openly sharing their data. Space-

born altimeters provide an alternative to get near real-time water level data for some of the largest lakes and reservoirs around the world. In this study you will use altimeter data to infer the operating rules and policies of these reservoirs. Firstly, you will collect publically available data from the United States on reservoir operations. Secondly, you will use these data to validate the quality of the remotely sensed data and infer the operating rules of the reservoirs. Finally, you will

use the rules at the global dataset and make estimates of global reservoir levels and policies.


Period: September 2018 – Spring 2019



Prerequisites: Remote Sensing, modelling experience beneficial



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Title: Closing the water balance in the Magdalena–Cauca macrobasin in Colombia

Supervision: Geert Sterk, Rens van Beek

In cooperation with: Erasmo Rodriguez (UNAL, Colombia)

Description:

The Magdalena–Cauca river basin in Colombia is home to approximately 80% of the Colombian population. It is a medium size basin, draining an area of about 257,000 km2, mainly in the Colombian Andes, with a length of the main course of about 1,600

km. Large cities like Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, Barranquilla, and Bucaramanga are located in the basin with the subsequent water pollution problems. Climate variability, climate change and huge land use alterations in the Magdalena-Cauca river basin have recently resulted in the large floods that occurred at the end of the 2010 and 2011, with over 500 casualties and 2.5 Million people affected. The Magdalena–Cauca basin is the most important hydrosytem in Colombia. But despite

its importance, the actual water balance of the basin is poorly understood. Discharge is routinely measured at a large number of sub-basins, but basic data on rainfall, evapotranspiration, and soil moisture are generally lacking. A recently terminated project (eartH2Observe) has provided a large global database of water balance components over the last 30 years. This dataset may help to improve the quantification of the water balance terms of the Magdalena-Cauca basin.

The aim of this thesis is to close the terrestrial water balance in the Magdalena-Cauca watershed using in-situ observed data and eartH2Observe data of rainfall, evapotranspiration, soil moisture and discharge. Knowing for example Q and ET try to

derive P, compare the results with the precipitation data from eartH2Observe and perform an uncertainty analysis. The approach that will be used is according to the method applied in the Mississippi basin (Munier et al., 2014. Combining data sets of

satellite-retrieved products for basin-scale water balance study: 2. Evaluation on the Mississippi Basin and closure correction model, J. Geophys. Res. Atmos., 119, 12,100–12,116). A three-months period of research work in Colombia, in collaboration with the Universidad Nacional de Colombia will be part of this thesis.

Location: Utrecht and Colombia (Bogota)







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Title: Impact of drought occurrence and severity on land cover and degradation in north Tanzania

Supervision: Geert Sterk, Niko Wanders

In cooperation with: Juma Wickama (ARI, Tanzania)

Description:

The Rift Valley in north Tanzania is characterized by a semi-arid climate. The natural vegetation is dominated by savanna with scattered trees, shrubs and grasses. Traditionally the area is occupied by the Maasai, a Nilotic ethnic group of semi-nomadic

people. Their traditional way of life is to move around with free-roaming cattle herds. The Maasai share the savanna with many wildlife animals. Drought is a recurrent feature of the Maasai land in north Tanzania, and is partly related to Sea Surface Temperature (SST) changes such as caused by El Nino and La Nina. There are indications that drought has become worse over the last decades. Drought reduces vegetation cover, which affects the grazing resources for the Maasai livestock and may result in land degradation by overgrazing.

A problem in the study of drought is the lack of reliable rainfall data in the region. One way of studying drought severity and frequency is by monitoring the surface area of Lake Manyara. This shallow lake responds rapidly to the rainfall amounts during the two annual rainfall seasons. In a good rainfall year the lake surface is spread out while drought ensures a strong shrinkage of the surface area. In addition, there are continuously developments in global rainfall products (e.g. WFDEI, MSWEP) that can be

used to analyse rainfall in ungauged areas. Finally, there are remote sensing based soil moisture products that also can be used to assess drought occurrence.

The aims of this thesis research are 1) to analyse drought occurrence and frequency in north Tanzania by using remote sensing techniques to analyse soil moisture and the dynamics of the surface area of Lake Manyara; 2) to analyse available rainfall data and

relate the seasonal rainfall amounts to SST anomalies; and 3) to relate drought occurrence and severity to changes in land cover and land degradation. The work will consist of a literature study of the influence of SST anomalies on rainfall in north Tanzania, a RS analysis of soil moisture and the surface area of Lake Manyara, an analysis of drought occurrence and its relation to SST signals, and development of a simple model that links rainfall, drought, grazing and land degradation. A three-months

period of field work in north Tanzania, in collaboration with the District Agricultural Office and the Agricultural Research Institute (ARI) will be part of this thesis.

Location: Utrecht and Tanzania (Mto Wa Mbu)




Prerequisites: Land Surface Hydrology Remote Sensing



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Title: Hydrological modelling of the cross-boundary Yarmouk river for decision support

Supervision: Dr. G. Sterk / Dr. S. Strohmeier


Description:

The Department of Physical Geography collaborates with the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) at Amman in Jordan. ICARDA is a large research institute with scientists from over 25 countries and excellent facilities. The

main work done by ICARDA is crop breeding to develop improved crop varieties for the WANA region (West Asia and North Africa). For more information about ICARDA, see http://www.icarda.cgiar.org/. In addition to crop breeding, ICARDA also works on natural resources conservation, with an emphasis on water management and soil erosion research. For one of their current projects, ICARDA is searching for an MSc student to conduct the following research:

Large scale river basin modeling in the cross-boundary Yarmouk river to support water management decision making. The Yarmouk river is an important water resource which flows through Syria, Palestine, Israel and Jordan. Apart from the political difficulties, the river basin is also strongly affected by climate change, demographic changes, and land use changes. Currently water management and decision making is hampered by a lack of accurate quantitative

data on the available water resources. Also past and future changes in water resources availability are largely unknown.

The aim of this thesis is to set-up a basin scale model (e.g. SWAT) for the Yarmouk river using in-situ and globally available hydrological data. The model will be calibrated and used to evaluate past and future changes in water resources availability. A three

months stay at ICARDA will be part of this thesis research.

Location: Utrecht and Jordan (Amman)

Period: September until January 2018


Programme / track: Earth Surface and Water/Hydrology Earth Surface and Water/Geohazards and Earth observation




19






Title: Soil moisture dynamics and groundwater recharge in the Jordanian Badia

Supervision: Dr. G. Sterk / Dr. S. Strohmeier


Description:

The Department of Physical Geography collaborates with the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) at Amman in Jordan. ICARDA is a large research institute with scientists from over 25 countries and excellent facilities. The main work done by ICARDA is crop breeding to develop improved crop varieties for the

WANA region (West Asia and North Africa). For more information about ICARDA, see http://www.icarda.cgiar.org/. In addition to crop breeding, ICARDA also works on natural resources conservation, with an emphasis on water management and soil erosion research. For one of their current projects, ICARDA is searching for an MSc student to conduct the following research: Field-scale water balance in the dry Badia environment.

The Jordan desert or Badia is characterized by low annual rainfall (<150 mm) which comes usually in sporadic but intense storms. The Badia is used for extensive sheep grazing and crop production at the relatively wet zones. In addition there is small scale irrigation either from harvested surface runoff or from groundwater pumping. Generally the hydrology of the Badia is poorly understood. Surface runoff occurs

frequently during intense rainstorms, but soil moisture storage and groundwater recharge is generally unknown. The aim of this thesis research is to quantify by field measurements and modelling the field water balance. ICARDA would like to start

modelling with the HYDRUS2D/3D model and make an assessment of groundwater recharge in the Badia region. ICARDA is operating a field site in the Badia where several types of hydrological measurements are collected since many years, and also

experiments with water harvesting structures are conducted. The research will combine field work and modelling during a three months stay at ICARDA.

Location: Utrecht and Jordan (Amman)

Period: September until January 2018


Programme / track: Earth Surface and Water/Hydrology Earth Surface and Water/Geohazards and Earth observation




20






Title: Early-warning signals of desertification (or recovery)

Supervision: Dr Derek Karssenberg (Utrecht University)

In cooperation with: Researchers in Spain

Description:

Landscape systems may undergo abrupt transitions as a result of a gradual change in system drivers. Such regime shifts, or critical transitions, are often considered undesirable because they cause large changes in the landscape that are often irreversible. A well-known regime shift in land surface systems is desertification, i.e. the

shift from a vegetated landscape to a largely unvegetated landscape, often with degraded soils and increased erosion. The process of desertification is often abrupt, while it may be driven by a rather gradual increase in grazing intensity. At a certain threshold grazing intensity, biomass starts to decrease, which results in increased throughfall and runoff, causing increased runoff erosion, reducing soil thickness, which again has a negative effect on biomass growth. This positive feedback loop results in a relatively abrupt degradation at the grazing intensity threshold.

It is notably hard to detect this upcoming regime shift, because mean values of the system state variables (e.g. soil thickness, discharge, vegetation biomass) show little change before a transition occurs. This problem has sparked research focused on finding alternative properties of the system that show a more marked change before a transition is coming. It has been shown that such so-called early-warning signals exist, more specifically higher-order statistics of state variables (e.g. instead of the mean

value of discharge, the variance; instead of the mean vegetation biomass the spatial variation in biomass). Thus far, however, the existence of such early warning signals is mainly shown for virtual realities, i.e. modelled hillslopes. The aim of this study is to

investigate the existence of early-warning signals in the real-world. You will address the questions of 1) What are the statistical properties of vegetation cover, soil moisture and/or discharge of various catchments at different stages of soil degradation or soil

recovery? 2) Can differences in statistical properties be explained by the occurrence of (or upcoming) system shifts? You will answer these questions by a statistical analysis of time series of high-resolution remote sensing data, including soil moisture, leaf area index and vegetation cover and possibly hydrographs for the same area. We have access to a data set in an area close to Zaragoza, Spain, and cooperation with the research group in Zaragoza is an option if

you choose for this topic. Results of this analysis will be combined with information on the occurence of soil degradation or recovery in the same area, possibly by making a field visit. If time allows (or if the study is done by two students), the study can be extended by a modelling study investigating the occurence of early-warning signals in similar, modelled, systems. Most of the data is already available.

Location: Utrecht University, possibility to visit Spain to collect additional data

Period: To be determined


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

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

Contact / info: Derek Karssenberg ([email protected])


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Title: Re-vegetation and water availability in Mediterranean areas: a study case in northeastern Spain

Supervision: Derek Karssenberg ([email protected])

In cooperation with: Noemí Lana-Renault ([email protected])

Description:

In Mediterranean regions, water availability is low and depends on runoff generated in mountain areas. However, a marked decline in river discharges has been observed in

the last century, related to i) decreasing precipitation and increasing temperature and ii) increasing expansion of vegetation in the headwaters due to land abandonment. On the other hand, increasing water consumption for domestic, industrial and agricultural uses is occurring in the lowlands. Future water management will need to cope with these changing scenarios in order to ensure water supply. In this study we will focus on the impact of re-vegetation in the headwaters on future

trends of water availability. Questions addressed include: how will re-vegetation affect water availability? What is the seasonality of river flows? What is the water demand in the lowlands? What is the spatio-temporal pattern of the resulting water stress? The research will be carried out in the Ebro basin, an example representative for large Mediterranean rivers. An existing process-based distributed hydrological model developed within the PCRaster Python framework and calibrated in a small catchment in

the Pyrenees will be used. The model will be run under future land cover and climate change scenarios for a larger area in the Pyrenees. The discharge simulated in the upstream area will be compared to future downstream demand to calculate water

stress.

Location: Utrecht University, possibility to visit the research area (Ebro basin) to collect additional data




Prerequisites: courses in spatio-temporal modelling, hydrology, geomorphology, and/or natural hazards

Contact / info: Noemí Lana-Renault ([email protected]) or Derek Karssenberg ([email protected])


mailto:noemi-solange.lana-renault%40unirioja.es




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Title: Parallel algorithms for environmental modeling¶

Supervision: Dr. Derek Karssenberg ([email protected]), Dr Oliver

Schmitz ([email protected]), Drs Kor de Jong ([email protected])


Description:

Algorithms for environmental modeling are at the heart of any raster-based environment model. The environmental modeller combines these core model building

blocks to build a unique model. There are many different environmental modelling algorithms, some of which are also found in geographic information systems (GIS). Until around 2005, CPU cores found in computers doubled in clock speed about every two years. Environmental modellers who wanted to use more complex modelling rules and/or larger data sets, just had to buy a new computer to decrease the increased model run times. That is not the case anymore and so model run times keep increasing with added model complexity and data.

Because CPU cores are not getting much faster anymore, hardware vendors have been adding additional CPU cores to their CPU’s. One obvious way to solve the issue of increasing model run times is to make models use the multiple CPU cores. This requires a reimplementation of the above-mentioned environmental modelling algorithms. This project is about parallizing one or more environmental modelling algorithms. Some of these algorithms are very easy to parallize, and some are not. In this project you will

look into parallizing one or more algorithms from the latter category. You will design one or more approaches to parallize the algorithm and, depending on your interest and background, test these approaches by implementing them.

This work is highly relevant, because the results may be used in a new implementation of our own library of modelling algorithms. Faster algorithms will have obvious benefits

for the modellers and you can make a very concrete contribution to this. Supervision: You will be supervised by a team of experienced modellers and software engineers. They will provide you with a description of the sequential version of each algorithm and help you getting up to speed quickly. This team will at least consist of Dr. Derek Karssenberg and Drs. Kor de Jong.




Programme / track: Earth Surface and Water: Hydrology or Coastal dynamics and fluvial systems, or Geohazards and Earth observation

Prerequisites: preferably courses in spatio-temporal modelling, geoinformatics,

computer science

Contact / info: Derek Karssenberg ([email protected]), Kor de Jong ([email protected])


mailto:o.schmitz%40uu.nl

mailto:k.dejong%40uu.nl


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Title: Formalising interactions between environmental models




Description:

Environmental modelling tools are today an important tool to construct spatio-temporal models. They outperform system programming languages as a model development

environment regarding programming errors and implementation time and are therefore suitable for domain specialists like hydrologists, climatologists or ecologists. Nevertheless, these tools have mostly focused on the syntax of modelling languages ignoring the semantic aspect of models, i.e. the meaning of the inputs, functions and outputs of a component model. Without a formal definition of the semantics of model components it is almost impossible to provide generic principles for coupling component models.

The coupling of specialized component models is certainly a requirement for the construction of integrated models, as these represent a more holistic view on environmental processes. Therefore, the development of a formal definition of model components is required. A formal approach is provided by ontologies, which describe a conceptual domain, usually consisting of a set of statements that define concepts and relationships between concepts. While first steps towards ontologies for environmental

models exist (e.g. Williams, M et al 2009, Lake, R.et al 2004) most of these approaches do not provide a complete description of all aspects of inputs and outputs. Research on the development of an ontology describing the whole domain of spatio-temporal models,

including various modelling paradigms, spatial domains, and application domains is still required.

The research will be incorporated in an ongoing research project of integrated model development. Several research questions that are appropriate for a MSc thesis are available: • What is the current state of formal descriptions of model inputs and outputs, what

are limitations and potentials of those approaches • Development (design and implementation) of or extension of an existing ontology

suitable for coupling spatio-temporal model components

• Development (design and implementation) of a user interface for creating and modifying ontology descriptions by model developer

• Evaluating the possibilities of auto-generating ontology descriptions for existing models by software applications

• Assessing conversion problems of environmental variables occurring in the coupling of model components including different temporal and spatial resolutions, units,

coverage,

Own proposals are welcome.





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






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Title: Coupled field-agent modelling: an algebra for fields and objects




Description:

In our view, a modelling language is a language for expressing environmental models, by modellers. Modellers are domain experts who are not necessarely knowledgeable or

interested in software development. They need an environment with a high level of abstraction. A modelling language, like a script language or a graphical language for example, provides the means for the domain expert to express his ideas about the phenomena being modelled. Most domain experts are not able to express such ideas in lower level languages like C++, C#, Java or even Python. The use of these languages require the domain expert to know things that are not directly related to expressing a model, like managing computer memory, managing files, handling errors. Another

reason to provide a modelling environment directly to the domain expert, instead of asking a software developer to develop models for the domain expert, is that important decisions that have to be made during the development of the model get taken by the domain expert, instead of the developer. Like software development, model development is a highly itterative process, and decisions about the implementation need to be made continuously during the development of a model. Only for the most trivial models can the domain expert provide the software developer with the full specification

of the model beforehand. In most cases the requirements of the model get adjusted continuously, based on the model’s performance.

Modellers mostly construct models along one of two modelling paradigms: field based or agent based. In the field based approach, phenomena are considered as spatially continuous, and spatial variation is represented by changes in the attribute value.

Examples of fields are air temperature or elevation. In the agent based approach (also individual based, feature based, or object based approach), phenomena are represented as bounded objects that can be mobile. Spatial variation is represented by the distribution of objects in space. Although many landscape systems require to combine the field and agent based approaches, it is notably hard to do so in a model. This is mainly due to modelling languages being monolithic: they are either build around the field based or agent based paradigm. Integrating the two approaches requires coupling

different modelling frameworks, which can be error prone, difficult, and time consuming. To overcome this problem, this study aims at developing a modelling language that integrates the two approaches. The envisioned language should provide functions that operate on fields and/or agents, in a similar fashion. This will allow modellers to construct heterogeneous models consisting of agents and fields, in one single modelling

language. Depending on your background, you can focus on designing concepts of such

a language (e.g. the syntax), implementing a prototype (in your preferred programming language), or implementing a case study model that can be used to benchmark such a language. This is an interesting study if you like to combine your knowledge in spatio-temporal modelling and computer science or GIS. It gives you the opportunity to work in a multi

disciplinary team consisting of environmental scientists and (PCRaster) software engineers.




25





Prerequisites: courses in spatio-temporal modelling, geostatistics, remote sensing, hydrology, geomorphology, and/or natural hazards

(content of project can be adjusted to your background)



26






Title: Evaluating hydrograph and sedigraph characteristics as early-warning signals of soil degradation



Description:

Landscape systems my undergo abrupt transitions as a result of a gradual change in system drivers. Such regime shifts, or critical transitions, are often considered undesirable because they cause large changes in the landscape that are often

irreversible. A well known regime shift in land surface systems is the shift from thick hillslope soils with high biomass to soils with almost no soil cover and low biomass. This process of land degradation is often abrupt, while it may be driven by a rather gradual increase in grazing intensity. At a certain threshold grazing intensity, biomass starts to decrease, which results in increased throughfall and runoff, causing increased runoff erosion, reducing soil thickness, which again has a negative effect on biomass growth. This positive feedback loop results in a relatively abrupt degradation at the grazing

intensity threshold. It is notably hard to detect this upcoming regime shift, because mean values of the system state variables (e.g. soil thickness, discharge, vegetation biomass) show little change before a transition occurs. This problem has sparked research focused on finding alternative properties of the system that show a more marked change before a transition is coming. It has been shown that such so-called early-warning signals exist,

more specifically higher-order statistics of state variables (e.g. instead of the mean value of discharge, the variance; instead of the mean vegetation biomass the spatial variation in biomass).

In this study you will evaluate whether statistical properties of hydrographs and/or sedigraphs can be used as early-warning signals for soil degradation. This is done in a

modelling study. An existing hillslope evolution model that runs over time periods of hundreds to thousands of years is used to simulate the shift from a vegetated hillslope with thick soils to a degraded hillslope. Its main output is a timeseries of hillslope geometries (topographical surface, development of gullies, regolith thickness) and vegetation coverage. This output is used as input to an event-based hydrological model that is capable of modelling the complete hydrograph for individual events. It is expected that the hydrograph properties will change in advance of the upcoming shift

towards a degraded system. To analyse, this, statistical properties (e.g. peakflow, time to peak, total discharge) will be calculated of hydrographs. This is an interesting topic if you like a fundamental approach to hydrology, with a focus on modelling. The study is quite innovative, and you will be able to position your work in a (recently emerged) large body of literature on critical shifts and early-warning signals.





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



27






Title: Identifying systemic change in catchment hydrology



Description:

Temporal change in landscape systems is mostly studied with a focus on temporal variation in system states (e.g. groundwater level, discharge, denudation rate). These changes are driven by the landscape system, which includes all driving forces active in the landscape. In most cases, this system is considered constant, which implies that it is

assumed that the processes and their interconnections remain the same. For instance, model calibration against observational data (aiming at parameter identification) mostly assumes that the set of modelled processes and their associated parameters remain the same: a single set of equations and parameters is assumed to represent the past and future behavior of the system. In many cases, however, the system itself may change over time, due to external forces or due to internal mechanisms in the landscape that completely alter the system processes and system behavior. An example is the land use

system. Land use change is driven by many factors, including land prices, transport costs, housing costs, environmental properties. In many cases, these factors are considered constant and land use change is modelled with the same set of rules for all time steps. In reality however, many of these factors may change due to implementation of new technology or environmental laws, which implies systemic change of the land use system.

In this study you will address systemic change in the hydrological system. Hydrological models are nowadays-important tools for forecasting drought and flooding. To reduce uncertainty in forecasts, these models are calibrated against observational data, in most

cases river discharge time series. As noted above, it is mostly assumed that one unique set of model parameters can be used to represent hydrologic behavior for all time periods (both past and future simulations, for all years). In reality, however, systemic

change will occur, which will be associated with changes in parameter values. Systemic change in catchment hydrology may be due to changes in land use (causing changes in interception, infiltration), changes in geomorphology (causing changes in soil depth and subsurface hydrology), or other changes such as implementation of new reservoirs. In this study you will identify these changes by an inverse method, by calibrating a catchment model separately for each time period (typically one year) in a series of time periods. This will result in a time series of parameter values (i.e., a value for each year),

that represent the temporal change in the hydrologic system. Following this approach you can address the questions of 1) What is the temporal change in parameter values of a catchment model? 2) Is it possible to relate these temporal changes to changes in the modelled catchment (e.g. landuse, geomorphology, reservoirs) that caused this systemic change in the hydrology? 3) What are the possible implications of this systemic change for forecasts of catchment discharge?

For this study you will use existing calibration techniques on an existing data set (large time series data are available for multiple decennia) and model (one of the data sets available, most likely the Danube catchment). This is an interesting topic if you would like to apply your knowledge in hydrology in a challenging rather innovative study. You will get technical support from staff and PhD students at our institute to get the calibrations running. The content of the study can be adjusted to your interests (e.g.

you could also study systemic change in other landscape systems).

28

Location: Utrecht University, possibility to cooperate with Münster

University




Prerequisites: courses in (stochastic) hydrology, spatio-temporal modelling

(content of project can be adjusted to your background)



29






Title: Streamflow prediction under different re-vegetation scenarios

Supervision: Derek Karssenberg ([email protected])

In cooperation with: Noemí Lana-Renault ([email protected])

Description:

Mediterranean mountains have been largely affected by agricultural abandonment and subsequent vegetation recovery. The resulting expansion of forest and shrubs has modified the hydrological behavior of these areas, with significant impact on runoff

production. Forecasting the effect on stream flow response of such vegetation recovery is particularly relevant in the Mediterranean region, where water resources are scarce and uneven, and they rely on runoff generated in mountain areas. With this purpose, a process-based distributed hydrological model was developed within the PCRaster Python framework. The model has been calibrated in a past agricultural catchment (2.8 km2) in the Spanish Pyrenees, monitored by the Instituto Pirenacio de

Ecologia (CSIC). In order to reproduce realistic vegetation recovery scenarios, we need to determine the soil and vegetation parameters for several stages of land abandonment. The aim of this research is to characterize several stages of land abandonment in terms of vegetation and soil properties, and to identify their effect on the stream flow response. The research will include: • Fieldwork in the study area (Spanish Pyrenees): at each site (representing a stage

of land abandonment) we will collect data related to vegetation and soil

characteristics • Statistical analysis of the field data • Simulation of the hydrological response of the catchment under different re-

vegetation scenarios, based on the data collected in the field Detailed content of the research can be discussed and tailored to your background. The

fieldwork will take place preferably in September.

Location: Utrecht University, possibility to visit the research area (Ebro basin) to collect additional data




Prerequisites: courses in spatio-temporal modelling, hydrology, geomorphology, and/or natural hazards

Contact / info: Noemí Lana-Renault ([email protected]) or Derek Karssenberg ([email protected])






30






Title: Suspended sediment characteristics in the Rhine River

Supervision: Dr. M van der Perk, Prof. Dr. H. Middelkoop


Description:

Sediment characteristics, such particle size distribution, organic matter content, settling velocity distribution, control for a large part the transport and fate of suspended sediments in river systems. Furthermore, their chemical composition can reveal the origin of the sediment. However, data on these sediment characteristics is scarce for

most large rivers, including the Dutch rivers. This study aims to determine the sediment characteristics and their spatial and temporal variability in the Rhine River. This information will be used to assess the origin, transport pathways, and fate of suspended sediment in the Rhine River.

Location: Rhine River, The Netherlands and Germany

Period: Several days of fieldwork (sample collection) in the period from September 2018


Programme / track: Earth Surface and Water / Coastal and Fluvial Systems

Prerequisites: GEO4-4436 AW-Fluvial Systems



31






Title: Long-term trends in suspended sediment loads and composition in the Rhine River

Supervision: Dr. M van der Perk, Prof. Dr. H. Middelkoop


Description:

Most rivers of the world, including the Rhine river show decreasing trends in suspended sediment loads. This study aims to quantify the decrease in suspended sediment concentrations and loads in the Dutch and German part of the Rhine River using existing

monitoring data and to identify the major causes of this decrease (reduced erosion/sediment supply in headwaters or increased retention/sedimentation in the channel network).


Period: September 2018 – January/February 2019


Programme / track: Earth Surface and Water / Coastal and Fluvial Systems

Prerequisites: GEO4-4436 AW-Fluvial Systems



32






Title: Rapid assessment tool for river geometry

Supervision: Bas van der Meulen, dr. Menno Straatsma, prof. dr. Hans

Middelkoop

In cooperation with: Anke Becker (Deltares)

Description:

For many rivers around the world as well as for any historic river, for example the Rhine before large-scale human intervention, information on bed topography (bathymetry) is limited or absent. In cases like these, water depth information exists only for a set of

cross-sections or scattered points, and standard interpolation techniques do not provide an accurate representation of the river bed. Recently, Deltares developed a rapid assessment tool for automatic reconstruction of river bed topography (see figure). This tool can currently estimate bed topography only for

single river branches. The first objective of this project is to investigate how the tool can be extended to cope with bifurcations and eventually entire river systems. This will lead to an improved tool for river

geometry assessment, that could be used for a variety of goals by many different users.

The second objective is to apply and thereby test the tool on the Rhine river in Germany and the Netherlands during industrial and medieval times. The shorelines during these

times are fairly well known from historical and geological data, which are already digitized. Bathymetry information is available but limited. The resulting reconstruction of past river morphology will be used as an essential element in hydraulic modelling of historic extreme floods of the Rhine river. Note: You will carry out part of the work at Deltares research institute in Delft. This project may also be suitable as an internship (contact for options).

Location: Delft and Utrecht

Period: Flexible


Programme / track: Coastal dynamics and fluvial systems

Prerequisites: River and Delta Systems or Land Surface Process Modelling Affinity and preferably experience with programming in Python



33






Title: Assessment of landscaping measures in riverine environments: planning, parameterization, hydrodynamics, or ecosystem services

Supervision: Menno Straatsma; Hans Middelkoop; Elisabeth Addink


Description:

The river system consists of three interacting components, which can be characterized as the hydrosystem, the ecosystem, and the socio-economic system. In time, the autonomous development of the river system is combined with additional pressures

from climate change and socio-economic developments, which necessitate landscaping measures in lowland fluvial areas. Which measures to take depends, amongst others, on the goals of the intervention, the perspective of the decision maker, and the societal preparedness for change. Within the RiverCare project, Utrecht University works on a planning and assessment tool that aims at optimizing river landscaping measures. Within this framework, we seek MSc students that wish to focus on any of the following aspects:

Cyclic floodplain rejuvenation and effects on biodiversity and hydrodynamics tools: GIS, RiverScape-Routines, hydrodynamic modeling, BIOSAFE biodiversity modeling.

Cost-benefit trade-offs in flood mitigation measures tools: Literature review on cost, hydrodynamic modeling, optimization

Mapping ecosystem services over time and space. tools: multi-temporal and/or object-based image analysis; GIS

Note: ‘Ecosystem services’ is a trending policy instrument that urgently needs careful definition and mapping in a fluvial environment. Starting with satellite imagery,

classification into ecotopes and computation of ecosystem services is envisaged.



Number of students: 1 to 2

Programme / track: Natural Hazards and Earth Observation

Prerequisites: Depending on the topic: Land surface process modelling, Remote sensing,

Contact / info: [email protected]/[email protected]/[email protected]




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Title: Historic extreme flood modelling

Supervision: Bas van der Meulen, dr. Kim Cohen, prof. dr. Hans

Middelkoop

In cooperation with: Anouk Bomers (University of Twente), dr. Ralph Schielen (University of Twente and Rijkswaterstaat), prof. dr. Suzanne Hulscher (University of Twente)

Location: Desk study in Utrecht and a number of days in Enschede, possible site visits in Rhine river area

Period: Flexible



Prerequisites: Experience with ArcGIS Affinity and preferably experience with hydraulic modelling


Description:

In this MSc thesis project, you will study one historic extreme flood of the Rhine river in

Germany and the Netherlands. You will use ArcGIS to reconstruct the river area (topography, roughness) at the time of flooding using existing datasets. Then, you will perform a series of hydraulic model runs using your reconstruction as model input. The model output will allow you to determine past flow patterns and discharge.

In studying historic extreme floods of the Rhine we collaborate with researchers of the University of Twente (project Floods of the Past, Design for the Future). One or more visits to the University of Twente are part of this MSc thesis project. The main objective of these visits is to obtain numerical hydraulic modelling expertise in D-Flow FM, a two-dimensional model with a flexible grid that is similar in operation to Delft3D.

The final step of the project will be to interpret your model outcome in the past geomorphological context or to compare the outcome with assessments of flood hazard in the present-day river area. Depending on your background and personal interests, it is possible to focus mainly on paleogeographical reconstruction, on modelling, or on both aspects. We will aim for publication of the results in an international journal. This project may also be suitable as an internship (contact for options).


35






Title: Bifurcation stability at river bars and tidal bars

Supervision: prof. dr. Maarten Kleinhans, dr. Maarten van der Vegt

In cooperation with: EU Hydralab (international group of researchers)

Description:

In this study, you will conduct scale experiments of the bifurcation of a channel around a river bar and around a tidal bar. These experiments will take place in one of the largest flumes in Europe: the fast flow facility at HR Wallingford (UK). We will collaborate with an international team including all major bifurcation experts, not only

to check existing bifurcation theory for rivers but also to explore and discover what happens with exactly the same bifurcation in tidal (reversing) flow. The experiments in the UK will take place between 12 March and 1 May 2018. Following this you could not only process the data but also analyse further data of natural systems or Metronome experiments for further comparison (with our fantastic novel network tool for automatic extraction of all bifurcations from DEMs), or learn how to model bifurcations numerically in Delft3D starting from existing runs. The specific approach will be adjusted depending

on your skills and desires. The context is that tidal bifurcations are extremely important for shipping fairways and dredging effort, and affect the intertidal area important for ecology. There is much interest from governments and industry how these systems work in the Western Scheldt and in the Yangtze, for example. Furthermore, we do not understand at all a basic phenomenon in estuaries: the mutually evasive ebb- and flood-dominated

channels that are connected at precisely those asymmetrical tidal bifurcations. These things were first described in the 1950s by the inventor of the Delta Works. However, we still lack a mechanism to explain the occurrence. You can contribute to the

understanding of their fascinating forming mechanism or study the effect of dredging on the dynamics of these channels.

This subject is closely related to cutting-edge research themes of enthusiastic supervisors and, as successfully done in the past; we aim for publication in a journal. There is plenty of space to fit the interests and ideas of the student. A practical consequence of the early starting date is that you would have to obtained 30 study credits to be able to start with the MSc thesis, and that you would have to do the courses in the third period in the second year of your masters. This also means you

finish the thesis earlier than most other students of course.


Period: STARTING 1 March (12 March in Wallingford, UK)

Number of students: 1 or 2 or 3


Prerequisites: River and Delta Systems GEO4-4436 and perhaps Tidal Systems GEO4-4435



36






Title: Hydrodynamic modelling of fluvial processes on Mars

Supervision: Lisanne Braat and prof. dr. Maarten Kleinhans


Description:

In this study you will investigate how water flowed on the surface of planet Mars. Decades of research has shown strong evidence of an early history of Mars with extensive fluvial processes, which is now generally accepted among most scientist. However, it still unclear how much water was involved and whether these were

catastrophic outflows or long-term hydrological cycles. How fast did these processes occur? And what flow velocities were involved? In this study we will try to apply our extensive knowledge of fluvial processes and hydrodynamic modelling on Earth to another planet. In this study you will use the state-of-the-art numerical modelling package Delft3D Flexible Mesh, which is a modelling package from Deltares that has recently become

available. The idea is to model the Jezero crater on Mars, which is a possible landing site for a Mars rover in 2020. The morphology in this crater suggests at least two occasions on which it was filled with water. You will review literature on fluvial processes on Mars and gather the current knowledge and knowledge gaps of the Jezero crater. You will then start a modelling study with freedom to set you own research questions. Since no model is available for this study

site, you will have to set up a model from the basis and will learn all steps that are involved in setting up your own numerical model; from grid generation to, analysis of the data, all of which is an assett on your skills list for the job market.

This subject is closely related to cutting-edge research themes of enthusiastic supervisors and, as successfully done in the past, we aim for publication in a journal.

There is plenty of space to fit the interests and ideas of the student. This is thesis is max 37.5 ects, due to the end date of the PhD of Lisanne Braat.


Period: Period 4 at the latest, the earlier the better.



Prerequisites: River and Delta Systems GEO4-4436 and a basic understanding of Matlab.

Contact / info: [email protected] and [email protected]



37






Title: Bank and levee development in rivers and estuaries: models and experiments

Supervision: Marcio Boechat Albernaz, Steven Weisscher, Dr. Harm Jan Pierik, prof. dr. Maarten Kleinhans

In cooperation with: possibly: prof. John Holbrook (Texas C. University, USA)

Description:

Nearly every Dutchman walked, cycled or lived on a natural levee, but our understanding of how these features form is annoyingly limited. You will combine

insights from recent advances of reconstructions in the Netherlands and the Mississippi river to study formation of levees in one of two methods: experiments in the mini-metronome and www.uu.nl/metronome, or numerical modelling. The setting we will study is that of the former estuary at Leiden (Roman times), where we think we see a change from a drowned Holocene coastal plain (sort of Wadden Sea) to a self-confining estuary flanked by levees and peat.

If you will work with the model, you will take advantage of our recent model advances with where we included mud and vegetation in a river, estuary and delta model schematisations. The numerical modelling will be conducted based on Delft3D, which is one of the best morphodynamic models available in the world and calculates flow, sediment transport and dynamic morphology. Of course you may also look at the geological data and nothing forbids you to go and do some soil augers for a better

feeling. If you will work with experiments, the challenge will be to form levees in fluvial and tidal

conditions. We have some pilot experiments where this worked, and experiments will focus on possible conditions and sediment mixtures, and if you are in a happy mood also live vegetation.

This subject is closely related to cutting-edge research themes of enthusiastic supervisors and, as successfully done in the past, we aim for publication in a journal. There is plenty of space to fit the interests and ideas of the student.


Period: flexible



Prerequisites: River and Delta Systems GEO4-4436

and/OR Tidal Systems GEO4-4435


http://www.uu.nl/metronome


38






Title: Vegetation interacting with morphodynamics of estuaries: models and experiments

Supervision: Muriel Brückner, Steven Weisscher prof. dr. Maarten Kleinhans

In cooperation with: Dr. Christian Schwartz

Description:

In this study you will investigate effects of vegetation interacting with the bars and system-scale morphodynamics of tidal rivers and estuaries. Hypotheses are that

vegetation may enhance sedimentation, especially of mud, which could build natural flood defences against sealevel rise, and that vegetation may reduce bank and bar erosion. You can investigate this with one of three methods: 1. experiments in the mini-metronome to design future experiments in the

www.uu.nl/metronome, and explore data on natural systems for vegetation effects

and behaviour as well as peat formation 2. numerical modelling in Nays2D at the scale of the Eurotank and Metronome and

compare to data of river and estuary experiments with vegetation, as well as to data of full-scale systems

3. numerical modelling in Delft3D on the scale of bars, on the scale of the entire Westerschelde estuary, or on time slices of the Holocene Schelde system that changed from river to tidal river to estuary

Option 1 starts from working experimental settings and one aim is to try and develop peat in the laboratory, which is completely novel and would allow us to experiment on

peat-rich deltas and drowning coasts. Options 2 and 3 start from our recent advances in Delft3D and in Nays2D where we included vegetation in river and estuary models. Delft3D is one of the best

morphodynamic models available in the world and calculates flow, sediment transport including mud, dynamic morphology and our vegetation model. Nays2D is the only model in the world that can do experimental scales, with which we can for the first time numerically simulate rivers and estuaries generated in our ground-breaking experiments. This means full control over all conditions. In all three cases there are a number of urgent fundamental and applied research questions that you can contribute to, and in which also many potential traineeship

institutes and companies are greatly interested. This subject is closely related to cutting-edge research themes of enthusiastic supervisors and, as successfully done in the past, we aim for publication in a journal. There is plenty of space to fit the interests and ideas of the student.


Period: flexible



Prerequisites: River and Delta Systems GEO4-4436 and/OR Tidal Systems GEO4-4435 and/OR Estuarine Ecology


http://www.uu.nl/metronome


39






Title: Characterisation of estuaries with networks and hypsometry

Supervision: Dr. Wout van Dijk, Jasper Leuven,

prof. dr. Maarten Kleinhans

In cooperation with: Prof. dr. Bettina Speckmann (TU Eindhoven) Dr. Matthew Hiatt (Louisiana State University)

Description:

Estuaries and rivers are beautiful systems with braided channels. Numerical models and experiments also produce seemingly similar patterns. However, comparisons between

such models and reality are surprisingly limited: models and real systems are compared on a pixel basis, or they are compared by arm waving and lots of words. Both are useless if we do not have the perfect model and are interested in general insights and generic behaviour. We recently developed a completely novel tool that automatically extracts channel networks from images (even in Google Earth) and bed elevation maps. The networks

come out at various levels from main channels to minor side channels. You will analyse a number of systems from in-house field data, models and experiments and develop statistics that characterise these networks. We have not even tested the most basic statistics, but we also already have network topology descriptors at our disposal. This means that you can for the first time quantify similarities and differences in channel patterns. This may develop either into a more data analysis and

geocomputational direction or into a morphological analysis of specific aspects of the channel networks. For example, we suspect that side-channels are disappearing in the Westerschelde because of dredging activities, which means an ecological disaster, but

until now no methods existed to test this suspicion. These fundamental questions are of immediate interest to Rijkswaterstaat and Belgium and to engineering companies, who can’t wait to get their hands on this tool.

This subject is closely related to cutting-edge research themes of enthusiastic supervisors and, as successfully done in the past, we aim for publication in a journal. There is plenty of space to fit the interests and ideas of the student.


Period: flexible


Programme / track: Coastal dynamics and fluvial systems OR Geohazards and Earth observation

Prerequisites: Experience with GIS and with python or matlab is recommended



40






Title: Reconstruction of Palaeozoic tidal environments: effects of vegetation?

Supervision: Dr. Will McMahon, prof. dr. Maarten Kleinhans

In cooperation with: dr. João Trabucho-Alexandre, dr. Kim Cohen

Description:

We know from the seminal work of Davies and Gibling that rivers transformed from braided to meandering only when land plants developed in the Palaeozoic. We also know much about possible effects of vegetation on river patterns and estuary morphodynamics. In particular, vegetation can perhaps fill up valleys and protect

estuary banks against erosion, leading to self-formed and self-confined estuaries. That leads to the question whether such self-formed estuaries could exist at all before the Palaeozoic. We need to investigate this at European outcrops that may have been in coastal settings. Sites will be selected on the basis of earlier work by Davies, Gibling and McMahon (now at UU). You will review literature to look for indications of tidal signatures in the record in

conjunction with the fluvial systems recognised so far. You will also conduct fieldwork, partly together with supervisors, to log sites, describe possible effects of vegetation and seek out signatures of tidal conditions. This subject is closely related to cutting-edge research themes of enthusiastic supervisors and, as successfully done in the past, we aim for publication in a journal. There is plenty of space to fit the interests and ideas of the student.


Period: flexible



OR Integrated stratigraphy and sedimentary systems

Prerequisites: courses in sedimentary systems, perhaps palaeontology



41






Title: Why does mangrove zonation exist? Investigating coastal landscape evolution with a new ecomorphodynamic model

Supervision: Dr. Barend van Maanen, Dr. Christian Schwarz, Danghan Xie


Description:

Mangrove forests occur in many tropical and subtropical regions and in a variety of geomorphological settings. They are amongst the most valuable ecosystems on this

planet providing a wealth of ecosystem services. Although the ecological and economic value of these forests has been broadly recognized, our understanding of the biophysical processes that control the evolution of these ecosystems is still surprisingly limited. A characteristic feature of mangrove forests is the change of predominate mangrove species along the tidal gradient (e.g. from mean low water to mean high water). The underlying processes for this so-called zonation, causing distinct mangrove species to

occur at specific bed elevations, are still subject to debate. One hypothesis is that zonation may simply be the result of strong environmental gradients that act as selective forces determining species distribution. However, this assumes a static landscape and a rather passive role of mangrove trees. An alternative and contrasting hypothesis suggests that mangroves actively modify the landscape and that succession of species plays a key role in driving zonation.

For this MSc project, you will use a newly developed ecomorphodynamic model to unravel the underlying mechanisms that cause mangrove zonation. The model simulates coastal evolution under the presence of multiple mangrove species along a coastal

gradient and you will have the opportunity to simulate different scenarios of sea level rise, sediment supply, wave action and tree characteristics (Delft3D). This will allow you to investigate how and under what conditions zonation develops. By doing so, you will

test and potentially falsify the above stated hypotheses and contribute to a long-lasting question which has puzzled researchers for decades. The project can be developed to fit the student’s interests and provides an exciting opportunity for you to conduct interdisciplinary research, exploring the role of physical-biological interactions in driving landscape and ecosystem evolution. Also, the model to be used is Delft3D, so you will gain experience in working with a state-of-the-art model

which is widely adopted in both scientific and consultancy projects.

Location: desk study

Period: Flexible



Prerequisites: Morphodynamics of Tidal Systems GEO4-4435 and/or Estuarine Ecology GEO4-1450 and/or River and Delta Systems GEO4-4436

Contact / info: [email protected] [email protected]



42






Title: To carve or not to carve; on the role of species dependent bio-physical interactions in shaping inter-tidal landscapes

Supervision: Christian Schwarz (Physical Geography), Barend van Maanen (Physical Geography)


Description:

Salt marshes and mangroves are important components of coastal ecosystems providing habitats for unique plant and invertebrate communities and contributing to

coastal defence by dissipating waves in front of sea dikes. Recent studies have shown that salt marshes and mangroves are important agents shaping coastal systems through the interaction between vegetation, sediment and tidal currents, leading to vertical accretion and the generation of plateaus within vegetation patches, and to lateral erosion and channel formation around vegetation patches. Nonetheless, recent field observations seem to suggest that tidal channels carving

through vegetated coastal landscapes are less abundant in mangrove forests than in salt marshes. This implies that the dominance between accreting and erosional properties of coastal vegetation might not only stem from abiotic forcing factors such as hydrodynamics (current and waves) and sediment type (bed and suspended) but also and potentially to a far much greater extent to growth strategies of the vegetation itself. This MSc project will focus on elucidating the impact of mangroves and salt marsh

vegetation (plant morphology and growth strategies) on the configuration of coastal wetlands. By collecting evidence from coastal systems around the world using remote sensing and an in depth literature-study the importance of the physical setting,

predominant vegetation species and their impact on the existing channel networks will be compared. There is also an opportunity to investigate the impact of different plant morphologies (of salt marshes and mangroves) on flow-deviation and sediment capture

by simulating detailed biophysical interactions, comparing the influence of plant structures on flow and sediment transport (using the Delft3D model). The project can be adapted to the student’s interests and allows combining remote sensing and numerical modelling. During this research you will be able to gain practical skills in conducting analysis of remote sensing data and you will have to opportunity to get experience in working with a state-of-the-art model which is widely adopted in both

scientific and consultancy projects.


Period: Flexible


Programme / track: Earth Surface and Water, Coastal dynamics and fluvial systems

Prerequisites: Background with Remote Sensing Preferred course but not required: Morphodynamics of Tidal Systems (GEO4-4435) River and Delta Systems (GEO4-4436)

Contact / info: [email protected]; [email protected]



43






Title: Impacts of bio-flocculation on sediment transport

Supervision: Christian Schwarz (Physical Geography)


Description:

Tide dominated systems, such as the Western Scheldt estuary; have a continuously changing morphology shaped by dynamic interactions between fine suspended particles, ebb and flood currents. Suspended particles in coastal systems, further referred to as suspended particulate matter (SPM), consist of living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic)

constituents. Non-living constituents are mainly made up of fine cohesive sediments, where living constituents are made up of algae, picoplankton, bacteria, resuspended benthic organisms and zooplankton (pelagic organisms) inhabiting the water column. Previous studies on (non-living, abiotic) coastal sediments showed that aggregation (flocculation) and fragmentation, control the size and characteristics of suspended particles and that they are therefore key processes when investigating particle dynamics in natural systems.

Previous studies focus mainly on the impact of “abiotc-flocculation”, however the influence of living particulate matter on SPM dynamics, forming biotic-abiotic aggregates (i.e. bio-flocculation) is still poorly understood. Specifically, a significant gap in our current understanding consists in the role of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) produced by benthic and pelagic organisms in governing flocculation and subsequently settling dynamics. This shortcoming significantly impedes our capability to predicting sediment transport within a changing system.

The objective of this MSc project is to investigate the impact of biota on fine sediment flocculation and settling by utilizing field measurements (Western Scheldt and Wadden

Sea), lab experiments (rotational flume) and simplified modelling (existing 1D estuarine transport model). This setup both considers previously proposed abiotic determinants for particle flocculation, such as particle concentration and ambient turbulence level,

and biotic determinants such as the presence of EPS produced by phytoplankton. The project can be adapted to the student’s interests and allows combining laboratory experiments, experimental data analysis and numerical modelling. During this research you will be able to gain practical skills in data analysis and you will have to opportunity to get experience in working with a state-of-the-art model which is widely adopted in both scientific and consultancy projects.


Period: Flexible



Prerequisites: Background with data analysis in MATLAB and modelling preferred Preferred course but not required: Morphodynamics of Tidal Systems (GEO4-4435) River and Delta Systems (GEO4-4436)

Contact / info: [email protected];


44






Title: Impacts of plant morphology on sedimentation erosion patterns in intertidal landscapes

Supervision: Christian Schwarz (Physical Geography)


Description:

Salt marshes are important components of coastal ecosystems providing habitats for unique plant and invertebrate communities and contributing to coastal defence by dissipating waves in front of sea dikes. Recent studies have shown that salt marshes are

important agents shaping coastal systems through the interaction between vegetation, sediment and tidal currents, leading to vertical accretion and the generation of plateaus within vegetation patches, and to lateral erosion and channel formation around vegetation patches. A recently a conducted flume experiment studying flow acceleration/deceleration around/within vegetation patches using the 3 most frequent primary colonizers present

in the Western Scheldt estuary (Spartina anglica, Aster tripolium, Scirpus maritimus) showed major differences in erosion/sedimentation behaviour in relation to local plant morphology. This might have major implications for the resilience of marsh platforms to periodically observed erosion/sedimentation cycles and consequently their sustainability in the face of accelerated sea-level rise. This MSc project will focus on elucidating the impact of plant morphology governing the

resilience of salt marshes to lateral erosion in the face of global change. It will in particular focus on how does plant morphology influence the onset of edge erosion or mediate edge erosion once it has occurred. The main part of the project will be carried

out through analysis of data gathered during a flume experiment at the NIOZ-Yerseke. There is also an opportunity to investigate the implications of found relationships between plant morphologies and edge erosion (flume data) for wetland survival utilizing

a simplified numerical model study (Delft3D). The project can be adapted to the student’s interests and allows combining experimental data analysis and numerical modelling. During this research you will be able to gain practical skills in data analysis and you will have to opportunity to get experience in working with a state-of-the-art model which is widely adopted in both scientific and consultancy projects.


Period: Flexible



Prerequisites: Background with data analysis in MATLAB and modelling preferred Preferred course but not required: Morphodynamics of Tidal Systems (GEO4-4435) River and Delta Systems (GEO4-4436)

Contact / info: [email protected];


45






Title: The dynamics of the Wadden Sea during storms

Supervision: Klaas Lenstra, Maarten van der Vegt

In cooperation with: Arcadis

Description:

The Dutch and German Wadden Sea consists of a series of tidal inlet systems. During calm weather these can be considered as separate systems, but during storms the tidal watersheds are flooded and the Wadden Sea becomes one system. This has strong implications for the tides, waves and sediment transport. If sea level rises further the

Wadden Sea basins might become more connected. Furthermore, there are indications that the watersheds are migrating to the east. The objective of this project is to investigate how winds, waves, tides, storm surges and sea level rise affect sediment transport in the Wadden Sea. We already have a calibrated model for the Wadden Sea and a detailed model for the Ameland Inlet. By using this model you will systematically study how changes in locations of watersheds,

SLR, changes in bathymetry, etc, will influence the hydro- and sediment dynamics of the Dutch Wadden Sea. The proposed MSc research is a desk study, and it is intended that the results of this study will contribute to a publication in a scientific journal.


Period: any



Prerequisites: Morphodynamics of wave-dominated coasts and/or morphodynamics of tidal systems

Contact / info: [email protected] or [email protected]



46






Title: Sediment transport on the Ameland ebb-tidal delta

Supervision: Laura Brakenhoff, Maarten van der Vegt

In cooperation with: TUDelft

Description:

Ebb-tidal deltas are shallow features seaward of tidal inlets. They are important in dissipating storm waves, and can act as a (temporary) source of sediment for the back-barrier basin and barrier island. Currently, throughout the Wadden Sea, ebb-tidal delta volumes are decreasing. In order to find the exact sediment transport pathways, we

(=RWS, TUDelft, University of Twente and UU) conducted a large field campaign in September 2017, in which both hydro- and morphodynamics were measured at several locations on the ebb-tidal delta. The objective of this project is to investigate occurrences of sediment suspension events and to relate these to waves, currents and eventually bed forms. To do so, you will look at the field data, and analyse the data from the Optical Backscatter Sensors (OBS). Four

of these OBS’s were placed on different parts of the ebb-tidal delta, so both spatial and temporal patterns can be studied. On top of that, the OBS’s were combined with flow velocity sensors, so the effects of near-bed current speed and direction on sediment transport can also be analysed. The proposed MSc research is a desk study, and it is intended that the results of this study will contribute to a publication in a scientific journal.


Period: any



Prerequisites: Morphodynamics of wave-dominated coasts and/or morphodynamics of tidal systems




47






Title: Studying decadal developments in tides and river flow in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam

Supervision: Maarten van der Vegt, Sepehr Eslami Arab

In cooperation with: Deltares

Description:

Various anthropogenic activities, such as dam construction, sand mining, ground water and surface water extraction, in the past 30 years, has influenced the flow and sediment regime of the Mekong River, the biggest river of south-east Asia. These activities, along

with climate change and sea level rise, are threatening the livelihood of the Mekong Delta. The question is how these various pressures are influencing flooding in the delta during the wet season and salt intrusion during the dry season. Key is a proper understanding of the (changing) tides in the multi-channel estuarine system of the Mekong Delta. Your main task will be to study how the different factors cause changes in the observed

patterns. You will start with an analysis of about 20 – 25 years of water level and discharge data in the Mekong delta. Next, by applying a state of the art numerical model (DFlow-FM), you will try to explain observed trends and discriminate between various phenomena contributing to the changes in the Mekong Delta. In the last phase, the model can be used to predict future changes based on development scenarios.

Location: Utrecht

Period: Any, desk study



Prerequisites: Morphodynamics of tidal systems, river systems




48






Title: Modelling of multi-year aeolian sand transport toward the foredune

Supervision: Prof. dr. Gerben Ruessink


Description:

Coastal foredunes are highly dynamic because of severe erosion by marine processes during individual storms events and subsequent slow recovery by aeolian (wind) processes over many years. While we now have a decent understanding and predictive capability of dune erosion, this is not yet the case for aeolian recovery. Models that

relate the aeolian transport of beach sand to regional wind speed and direction alone often hugely overestimate the measured deposition on the foredune. Various factors have been proposed that may restrict the prediction of aeolian transport. These include: (1) The wind on the beach is topographically steered alongshore by the foredune, and

the aeolian transport is thus more or less alongshore (rather than directly to the foredune);

(2) Beach sand is wet because of tides and waves, which limits aeolian sand pick-up; (3) It often rains during strong winds, which prevents aeolian transport. The aim of the present MSc Research project is to establish the relative importance of these factors in reducing aeolian transport predictions toward the foredune on the time scale of years. To reach this aim, the student is expected to set-up scenarios with a recently developed aeolian transport model (written in Matlab) using existing multi-year

data sets of wind speed and direction, rain fall, waves and tides for the beach at Egmond, The Netherlands as input. The student is also expected to compare the computed multi-year aeolian inputs to inputs that can be quantified from topographic

surveys existing for the same time period. The proposed MSc Research (preferably 45 ECTS) is embedded within the new (since

2014) Coastal-Dune Dynamics research line established by the main supervisor and it allows you to work at the forefront of coastal science. Although this project does not contain fieldwork, you will have the opportunity to contribute to the ongoing topographic monitoring of the Egmond field site (approximately once per two months) by means of mobile terrestrial laser scanning or UAV photogrammetry. It is anticipated that the research findings will lead to a peer-reviewed journal paper and a presentation at the (March) 2019 research days of the Netherlands Centre for Coastal Research (NCK).


Period: Start (literature review) preferably in May/June 2018 (period 4), anticipated end in March/April 2019



Prerequisites: GEO4-4434, Matlab programming skills

Contact / info: Prof. Dr. Gerben Ruessink, [email protected], 030-2532780


49






Title: Wind patterns in man-made coastal trough blowouts


In cooperation with: Dr. Christian Schwarz, Dr. Jasper Donker

Description:

Blowouts are characteristic features of many natural coastal foredunes. These dynamic bowl- or trough-shaped depressions act as conduits for aeolian transport of beach sand into the more landward dunes. Along many inhabited coasts foredunes and their blowouts have been planted with vegetation to retain the sand in the foredune, facilitate

blowout closure and hence function as sea defense. The resulting vegetated and uniform foredune has, subsequently, contributed to a widespread reduction in the biodiversity of the backdunes. Present-day dune management therefore increasingly involves artificially creating blowouts to maintain and improve backdune biodiversity. The design criteria are high, aiming to postpone or prevent blowout closure as long as possible. Such dune restoration projects often follow a learning-by-doing approach, as information on the underlying aeolian processes, including airflow patterns that steer

blowout development, is scarce. Improved knowledge on these processes may help to improve future designs of dune restoration measures, to optimize aeolian throughput into the backdunes, and to better understand the functioning of natural blowouts. The aim of the present MSc Research is to characterize airflow patterns in a man-made trough blowout by means of an existing data set of wind speeds, directions and turbulence, and model simulations with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The data

were (and still are) collected in Dutch National Park Zuid-Kennemerland by means of 4 ultrasonic anemometers from the (seaward) mouth of the blowout, across its deflation basin, on to the depositional lobe. Following a successful test of the CFD model against

trends in the data, the student may design various blowout shapes and explore how these shapes affect airflow patterns.

The proposed MSc Research (preferably 45 ECTS) is embedded within the new (since 2014) Coastal-Dune Dynamics research line established by the main supervisor and it allows you to work at the forefront of coastal science. Although this project does not contain fieldwork, you will have the opportunity to contribute to the ongoing monthly to seasonal topographic monitoring of the field site and to visit the measurement equipment. We anticipate that the research findings will lead to a peer-reviewed journal paper and a presentation at the (March) 2019 research days of the Netherlands Centre

for Coastal Research (NCK).








50






Title: Skewness and asymmetry of waves in the nearshore zone


In cooperation with: Dr. Timothy Price; Dr. Joep van der Zanden (University of Twente), Dr. D. van der A (University of Aberdeen)

Description:

Natural beaches often erode during storms, while they recover and accrete during the subsequent low- to moderate energy conditions. The latter onshore sand transport is often ascribed to the non-linear shape of the near-bed orbital motion of the incident

short waves. This shape can be expressed in terms of skewness (crest to trough ratio) and asymmetry (saw tooth). Morphodynamic models, used in both scientific projects and applied engineering, do not yet have accurate parameterizations of the wave shape and of the resulting sand transport, and therefore struggle to predict beach recovery under post-storm conditions. What is more, existing wave-shape parameterizations are often based on field data, while sand-transport parameterizations rely on laboratory data with idealized (e.g., mono-chromatic, bi-chromatic, no directional spreading)

waves. The coupling of both parameterizations, based on different type of waves, is therefore non-trivial. The aim of the present MSc Research is to contribute to improved understanding of onshore sand transport under non-linear short waves. We envisage that the MSc Research can comprise of the following steps: (1) to validate empirical field-based formulations for wave skewness and asymmetry

using recent laboratory data sets with unidirectional random and bi-chromatic waves;

(2) to explore differences in wave skewness and asymmetry between laboratory and

field settings using a state-of-the-art wave transformation model (SWASH); (3) to explore the effect of these differences on onshore sand transport by feeding the

SWASH model results into a sand-transport parameterization.

The present topic (preferably as 45 ECTS) is especially suitable for a student with a keen interest in waves and numerical models. Good knowledge of Matlab is essential. Sand transport under non-linear waves is a key unknown, which severely hampers both scientific and practice-inspired projects. We anticipate that the research findings will lead to a peer-reviewed journal paper and a presentation at the (March) 2019 research days of the Netherlands Centre for Coastal Research (NCK). The MSc Research will be

co-supervised by scientists from the University of Twente and Aberdeen through occasional (Skype) meetings.


Period: Start (literature review) preferably in May/June 2018 (period 4),

anticipated end in March/April 2019






51






Title: Timing of aeolian sand transport events on a narrow beach


In cooperation with: Pam Hage

Description:

Whereas a coastal foredune may erode substantially during a single storm with high waves and surge levels, dune recovery is a slow process taking numerous wind events over several years. Especially on narrow (< ≈50-100 m) beaches there is, however, a substantial mismatch between the events for which large aeolian transport is expected

(potential events) and occurs (actual events). This relates to, among a number of other factors, the wetness of beach sand and the alongshore steering of the wind by the foredune. These factors are not accounted for in the computation of the potential events. Accordingly, such models often hugely overestimate the measured sand deposition on the foredune. The aim of the present MSc is to establish which wind events contribute to aeolian

transport predictions toward the foredune. To this end, the student will first use several years of hourly Argus video-images of a narrow beach (Egmond aan Zee) to establish the actual events. Secondly, the student is expected to run a recently developed aeolian transport model to establish whether events for which substantial transport is predicted correspond to the actual events. The model (written in Matlab) can be run in ‘wind only’ mode (potential events) and, of special interest here, can incorporate transport limiting factors such as sand wetness. It will be especially interesting to establish whether

incorporating these limiting factors indeed leads to a better agreement between actual and predicted events. This will be an essential step to make more realistic predictions of multi-year foredune recovery after a storm.

The proposed MSc Research (preferably 45 ECTS) is embedded within the new (since 2014) Coastal-Dune Dynamics research line established by the main supervisor and it

allows you to work at the forefront of coastal science. It is anticipated that the research findings will contribute to the PhD work of the second supervisor (Hage), lead to a peer-reviewed journal paper and a presentation at the (March) 2019 research days of the Netherlands Centre for Coastal Research (NCK).




Programme / track: Coastal dynamics and fluvial systems, or Geohazards and Earth Observation

Prerequisites: GEO4-4434 and/or GEO4-4408, Matlab programming skills



52






Title: Sandbar-beach dynamics of a nourished sandy coast, Egmond aan Zee

Supervision: dr. Timothy Price, prof. dr. Gerben Ruessink

In cooperation with: Rijkswaterstaat

Description:

In this study you will investigate how multiple (in time) shoreface and beach nourishments have altered the natural dynamics of the nearshore subtidal zone and the beach at Egmond aan Zee, The Netherlands. Chronic coastal erosion is nowadays combatted by the artificial placement of sand – nourishments – in either the subtidal

sandbar zone or on the beach. While an increasing number of coastal sites are now being nourished, little is known about the long-term (> years) effect of repeated nourishments on the dynamics of sandbar-beach system. The objective of this project is to investigate how multiple shoreface and beach nourishments have altered the natural bar-beach dynamics at Egmond aan Zee, The Netherlands. The data available for this project are based on two Argus video systems,

which provide daily insight sandbar morphologies and shorelines based on wave-breaking patterns since 1999: (1) images of the surf zone at Egmond aan Zee, where the coast has been nourished regularly since 1997, and (2) images of the natural, non-nourished surf zone 3 km south of Egmond. Your analysis (mainly using Matlab) will involve (a) image processing to extract morphological characteristics from the images, and (b) time series analysis of the extracted morphological features and wave conditions to compare the morphodynamics between the two sites.

The project involves collaboration with Rijkswaterstaat, who is responsible for the nourishments along the Dutch coast and therefore has a direct interest in the outcome

of your findings. This subject is closely related to one of the main research themes of the supervisors. As done in the past, we will enable successful students (1) to participate in the annual research days of the Netherlands Centre for Coastal Research

in order to present their work before a wide (inter)national audience, and (2) to join the writing of peer-review journal papers. This topic is particularly suited for a student with keen interest in the application of remote sensing techniques to coastal research.


Period: -


Programme / track: ESW / Coastal dynamics and fluvial systems or Geohazards and Earth Observation

Prerequisites: Morphodynamics of wave-dominated coasts and/or remote

sensing

Contact / info: dr. Timothy Price / [email protected]


53






Title: Modelling alongshore-variable dune erosion with XBeach

Supervision: dr. Timothy Price, prof. dr. Gerben Ruessink

In cooperation with: dr. Bruno Castelle (University of Bordeaux 1, Bordeaux, France)

Description:

Along wave-dominated coasts, sandy dunes can erode severely during extreme storms. The winter of 2013/2014 was characterized by multiple (extreme) storms in the northern Atlantic ocean, causing significant dune erosion along the coasts of western

Europe. On the French Aquitanian coast, the volume of eroded dune sand varied strongly alongshore following the ‘Hercules’ storm (with wave heights reaching up to 8 m). This alongshore variation in dune erosion was found to relate to alongshore depth variations of nearshore crescentic sandbars, common morphological features fronting many sandy, wave-dominated coasts. On the Dutch North Sea coast, at Egmond aan Zee, the ‘Sinterklaas’ storm also resulted in dune erosion. Previous studies at this beach, however, suggested that here sandbar morphology did not explain the

alongshore differences in wave attack and resulting dune erosion. Instead, the pre-storm dune morphology (e.g. foredune slope, embryo dune presence) played an important role in providing an alongshore variable sand buffer against wave attack. The objective of this project is to study how alongshore differences in sandbar morphology affect dune erosion patterns during extreme storms. You will firstly formulate hypotheses on the formation of alongshore-variable dune erosion, based on

existing studies of both Egmond aan Zee and the French Aquitanian coast. Secondly, you will build idealized beach models based on both beaches, and systematically explore the role of various hydrodynamic (e.g. wave height/period/angle of incidence, surge

level) and morphological (e.g. bar depth and dune height variation) parameters on the processes underlying alongshore-variable dune erosion. For this purpose you will use the numerical model XBeach, which is specifically designed for simulating dune erosion

during storms. Your work will build on previous analyses of dune erosion at Egmond aan Zee by the Coastal Morphodynamics Group, and field observations from the University of Bordeaux 1, France. This subject is closely related to current research activities of the supervisors. As done in the past, we will enable successful students (1) to participate in the annual research days of the Netherlands Centre for Coastal Research in order to present their work

before a wide (inter)national audience, and (2) to join the writing of peer-review journal papers. This topic is particularly suited for a student with keen interest in the application of numerical modelling techniques to coastal research.


Period: Flexible


Programme / track: ESW / Coastal dynamics and fluvial systems

Prerequisites: Morphodynamics of wave-dominated coasts

Contact / info: dr. Timothy Price / [email protected]


54






Title: Holocene sediment trapping, preservation and reworking: a national-coverage budget analysis for the Dutch low lands

Supervision: Dr. K.M. Cohen; Dr. G. Erkens


Description:

The digital mapping of the Dutch low lands is highly advanced and high resolutions have been achieved in splitting up and labelling the Holocene architecture by lithology, genesis and age. The lessons learned from past research (Erkens, 2009; Hijma, 2009;

Hobo, 2015; Koster 2017; Peeters et al. 2018) is that to prepare the observational data for analysis of the degrees of ‘trapping’, ‘preservation’ and ‘reworking’ requires:

to bring various datasets together (in GIS and in tables) to time-slice the record (using dating information, over meaningful intervals) to calculate volumes and masses ( ∑ [area * thickness * density]1..n ) to split erosive architectural elements from depositional in analysis

Last year, an integrated national-coverage dataset has been produced (Cohen et al. 2017), that bears all the above properties and that is ready to be used in first national analysis. Based on experience obtained in the PhD studies mentioned above, we now want to do a budget analysis of sediment reworking and preservation at national scale, using the new dataset. The MSc student will perform the steps of calculating the budgets (performing serial

table calculations), and analysing the outcomes (intercomparing between regions, seeking explanations etc.). For example, we can investigate the volume of Zuyderzee clay from the last 1000 years and assess what part of that must be new import to the

area and what part reworked from the local subsurface. We want to know, for example, how much of the clay deposited along the Waddensea in the last 3500 years, could be eroded in the Western Netherlands.

Cohen KM et al. 2017 – Landschapskaarten en hoogtemodellen naar periode en diepte voor […] holoceen afgedekte delen van Nederland. Deltares/UU/TNO i.o.v. RCE. Digitale Dataset. Erkens G 2009 – Sediment dynamics in the Rhine catchment. Proefschrift UU Hijma MP 2009 – From river valley to estuary. Proefschrift UU Hobo N 2015 – The sedimentary dynamics in natural and human-influenced delta

channel belts. Proefschrift UU Koster K 2017 – 3D characterization of Holocene peat in the Netherlands. Proefschrift UU Peeters J et al. 2018 – Preservation of Last Interglacial and Holocene transgressive systems tracts in the

Netherlands […] submitted manuscript

Location: Utrecht

Period: 2018


Programme / track: see above / Quaternary Geology. GIS.

Prerequisites: No particular.



55






Title: Unravelling causes of subsidence in the Irrawaddy delta, Myanmar

Supervision: Esther Stouthamer, Sanneke van Asselen

In cooperation with: Thom Boogaard (TU Delft)

Description:

Coastal deltas worldwide are threatened by global sea level rise and land subsidence, which increase the risk of flooding, inundation depth and duration, and land loss. Especially in populated deltas, rates of land subsidence often exceed rates of global sea level rise. There are many causes of land subsidence including natural causes (sediment

compaction, tectonics, isostasy) and anthropogenic causes (drainage, extraction of groundwater and hydrocarbons, loading). To mitigate or stop land subsidence, information on the dominant cause(s) of subsidence in a given delta is a prerequisite. Yangon is a city in the Irrawaddy delta in Myanmar where little is known about the causes of land subsidence, while its effects can potentially harm millions of its inhabitants and the city is expanding rapidly. Previous research used Synthetic Aperture

Radar interferometry (InSAR) with data from the recently launched Sentinel-1 satellite to measure surface-level displacements. This research revealed that parts of the city are subsiding at rates of over 9 cm/yr. The causes of these high subsidence rates remain uncertain however. The aim of the proposed MSc research is to determine the causes of land subsidence in Yangon, Myanmar. This will be done using the spatially-explicit subsidence dataset and

additional land use and land cover data from aforementioned study, which will be combined with a yet non-analysed dataset of the shallow subsurface of the area, consisting of 400+ data points. This lithological dataset will be used to develop a 2D, or

if possible 3D, subsurface model, which allows to determine if the subsurface composition is a cause of measured subsidence rates. For example, in particular organic (peat) beds, but also clay beds, are extremely vulnerable for subsidence caused by

compaction due to loading, or caused by oxidation following drainage.

Location: Study area: Irrawaddy delta, Myanmar. Research at Utrecht University

Period: Start MSc. research period 4 (starting in another period is also possible)


Programme / track: Earth Surface and Water/ Earth, Life and Climate

Prerequisites: Candidates preferably have a background in Quaternary geology (GEO2-4201 & GEO3-4207), sedimentology and GIS.


https://repository.tudelft.nl/islandora/object/uuid:8067b72d-94af-44b2-9cb8-5b6c14a8fcde?collection=education


56






Title: Modelling subsidence due to peat compaction in deltas

Supervision: Sanneke van Asselen, Esther Stouthamer, Oliver Schmitz

Description:

Coastal deltas worldwide are threatened by global sea level rise and land subsidence, which increase the risk of flooding, inundation depth and duration, and land loss. Especially in populated deltas, rates of land subsidence often exceed rates of global sea level rise. There are many causes of land subsidence including natural causes (sediment compaction, tectonics, isostasy) and anthropogenic causes (drainage, extraction of groundwater and hydrocarbons, loading).

This project focuses on subsidence due to compaction of subsurface peat layers in delta sequences. Compaction may be caused by loading of a peat layer due to either natural sedimentation or anthropogenic loading, or by groundwater table lowering, which reduces the pore water pressure and thereby increases the pressure on the subsoil. A peat compaction model has been developed in Python to predict the amount and rate of subsidence due to peat compaction for different delta sequence compositions. This

model has been calibrated using field data obtained from the Cumberland Marshes in Canada. The main objective of the proposed project is to improve this model and to apply it to Dutch sites to test its validity, and to perform a sensitivity analysis. Results of these steps can subsequently be used to predict land subsidence in different delta regions, in natural conditions or affected by human impacts such as loading or groundwater table lowering. In such a way, effects of measures to reduce land

subsidence can be evaluated beforehand.


Period: Start MSc. research period 4 (starting in another period is also possible)



Prerequisites: Candidates preferably have a background in Quaternary geology (GEO2-4201 & GEO3-4207), sedimentology and numerical modelling.



57






Title: Failure of underwater slopes due to flow slides

Supervision: Bas Knaake, Esther Stouthamer, (Wout van Dijk)

In cooperation with: Geeralt van den Ham (Deltares)

Description:

Flow slides involve the massive failure of underwater slopes composed of loosely packed sand or silt. They are triggered if the underwater slope becomes too steep or high, for example due to scour holes. Flow slides form a major threat for flood defences along (estuary) coastlines and riverbanks in the South-west of the Netherlands. They may

result in severe damage to primary water defences, eventually leading to flooding of the hinterland. In order to meet the high Dutch safety standards, prevention of flow slides will require significant investments in the coming years, probably in the order of several hundreds of million Euros.

Example of a flow slide (source: Deltares).

Currently the safety assessment rules for flow slides are purely empirical and based on approximately 1100 documented historical flow slides that occurred in the province of

Zeeland over the last 200 years. However other regions within The Netherlands sand characteristics and morphodynamics deviate from those in Zeeland, implying that in those areas the assessment rules are (very) conservative. This may result in unnecessary investments for reinforcements, which mostly involve placement of rubbles on the submerged slope. There is a strong need for a practical method for assessment of the risk of flow slides, in which variables that are relevant for flow slides and may vary on a regional scale are accounted for properly.

The aim of this project is to determine correlations between the occurrence and characteristics (mainly dimensions) of historical flow slides and local subsurface characteristics (e.g. age and genesis of subsurface layers) and morphodynamics (e.g. erosion/sedimentation rates).

Location: Rhine-Meuse delta, The Netherlands

Period: Start MSc. research period 4

(starting in another period is also possible)



Prerequisites: Candidates preferably have a background in Quaternary geology of The Netherlands (GEO2-4201 & GEO3-4207), sedimentology and GIS.



58






Title: Embankment detection and ranging: mapping of flood protection structures from space

Supervision: Menno Straatsma, Rens van Beek, Steven de Jong


Description:

Embankments along rivers provide essential protection by constraining the lateral spreading of water during peak discharge, while increasing water levels and flow velocities within the main river. They affect the hydro-economic system by limiting flood

risk, altering the flood peak, and changing sediment deposition rates. However, in many areas of the world the floodplain width, embankment location and embankment height are not stored in geodatabases. Global hydrological models provide detailed runoff and discharge patterns, but they lack local relevance for estimating flood frequency and extent, because they lack data about flood protection measures such as embankments. The main objective of this study is to develop a method to extract the location of river embankments from satellite imagery.

To reach the overall objective, activities will include: setting up of a database of time series of satellite data for The Netherlands based on

data that are available at the Netherlands Space Office, e.g. Sentinel1,2; Envisat-ASAR; Landsat, MODIS),

classifying flood extent for time series of SAR data by taking into account different land cover classes, incidence angles, and data sources. Fieldwork will consist of

water classification accuracy reference measurement. extract the location of river embankments from time series of satellite data by

considering the edge of the flood extent for floods of different return periods. The

embankment represents the location where flood of different return periods are laterally constraint. Return periods can be derived from measured discharges at nearby gauging stations.

Additional work can be carried out by a second MSc project that will focus on embankment height estimation, or automating the processing pipeline from downloading the data, classifying the images, extracting the embankment, and apply it to several regions in different parts of the world, e.g. Mississippi, Danube, Serbia.

Location: Universiteit Utrecht


Number of students: 1 to 2

Programme / track: Natural Hazards and Earth Observation / Earth Surface Hydrology

Prerequisites: Remote sensing, recommended: Land surface process modelling

Contact / info: [email protected]/[email protected]/[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]/[email protected]/[email protected]

59






Title: Spatio-temporal temperature patterns in the Grensmaas River to derive fish habitat suitability and mortality.

Supervision: EA Addink and MW Straatsma

In cooperation with: Bureau Waardenburg and Rijkswaterstaat

Description:

In the Grensmaas River, discharge in summer often falls below 10 m3/s. This results in a series of problems: the wet area decreases, flow velocity and water depth decrease, concentrations of chemicals increase, water temperature rises, algae blooms occur, and

oxygen content decreases. Furthermore, fish and macrofauna are forced to share the little space left, leading to increased predation risk, and connections to safe havens, such as pools or tributaries, disappear. Water temperature is a key factor for survival of fish. When temperatures get too high throughout the river, oxygen levels become too low, little suitable habitat remains and fish mortality rises steeply. This topic focuses on the temperature distribution and variation in a stretch of the

Grensmaas. With a thermal camera mounted on a drone, you will record the spatio-temporal variation in temperature over (1) a single day with a relatively constant discharge, and 2) over multiple days with a varying discharge. Besides, you will make a 24-hour time series with of thermal imagery from a fixed position to map local temperature variations at high temporal resolution. Validation data for the thermal imagery will be collected with field loggers measuring the temperature just below the water surface and just above the bed level following a suitable sampling scheme.

The field work will be carried out jointly by the two students. In the data analysis, one student will work on a statistical analysis of the water temperature distribution over

time. The other student will link readily available hydro-meteorological data on discharge, air temperature data, wind speed, and water temperature to set up a predictive model of water temperature in the main channel and floodplain backwaters.

Also, ground water temperatures will be measured at a few sites along the river. Furthermore, during a period with low water levels, floodplain, water body and channel bed substrate (gravel, sand, clay, vegetation) will be mapped – where possible using a drone. With these tools, you will address the following questions: How does the 3D temperature distribution change over the season for different

kinds of water bodies? How does groundwater seepage affect the temperature of the surface water?

How do the newly created sills change the temperature distribution? How far do the warm industrial cooling water and the cool water from tributaries

reach? What is the so-called ‘Potentially not occurring fraction’ for native and alien species

based on habitat suitability curves Do temperature patterns relate to water body substrate?

Location: Grensmaas, Limburg

Period: Fieldwork in summer 2018, followed by analysis and reporting in fall/early winter



Prerequisites: Remote sensing and Data analysis. Preferably experience with R




60






Title: Redistribution of snow and ice through avalanches in a Himalayan catchment

Supervision: Dr. W.W. Immerzeel, J.F.Steiner


Description:

Large avalanches commonly occur in the steep catchments of the Himalaya-Karakoram range. They form a natural hazard to settlements and infrastructure below, and are an important mechanism for redistributing mass of snow and ice from higher to lower

regions. Contrary to ice flow or snow drift they are however occurring at very short time scales, which makes (a) local measurements nearly impossible and (b) inclusion into glacier or catchment scale models challenging. A number of mass balance and hydrological studies suggest however that their contribution to the glacier mass balance and as snow redistribution mechanism is significant. With the recent release of high resolution satellite imagery (e.g. Sentinel 1 and 2,

Digital Globe Imagery) available at multiple time steps new options to quantify mass movement through avalanches have opened. The student will review literature on remote sensing techniques and applications from other regions as well as studies from the target catchments where avalanches play a role and field observations are available in the group (focus on the co-seismic events from the earthquake in 2015 in Langtang/Himalaya).

The student will use available weather data to estimate snow depth in the catchment and add ice volumes in critical regions, where hanging glaciers occur. The next step will be to use optical and thermal satellite imagery (Landsat-8, Sentinel-2) to detect co-

seismic avalanches in the catchment. The recently launched Google Earth engine will be employed for efficient retrieval and development of an avalanche detection algorithm based on Sentinel and Landsat.

Based on available DEMs (low resolution SRTM, high-resolution SETSM) deposited volumes can be estimated and compared to earlier calculated values. A numerical avalanche model (RAMMS-AVAL) is then employed to reproduce runout areas and deposited volume. Identifying avalanche hotspots, topographic predictors (slope, exposure to solar radiation etc.) can then be identified that can later be used in catchment scale models.

Based on these findings the student can improve already existing very simple models of snow avalanche redistribution (in PCRaster Python or R), that currently can not account for the runout spread and the instantaneous redistribution at the same time.


Period: 4 (2017 – 2018), 1-2 (2018-2019)



Prerequisites: GEO4-4408 Remote Sensing




61






Title: Identifying sources of light-adsorbing particles in the Himalayas

Supervision: Dr. G. Sterk / Dr. W.W. Immerzeel


Description:

Light-adsorbing particles (LAP), such as dust, black carbon, and brown carbon, influence the energy balance of snow and glaciers. As a result of deposition of LAP the albedo of the snow and ice surface is lowered and this accelerates the melt. South of the Himalayan arc, large amounts of brown and black carbon are emitted through burning

of fossil fuels, biofuel and biomass, which may penetrate the Himalayas and be deposited at high altitude. In high altitude environments windblown dust originating from eroded slopes, lateral moraines and debris covered glaciers may also be an important source of LAP, but has never been studied. It is therefore uncertain how much the different sources contribute to LAP deposition on glaciers in the Himalayas. The objective of this study is to investigate what the main source of LAP is in the

Langtang catchment in the central Himalaya of Nepal. This will be done by measuring LAP deposition in the field and by comparing the measurements to ancillary local data on atmospheric pollution and potentially remote sensing data. In autumn 2018 a dust collector will be tested in the Langtang catchment, and the collected samples will be carried to Utrecht. The thesis research will start with a literature review of LAP in the Himalayas. The

literature study will be followed by an analysis of the first field data to determine the composition of the LAP and to determine which type is dominant at high altitude. During a one-month fieldwork period, additional LAP deposition measurements will be collected

and an analysis of local LAP sources in the area will be made. The study will also examine if remote sensing imagery can be used to detect and estimate LAP deposition from remote sources.

Location: Nepal

Period: September until January 2018, with fieldwork in October 2018


Programme / track: Earth Surface and Water/Geohazards and Earth Observation

Prerequisites: Remote Sensing




62






Title: The impacts of Maasai settlement on land use/cover changes and livelihood strategies in north Tanzania

Supervision: Geert Sterk, Maarten Zeylmans

In cooperation with: Juma Wickama (ARI, Tanzania)

Description:

The Maasai are a Nilotic ethnic group of semi-nomadic people inhabiting southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. Their traditional way of life is to move around with free-roaming cattle herds, but they also have settlements where they return from time to time, or

part of the family is staying permanently. The traditional landscape where the Maasai herders roam is a savannah landscape with grasses, shrubs and trees. The Maasai share these environments with many wildlife animals. The Tanzanian and Kenyan governments have instituted programs to encourage the Maasai to abandon their traditional semi-nomadic lifestyle and permanently settle in villages. This allows the governments to get grip on the life of the Maasai, and for

instance to guarantee education for children. However, it seems that once the Maasai get settled in a certain area the landscape is changing from a savannah into a landscape with less trees, shrubs and grass cover. Part of the reason is that the Maasai start crop cultivation once they get settled. In a previous MSc thesis research land use changes between 1985 and 2016 have been studied using two remote sensing images from the dry season. Although important

changes were detected, the dynamics in land cover have not been studied yet. Vegetation cover depends on the amounts of rainfall during the bi-annual rainy seasons and can be variable. Lack of grazing resources is a serious constraint for Maasai

livestock activities. The first aim of this thesis research will be to study the land cover changes and dynamics in a Maasai area in northern Tanzania. This will be done by using the latest satellite imagery (e.g. SENTINEL) and other data sources (e.g. Earth Engine)

that have not been used before. The second aim of the study will be to evaluate Maasai livelihood strategies in a variable and changing environment. The work will consist of 1) a literature study on the influence of landscape changes on nomadic livelihoods, 2) in-depth remote sensing analysis of land use/cover changes, and 3) interviews with Maasai nomads in north Tanzania. A three-months period of field work in north Tanzania, in collaboration with the District Agricultural Office and the Agricultural Research Institute (ARI) will be part of this thesis.

Location: Utrecht and Tanzania (Mto Wa Mbu)



Programme / track: Earth Surface and Water/Geohazards and Earth Observation

Prerequisites: Remote Sensing



63






Title: Looking below the surface of the Wadden Sea: using objects to map

benthic macrofauna from space

Supervision: EA Addink and W Nijland

In cooperation with: K. Philippart, NIOZ, Texel

Description:

The Wadden Sea is recognized as an important European ecological area (Natura2000)

and as a Unesco World Heritage site. The shallow sea with large tidal flats provides

forage and habitat to many birds, fish, and other species. Benthic macrofauna are a key

part the ecosystem as they process organic matter, recycle nutrients and are an

important food source. They live partly at, but mostly below the surface. Individual

species have specific environmental requirements, together shaping their ecological

niche. Groups of species might share part of their niches. The recognized value of the

Wadden Sea requires that monitoring of the status and development of the system is

frequent and concise.

As part of an annual monitoring program point samples of the benthics are collected on

a 500m grid by NIOZ, the Royal Netherlands Institute of Sea Research.

This Master topic aims to combine these field data with remote-sensing data. You will

use object-based image analysis to interpolate the point samples to maps with

continuous coverage of species abundance and forage availability, and map the spatial

distribution ecological niches. Available data include 486 field observations (abundance

and biomass of all encountered species) from the tidal basin between Ameland and

Schiermonnikoog. For 2016 we have a low-tide Sentinel image matching the field

sampling and a second low-tide image for comparison; ideally the 2018 campaign will

have a matching image again.

The challenge is to find surface characteristics that predict the presence of the benthics

as the animals themselves live mostly below the surface and cannot be directly

detected. A pilot study revealed that texture characteristics in the image have a strong

predictive power, while spectral information is of less importance.

Possible research questions in this Master topic are: *What image characteristics best

represent benthic-macrofauna distribution. *Can we define and locate biodiversity hot

spots? *Do biodiversity hot spots change position, and what are the spatial and

temporal dynamics of their locations? And more technical: *What is the optimal scale to

predict the hot spots or the abundance of individual species? *Can individual species

abundance be predicted using the shared ecological niche of a larger group of species?

Location: Utrecht, there might be a possibility to join the field campaign for some days

Period: Summer 2018-Spring 2019


Programme / track: Earth, Life and Climate

Prerequisites: Remote Sensing, Data analysis, and an interest in ecology



64






Title: Explore the treasure of modern data to map tidal marshes

Supervision: EA Addink, MG Kleinhans

In cooperation with: Rijkswaterstaat

Description:

The mouth of the Western Scheldt River is an estuary with both high ecological and economical value. It forms the main entrance to the harbour of Antwerp, while it is a Natura2000 site as well. Tidal marshes are found along the shore and on the shoals within the channel. The marshes are characterized by (partly) vegetated platforms that

are dissected by networks of tidal creeks. Tide amplitude is several meters creating large intertidal zones which are important foraging areas. Because of the high ecological value spatially intertwined with economic interests, an intensive monitoring programme is developed where the full estuary is mapped every two years. We are currently working on a project to automate the interpretation of aerial photographs and produce (bio)geomorphological maps of the tidal marshes. The

approach we currently take uses object-based image analysis where we set up knowledge rules based on the natural system to define and distinguish classes. The legend aims to match the one that has been used over the past decades. Recently, the quality and availability of the data increased significantly. Different geomorphological units are clearly recognizable in aerial photos and we would like to know how well we can classify the tidal marshes if we do not apply the rule set, but let

the data speak. This Master topic is designed to work on an alternative approach of building (bio)geomorphological maps of the tidal marshes. What classes can be distinguished when starting from the data? Using object-based image analysis combined

with data mining on aerial photos and Lidar data, you will explore the geomorphological information content contained within the data but not included in the maps yet.

We have a time series of photographs of both the Wester Scheldt and the Eastern Scheldt, we have field data to serve as ground truth/validation, and we have Lidar data. Questions to be answered are e.g. Did the intertidal area develop in a similar way for all shoals in the Western Scheldt?, What is the added value of Lidar (elevation) data? Can the method developed for the Western Scheldt also be applied to the Eastern Scheldt? How do the geomorphological trends in the Western and the Eastern Scheldt differ? How do the rule-based and the data-mining methods perform and can they be combined for

an optimal result? Multiple topics can be defined within this project and there is room for personal interest.

Location: Utrecht, with field visit


Number of students: 1-3, individual topics


Prerequisites: Remote sensing and/or Data analysis, preferably knowledge on estuarine systems




65






Title: Spotting occupancy of burrows to help Bubonic Plague prevention, a case study in Kazakhstan

Supervision: EA Addink

In cooperation with: W Nijland

Description:

In Kazakhstan bubonic plague is spread by fleas feeding on the great gerbil, a 20cm-tall rodent. Gerbil family groups live in large burrows that have an average size of 23m, they are well visible in high resolution satellite images. The burrows are usually

occupied for some years and then abandoned before they are newly occupied by a young family. 50 years of surveys have shown that the occupancy of the burrows is a good indicator of plague outbreaks. When occupancy exceeds the threshold value, plague can occur, if not, plague is never encountered. We developed a method to identify the burrows in satellite images with 2-m pixels. For this thesis project a time series of four (object-based) classified Worldview satellite

images is available plus field information from two campaigns on 870 burrows. We have attempted to determine whether these burrows were occupied or not and managed to reach an accuracy of 63%. This is a success in the sense that we can determine the presence of a 20cm rodent from space, but it is insufficient to replace the costly field surveys. The current method uses a global classification approach to distinguish between empty and occupied burrow systems. We assume that a local approach, i.e. considering local patterns and trends around individual burrows, will yield

higher accuracy values. When a burrow is occupied, the gerbils forage nearby and remove vegetation, near empty burrows foraging is not observed.

This topic will focus predicting the occupancy of burrows based on local patterns and trends in Worldview images. The objective is first to develop a method to predict the occupancy status of the burrows using local vegetation development, and next to

evaluate which of the importance of different available seasonal images for the prediction.

Location: Utrecht




Prerequisites: GIS, remote sensing and preferably scripting in R



66






Title: The rise and fall of riparian vegetation patches

Supervision: EA Addink

In cooperation with: MW Straatsma

Description:

Floodplains form a dynamic environment for vegetation, with interactions between the river and vegetation. Climax vegetation comprises riparian forest patches, which survive relatively short due to hydrodynamic disturbance. In its turn, the presence of vegetation influences the hydrodynamics of the water and thus e.g. flood risk. Vegetation is

included in morphodynamic models, often as a static parameter, sometimes as a variable affected by processes steering seedling, growth, survival or death. These models produce patterns that look similar to what we observe in nature, but true validation data are lacking. In this topic you will work with a set of 11 land cover maps of a stretch of the river Allier in France, spanning over 50 years (1946 to 2002). The river Allier is a freely meandering river with little human restrictions, which shows in the strong dynamics of

the meanders. The set was built by object-based classification of aerial photographs and contains information on high and low vegetation and the size of the patches. The question we like to answer is how the large patches of high vegetation evolve. Is it a small patch growing bigger, or do two small patches merge into a larger one? What happens with large patches: do they merge? And when ithey disappear, does they fall apart into smaller patches, does it deteriorate at the edges or is it eroded by the

river? Do locations recently left by the river favour high vegetation patches or offer the edges of the floodplain a safer spot?

You will implement a spatio-temporal network, which links the patches over time and thus reveal the answers to the main questions. Probably, not every large patch follows the same trajectory and likely there are some categories of trajectories describing the

rise and fall of the patches. The value of the project is three-fold: it will provide validation data for hydrodynamic models that include vegetation development, it will show different categories of trajectories which will help when building models and the developed method might be applied in other dynamic habitats to characterize vegetation development.

Location: Utrecht




Prerequisites: Experience with GIS and scripting, preferably in Python.

Enthusiasm for scripting/computer work.



67






Title: Finding the failure plane of the Charonnier landslide in the Alps using geophysical techniques

Supervision: Steven M. de Jong, Mark van der Meijde, Rens van Beek,

In cooperation with: ITC UTwente

Description:

The Charonnier landslide is a small mass movement in the French Alps close to Veynes triggered by an extremely wet period in 1994. In the past groups of master students worked on collecting UAV images and creating OrthoDems en OrthoMosaics. Next, they

measured hydrological properties of the soil material and determined cohesion to run a slope stability model. Information that is missing is the location and depth of the failure plane of the landslide. This project intends to use geophysical techniques (e.g. GPR: Ground Penetrating Radar, ERT: Electric Resistivity Tomography, and/or TDEM: Time-Domain Electromagnetic Methods) to find the failure plane. In June 2018 we intend to do field work on the landslide with the geophysical instruments.

Tasks within this project are: 1) literature study to landslide, failure mechanisms and geophysical techniques; 2) to carry out a field survey in the Alps using geophysical instruments; 3) to process and analyse the field data; 4) if time permits run a slope stability model of the site; 5) to report in detail about the project. The project starts with a thorough literature study to landslides morphology and processes, geophysics, image processing and the study area analysis. A research

proposal must be written and approved before the fieldwork. Own transportation (car) is essential for the field work.

Followed courses like GEO4-4406 Land Surface Process Modelling and GEO4-4425 Hazards & Risk Assessment are a pre.

Location: Utrecht

Period: June 2017 – February 2018; Field work in June 2016


Programme / track: ESW

Prerequisites: GEO4-4408 Remote Sensing; GEO4-4404: Land Surface Hydrology;

Contact / info: Steven M. de Jong

68






Title: Mapping the Jurassic/Cretaceous lithological units in the Buëch area in France using Sentinel-2 and ASTER

Supervision: Steven M. de Jong, Wiebe Nijland, Macrel van Maarseveen


Description:

The Buëch area between Gap and Sisteron in France is for several years a first year teaching area in southern France. The Jurassic and Cretaceous lithological formations show faults and folding. The aim of this project is 1) to map the geographical extent of

the formations using Sentinel-2 images and 2) to build a spectral library of all the formations in this area; 3) to determine the spectral separability of the formations and 4) to compare mapping results with the traditional BRGM geological maps 1:50.000. The task within this project is to collect rock samples and spectra in the field in France in June 2017, to carry out spectral measurements using the PSR+ in the PG lab in Utrecht, to download and process satellite images (Sentinel-2, ASTER) and to apply

spectral mapping techniques to produces lithological maps and to evaluate the accuracy of the results. The project starts with a thorough literature study to spectral geological mapping, image correction and image processing, the geology of the study area and spectral lab experiments.

A research proposal must be written and approved before the fieldwork. Own transportation (car) is convenient for the field work, mountain bike is an option.

Followed courses like: GEO4-4425 Hazards & Risk Assessment are a pre.

Location: 2 weeks fieldwork in France, rock lab analysis UU

Period: June 2017-February 2018; Fieldwork in June 2017.


Programme / track: ESW


Contact / info: Steven M. de Jong

69






Title: Redistribution of snow and ice through avalanches in a Himalayan catchment

Supervision: Dr. W.W. Immerzeel, J.F.Steiner


Description:

Large avalanches commonly occur in the steep catchments of the Himalaya-Karakoram range. They form a natural hazard to settlements and infrastructure below, and are an important mechanism for redistributing mass of snow and ice from higher to lower

regions. Contrary to ice flow or snow drift they are however occurring at very short time scales, which makes (a) local measurements nearly impossible and (b) inclusion into glacier or catchment scale models challenging. A number of mass balance and hydrological studies suggest however that their contribution to the glacier mass balance and as snow redistribution mechanism is significant. With the recent release of high resolution satellite imagery (e.g. Sentinel 1 and 2,

Digital Globe Imagery) available at multiple time steps new options to quantify mass movement through avalanches have opened. The student will review literature on remote sensing techniques and applications from other regions as well as studies from the target catchments where avalanches play a role and field observations are available in the group (focus on the co-seismic events from the earthquake in 2015 in Langtang/Himalaya).

The student will use available weather data to estimate snow depth in the catchment and add ice volumes in critical regions, where hanging glaciers occur. The next step will be to use optical and thermal satellite imagery (Landsat-8, Sentinel-2) to detect co-

seismic avalanches in the catchment. The recently launched Google Earth engine will be employed for efficient retrieval and development of an avalanche detection algorithm based on Sentinel and Landsat.

Based on available DEMs (low resolution SRTM, high-resolution SETSM) deposited volumes can be estimated and compared to earlier calculated values. A numerical avalanche model (RAMMS-AVAL) is then employed to reproduce runout areas and deposited volume. Identifying avalanche hotspots, topographic predictors (slope, exposure to solar radiation etc.) can then be identified that can later be used in catchment scale models.

Based on these findings the student can improve already existing very simple models of snow avalanche redistribution (in PCRaster Python or R), that currently can not account for the runout spread and the instantaneous redistribution at the same time.


Period: 4 (2017 – 2018), 1-2 (2018-2019)







70






Title: Novel air pollution exposure modeling - Evaluating spatial-temporal aggregation as substitute for uncertain activity patterns

Supervision: Dr. Meng Lu ([email protected]), Dr. Derek Karssenberg ([email protected]), Dr. Oliver Schmitz

In cooperation with: Partners in https://globalgeohealthdatacenter.com

Description:

Air pollution shows a high spatio-temporal variability and pollution can be influenced by land use, road traffic intensity, building height, meteorological conditions, and industrial

use. To assess the severity of air pollution, human exposure to air pollution needs to be determined. Conventional air pollution exposure assessment methods often measure air pollution exposure at front door locations. This approach, however, does not take human activity patterns into account, which consequently may lead to over- or under-estimation of air pollution exposure. Assessing air pollution exposure considering activity patterns of individual persons

remains to be a challenge as 1) the detailed working location information and detailed activity pattern of the residents are commonly unknown when large numbers of individuals need to be considered, 2) the modeling of air pollution exposure using a combination of process- and agent-based models across a large population (e.g. at country scale) may be computationally infeasible. This study aims at developing a novel method to assess air pollution exposure of

different human activity patterns. The human activity patterns will be modelled by spatial (and temporal) aggregation using windows of various shapes and different buffer sizes. The window shapes are suitable to represent a series of activity patterns, and

optimized for computation. The methodology will be tested and evaluated for a Dutch municipality. This study is highly related to our on-going project of improving air pollution exposure modeling using a combined field and agent based modeling.


Period: Any period


Programme / track: Geohazards and earth observation

Prerequisites: Earth observation, basic spatiotemporal data analysis (content of project can be adjusted to your background)




71






Title: Improving air pollution mapping using Earth observation satellite imagery

Supervision: Dr. Meng Lu ([email protected]), Dr. Derek Karssenberg ([email protected]), Ivan Soenario, Dr. Oliver Schmitz

In cooperation with: Risk Assessment Institute Utrecht University, KNMI

Description:

Air pollution is a major environmental risk to health, causing 2-3 million premature deaths per year worldwide (WHO). Air pollution mapping provides important information

for health researchers and policy makers. Ground sensor networks are usually sparse and incidental, especially in developing countries, and can have low resolution in space and/or time. However, the natural behaviour of various air pollutants shows great variability in both space and time, resulting in estimation errors that complicates further research. A promising improvement of the challenge of air pollution mapping could be to use a

combination of (model-processed) ground data with satellite data. Satellite observations of air pollutants offer a wide coverage and high continuity. Space borne platforms, such as Terra, Aqua, Aura, ENVISAT, provide measurements for a wide range of air pollutants that are also measured on the ground. However, satellite time series are shorter than most ground data time series, and the temporal and spatial resolution (<week interval and sub 1km respectively) is still quite coarse. Model processed ground data, e.g. in the Netherlands with Land Use Regression modelling, provides higher resolutions in space

and time. Questions that can be defined related to this topic are: How do we improve air pollution

mapping with sensor data and/or variables such as are used in land use regression models? How does the technical implementation work? What is the improvement of the combination of (suggested) data sources, and how can you quantify that? For example,

how do we account for the satellite retrieval errors? Will the combination of satellite data with ground data be more beneficial globally or regionally (e.g. the Netherlands)? Can we expect an improvement of air pollution mapping at all in the Netherlands? This is a highly relevant topic especially with the new launching of the Tropomi satellite which is designed specifically for air pollution measurement. .


Period: any period


Programme / track: Geohazards and Earth observation

Prerequisites: Remote sensing (content of project can be adjusted to your background)




72






Title: Personal exposure to air pollution in megacities of the world

Supervision: Dr Derek Karssenberg, Dr Oliver Schmitz

In cooperation with: Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences (Utrecht University)

Description:

Air pollution is one of the major concerns for human health. The effect of air pollution on health is often estimated using personal exposure to air pollution. This is the exposure to air pollution aggregated along the space-time path visited by an individual. An

important question is how megacities in the world differ regarding personal exposure of their population. In this topic you will try to answer this question by calculating personal exposure of the entire population of a number of megacities in the world, using publicly available information. Air pollution will be mapped by downscaling (increasing the level of detail) remotely sensed air pollution products to a spatial resolution of approximately 10 m using existing land use regression models, using open streetmap data as input. Space-time paths visited by individuals are estimated using location of houses, possibly

enriched with census data or other high-resolution information on location of dwellings. Then, air pollution is aggregated for these locations, for each individual in the population. This results in distributions of personal exposure for the population of the city. The objective is to do this for a number of major cities in the world. This requires good skills in programming GIS operations, e.g. using Python and/or PCRaster, ArcGIS.

Location: Utrecht University, cooperation possible with Instititute for Risk Assessment Sciences, University Medical Centre Utrecht

Period: Any period is possible.

Number of students: 1-2 students


Prerequisites: Experience with programming (scripting, e.g. Python), background in GIS, spatio-temporal modelling, (geo-statistics).

Contact / info: Dr Derek Karssenberg, [email protected]


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Title: Near real-time deforestation monitoring from satellite time series imagery

Supervision: Dr. Meng Lu ([email protected]), Dr. Derek Karssenberg ([email protected]


Description:

Forests around the world are under threat of deforestation, which impacts our livelihoods and threatens a wide range of plant and animal species. Human behavior

induced deforestation includes clear-cutting for agriculture, ranching, and unsustainable logging for timber. A deforestation monitoring system can significantly facilitate forest conservation from relevant environmental and political agencies. Earth observation satellite imagery with ever-growing spatiotemporal resolution and spectral information provide us opportunities to automatically monitor deforestation. A global forest cover change study was published in Science [1] in 2013, and has demonstrated and generated tremendous interest in using Earth observations for global forest cover

change. This study [1] used however relatively simple algorithms and has a high misclassification rate, and does not address monitoring forest dynamics in near real-time. In this study you will apply novel time series structural change methods to automatically detect forest change from optical satellite image time series. An open archive of satellite imagery products will be used, such as Landsat TM 5&7.

Interesting challenges to be solved in this study include how to separate man-made deforestation events from natural disturbance such as fire and drought. How can we

retrieve useful information from seasonality effects of a time series, (which commonly confuses the change signal)? Can the gradual change information be integrated into abrupt change detection? And, how could multidimensional information from space,

spectral bands, other sensor data and environmental variables be integrated into a 1D time series analysis? This is a highly relevant research with the launching of Sentinel 2 satellite in 2015. A near real-time deforestation, or more broadly, vegetation monitoring system will greatly contribute to environmental conservation.

[1] High-Resolution Global Maps of 21st-Century Forest Cover Change. M.C. Hansen, P.V. Potapov, R. Moore, M. Hancher, S.A. Turubanova, A. Tyukavina, D. Thau, S.V. Stehman, S.J. Goetz, T.R. Loveland, A. Kommareddy, A. Egorov, L. Chini, C.O. Justice, and J. R. G. Townshend


Period: Any period


Programme / track: Geohazards and earth observation

Prerequisites: Earth observation, basic spatiotemporal data analysis (content of

project can be adjusted to your background)




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