Adaptive Management of Riparian Vegetation in the Era of Climate Change

Convenors: Takashi Asaeda, Rohan Benjankar and Dongdong Shao

Riparian areas in many parts of the world have been encroached with grasses, shrubs and trees, a.k.a. "from white to green river‚". This phenomenon prevails in regulated rivers due to changes in flow regime, as well as in unregulated rivers due to temperature and precipitation changes. This causes various socio-environmental issues, including 1) habitat change, 2) flood risk increase, and 3) landscape change, etc. Adaptive management strategies may be feasible to mitigate the negative effects of this regime shift while optimizing the positive effects. This special session will present and discuss research and practices relevant to solving this prominent issue facing the Ecohydraulics community.