Postdoctoral position in Ecohydrology

Generic habitat models for a modernized hydropower with improved environmental flows.

You will join the RiverLy interdisciplinary research unit in Lyon, France (https://riverly.inrae.fr/ ). 

There, you will work in an ecohydrology team (https://ecoflows.inrae.fr/ ) strongly involved in environmental flow issues. 

You will join the funded ReHydro European Project, grouping 23 partners of 7 countries, and dedicated to the refurbishment of hydropower. The project will demonstrate how European existing hydropower facilities can be modernized, respecting sustainability requirements and societal needs in a climate change context.

Your objective will be to demonstrate how simple, generic habitat models can help defining environmental flows, which represent sustainable trade-offs between hydropower production and riverine biodiversity. Habitat models link a physical model of rivers (hydraulics and water temperature) with models of biological responses. A wide diversity of habitat models exist, ranging from desktop and generic methods based on statistical approaches of river habitats, to detailed spatially explicit models that need important at-a-site input data.

During your postdoc contract, you will:

(1) review the range of available habitat models, with a particular focus on the genericity of available models of biological responses to flow and temperature variations, including those resulting from peak energy production (hydropeaking).

(2) compare the advantage and limits of generic vs. detailed habitat models, based on a French case study (the hydropower scheme along the Ain River, tributary of the Rhône), where detailed habitat models are available and will be further developed during the project,

(3) test original applications of generic habitat models to other hydropower facilities in the ReHydro project and at large scales (European or global).

You will be supervised by a group of international specialists in environmental flow issues, from INRAE (N Lamouroux, H Capra, M Alp, F Moatar, H Pella) and the research group of EDF (Electricité de France; V Gouraud, Y Guenand, A Barillier).

Some references on the topic

https://doi.org/10.1002/eco.2513

https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-803907-6.00013-9 

https://hess.copernicus.org/articles/26/3477/2022/

Training and skills

You have a PhD in environmental sciences, with experience in eco-hydrological and/or ecohydraulic modelling. A solid background in statistical analysis and modelling is expected. You are interested in interdisciplinary research, and motivated to contribute to a European project with scientists of various disciplines (e.g. physics, ecology, economy and engineering).