Congratulations to Joël who has received the ETH Medal 2023 for his outstanding Master thesis Quantifying Pathway Suitability for Fish Escaping Rapid Flow Changes.
He extended the Fish Escaping Route model, previously developed in the Stocker Lab, by assessing the capability of fish to follow spatial shifts in their habitat. The extended model was applied to identify critical areas and discharges for brown trout larvae in the hydropeaking Hasliaare River, Switzerland. With the extended model the impact of river morphology and hydropower operation on fish can be quantified as indicators, enabling various applications in hydropeaking research and mitigation.
Joël’s work was developed in partnership with Kraftwerke Oberhasli AG, a Swiss hydropower company contributing to develop mitigation measures for hydropeaking.