The River Ecology and Management research group (RivEM) has been granted two new research projects. Lutz Eckstein is the project manager in a project, which is financed through the Competence Center Swedish Hydropower Center (SVC) with 3.8 million SEK, on the effects of short-term regulation of rivers during winter on the ecological status of the riparian zone. The project is a collaboration between Karlstad University (Eva Bergman, Larry Greenberg, Johan Watz) and Umeå University (Roland Jansson, Birgitta Malm-Renöfält) and will investigate rivers in both northern and southern Sweden. John Piccolo is the project manager in the second project that will focus on sustaining hydropower production and high-value fish populations by developing Individual-Based Models (IBM) to assess how fish populations can be restored while maintaining streamflows for hydropower production, which is financed through the hållbar svensk vattenkraft (HåVa) program of Energimyndigheten with 2.9 million SEK. The project is a collaboration between Karlstad University (Mahboobeh Hajiesmaeili and Johan Watz), Vattenfall AB (David Aldvén and Patrik Andreasson) and Fortum AB (Marco Blixt and Markku Lahti) and will investigate two key hydropower producing rivers in Sweden: Gullspångsävlen and Luleälven.
