Amir Golpira, a Ph.D. student in civil and environmental engineering, won third place in the Graduate Division of the 2021 Environmental & Water Resources Institute (EWRI) Congress for his paper, Influences of Boulder Placement on Stream Habitat Quality Metrics. Golpira is a graduate student in Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering Abul Baki’s Lab.
Currently, Dr. Baki’s Ecohydraulics lab is working on a research project to identify and evaluate the fundamental ecohydraulics approaches for effective ecological river restoration using in-stream habitat structures such as boulders, and logs as well as vegetation.
“Boulder placement is a common method to restore degraded rivers and also to make nature-like fish passages. We need to understand how different boulder arrangements affect local mean and turbulence flow fields as well as sediment transport processes. I'm investigating how these changes in flow fields and stream processes may influence in-stream habitat quality for aquatic species such as fish. This work, among the other works which are in progress in Dr.Baki’s Ecohydraulics lab, can eventually enhance the evaluation and design of river restoration projects from an ecological perspective,” Golpira said.
The Environmental & Water Resources Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers is ASCE’s technical source for environmental and water-related issues. EWRI is one of nine ASCE technical institutes. Their members include professionals whose focus areas are:
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the Environment;
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Groundwater;
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Surface Water;
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Hydraulics and Waterways;
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Irrigation and Drainage;
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Planning and Management;
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Urban Water Resources;
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Water Supply, Wastewater, and Stormwater;
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Watershed; and
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Domestic and International Interdisciplinary Issues.
