PhD students

 

Sushana Karki
PhD Student
Email: Sushana.Karki@cdu.edu.au

Thesis: Vegetation Dynamics and Channel Change in Daly River Catchment

 

Generally it is believed that riparian vegetation increases bank stability by stabilising bank strength and reducing near-bank flow velocities. Significance of riparian vegetation as a control of channel form and process is increasingly being recognized. As vegetation is known to increase soil strength due to the tensile strength and spatial density of its roots, it is assumed when a binding agent is lacking in the banks, it results in a wider overall stream channel. On the other hand vegetation is greatly influenced by landforms, channel characteristics and hydrology. Fluvial geomorphic processes like episodes of inundation, erosion and deposition shapes fluvial landform which in turn, support different assemblage of vegetation that must respond with these processes. Moreover, a change in one or both of these factors has an impact on other variables, such as the riparian vegetation cover, sediment load and type, and hydrological factors, all of which have the potential to alter channel morphology.

In order to explore the relationship between the riparian vegetation zone and the channel morphology, underlying factors such as natural processes of river, anthropogenic and climatic need to be understood. This project aims to focus on the above mentioned phenomena. For this purpose a variety of data sources such as medium to high resolution remotely sensed data sets, aerial photographs, field data and recently acquired state of the art LiDAR data will be analysed using digital image processing techniques and GIS.