ABSTRACT:

Assessing the impact of climate change on floodplain productivity poses unique challenges for hydrodynamic models. For example, the dynamics of floodplain fisheries are governed both by inundation dynamics across thousands of km2, and water storage timing within small depressions (which serve as fish habitat) connected to the river network by meter-scale manmade canals, controlled by flow across fishing weirs. Here, we propose to represent these features as a system of effective, interconnected sub-grid elements within a coarse-scale model. We test this strategy over the Logone floodplain in Cameroon, and its floodplain fishery. We first validate this strategy for a local study area (30 km2); we find that hydraulic models at resolutions from 30 m to 500 m are able to reproduce hydraulic dynamics as documented by in situ water level observations. When applied to the entire floodplain (16,000 km2), we find that the proposed modeling strategy allows accurate prediction of observed pattern of recession in the depressions. Artificially removing floodplain canals in the model causes residence time of water in depressions to be overpredicted by approximately 30 days. This study supports the strategy of modeling fine-scale interconnected features as a system of sub-grid elements in a coarse resolution model for applications such as assessing the sensitivity of floodplain fisheries to future climate change.

Shastry, Apoorva Michael Durand; Jeffrey Neal; Alfonso Fernández; Sui Chian Phang; Brandon Mohr; Hahn Chul Jung; Saïdou Kari; Mark Moritz; Bryan Mark; Sarah Laborde; Asmita Murumkar; Ian Hamilton. 2020. Small-scale anthropogenic changes impact floodplain hydraulics: simulating the effects of fish canals on the Logone Floodplain. Journal of Hydrology, 588: 125035. 125035.10.1016/j.jhydrol.2020.125035.

ABSTRACT:

NFIE

ABSTRACT:

I am Apoorva, and I am a third year graduate student at the Ohio State University in Columbus, OH. I am originally from India, and have a Masters degree in Water Resources and Environmental Engineering from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. For my PhD thesis, I use a hydrodynamic model to study the Logone floodplain in Cameroon, Africa. The goal is to understand the impact of fishing canals and changing climate on the flood inundation dynamics in the region. The work is a part of an inter-disciplinary coupled natural and human systems project called MORSL (MOdelling Regime Shifts in the Logone) where we study the human impact (fishing canals) and changing climate on the fish, fishers and the hydrologic system of the Logone floodplain. I use LISFLOOD-FP, a model developed in University of Bristol, for modelling the Logone floodplain.

I enjoy cooking, swimming and playing board games in my free time. I also love travelling and hiking.

Email: shastry.7@osu.edu