TiRiLab: Ticino Rivers Lab
TiRiLab is a river research and education laboratory in environmental engineering at ETH Zürich. It is a collaborative project between IfU and VAW at ETH Zürich and the Land Department of Canton Tessin which is providing funding.
TiRiLab was established in 2017 under the external pageHyMoCARES Project, funded by the EU Alpine Space Programme through the New Regional Policy of the Swiss Confederation.
TiRiLab offers Master students in Environmental Engineering at ETH Zürich opportunities for MSc Projects and MSc Theses. Students work on river case studies in Ticino and gain experience in practical problem solving and hands-on experience with GIS, numerical simulation with BASEMENT, and other methods and tools applied to problems of hydrological and hydromorphological assessment of Alpine rivers and their ecosystem services.
The Ticino Rivers Lab was featured in the online magazine external pageTICINO SCIENZA as an example of successful collaboration between Canton Ticino and ETH Zürich (12.03.2022)
The Italian speaking Swiss Television RSI presented TiRiLab scientists and students at work in the scientific program "Il giardino di Albert" under the title "Pesci e... acque bollenti" (Fish... and boiling waters). You can watch the 45 minute feature in the external pageRSI Archive. (05.03.2023)
TiRiLab
- is a river research and education laboratory in Environmental Engineering at ETH Zürich focussed on rivers in Ticino
- provides a platform for MSc students in Environmental Engineering to apply their knowledge in analysis/numerical modelling to practical river problems
- teaches an awareness of hydrological, morphological, ecological problems related to the human use of rivers and river floodplains
- promotes skills for the job market: independent problem solving, interdisciplinarity, client interaction (reporting, presentation)
Target Rivers: Maggia, Ticino, Brenno and others...
- flood simulation in rivers (attenuation, inundation, etc.)
- morphodynamic simulation of erosion-deposition patterns
- simulation of aquatic habitat (e.g. fish, macroinvertebrates)
- floodplain riffle-pool systems and their connectivity
- analysis and simulation of riparian vegetation dynamics
- analysis of floodplain ecology and biodiversity
- impact of minimum/alternative flow releases
- assessment of hydropeaking effects
- assessment of ecosystem services (e.g. tourism)
- Prof. Dr. Peter Molnar is TiRiLab head at IfU and expert in hydrology and fluvial geomorphology
- Dr. Davide Vanzo is TiRiLab head at VAW and expert in morphodynamic modelling (BASEMENT)
- Dr. Francesco Caponi is supervisor of projects at VAW on morphodynamic modelling (BASEMENT)
- Sasha Löffler is TiRiLab administrator and supervisor at IfU on hydrological analysis