Pizza Seminar “Ethohydraulics: understanding fish behaviour in flowing waters”

This Pizza Seminar, hosted within the UNITE! University Network for Innovation, Technology and Engineering, explores the emerging field of ethohydraulics—the study of how fish interact with flowing water. Understanding these interactions is essential for designing river infrastructures that are both efficient and environmentally sustainable.

At Instituto Superior Técnico, the UNITE! project is coordinated by Professor Isabel Boavida, CERIS researcher, whose work focuses on ecohydraulics and the interaction between hydraulic processes and aquatic ecosystems.

Bringing together experimental, theoretical, and modelling approaches, the seminar will address how fish move, respond, and survive in human-altered flows. The session highlights recent advances in hydraulic research, including innovative tools and concepts that contribute to improved fish passage solutions and more informed river and hydropower management.

Programme

11:30 – 12:00 | Dr. Katharina Bensing (Technical University of Darmstadt)
Bridging Hydraulics and Fish Behaviour: Insights from Fish-Shaped Probes
Dr. Katharina Bensing is a researcher in hydraulic engineering, focusing on ethohydraulics and the interaction between biology and fluid mechanics. Her work combines experimental methods and numerical simulations to better understand how fish perceive and respond to hydraulic stimuli, supporting the design of effective fish passage systems.

12:00 – 12:30 | Prof. Costantino Manes (Politecnico di Torino)
How fast can fish swim and for how long?
Prof. Costantino Manes is Associate Professor of Hydraulics, with research centred on turbulent flows and their interaction with biological systems. His work provides key insights into fish swimming performance and endurance under varying flow conditions.

12:30 – 13:00 | Prof. Stefan Hoerner (INP Grenoble)
Virtual Fish: Cutting-Edge Design and Modelling Tools for Fish Passage in Human-Altered Flows
Prof. Stefan Hoerner is an Associate Professor with expertise in fluid mechanics and hydraulic machinery. His research focuses on advanced modelling and optimisation techniques for sustainable water infrastructure, including innovative tools for analysing fish passage in complex hydraulic environments.

Participation is free but requires REGISTRATION