Research Interests
During my masters, I studied glacial ablation patterns on a temperate glacier of the Valais region in Switzerland. I conducted drone surveys on a 1km2 region of the glacier producing digital elevation models and orthomosaics weekly during the summer of 2020 using Structure from Motion Multi-view Stereo Photogrammetry. These were used to estimate the height loss, and thus melt of the glacier and to test its correlation other surface parameters such as surface reflectance and rugosity.
For my PhD, I will be moving downstream to study the impact of climate change on mountain lakes and primarily the sensitivity of water temperature to atmospheric and physical changes in the watershed hydrology. Water temperature has been thoroughly studied for low altitude lakes where a strong correlation can be seen between rising air temperatures and lake surface and deep-water temperatures. However, this signal is less clear in mountain lakes suggesting a bigger impact on water temperature from other meteorological factors such as longwave radiation or precipitation. Using data from the past 10 years, I will run one dimensional models of various lakes in the French Alps to study their water temperature’s sensitivity to different meteorological parameters and the evolution of water temperature, stratification and mixing regimes in the years to come.
Biography
2021 – Present : PhD Student in Environmental Sciences in the Lakes Group of the Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics, University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Main topic: Impact of Climate Change on Mountain Lakes.
2021 : Research Assistant in the Lakes group of the Institute of Earth Surface Dynamics, University of Lausanne, Switzerland.
2019 – 2021 : Master in Environmental Sciences orientation Aquatic Sciences, University of Lausanne, Switzerland. Thesis title: “Use of Structure from Motion Photogrammetry for Evaluation of Spatial distribution of Melt on a Temperate Glacier: Otemma Glacier Case Study”
2015 – 2018 : Bachelor in Natural Systems orientation Hydrogeology, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland. Thesis title : “Analysis of paleo fracturing in the Mont-Tendre due to the Pontarlier Fault”
Publications and Posters
Herr, I. , Bouffard D., Perga ME (2022) Impact of inflow on Mountain lake heatfluxes (Poster at SIL 2022, Berlin)