Contact:
Room 510,
Department of Geography
McGill University,
805 Sherbrooke Street West,
Montreal, QC H3A 2K6
Canada
 
Email: 
Camille.ouelletdallaire@mail.mcgill.ca

Camille Ouellet Dallaire
Masters Student
Department of Geography
McGill University

My research interests are oriented towards freshwater ecosystem, particularly at the global scale.

How to conserve ecosystem diversity while still fulfilling human needs? 
Can we find a balance between freshwater ecology and human needs?  
How can it be addressed on the global scale?

I am also interested in looking at the consequences of anthropegenic impact on freshwater ecosystems and their repercussions on biodiversity and ecology .

    GLObal RIver Classification (GloRiC)

    The growing pressure on freshwater resources and aquatic ecosystems mandates for advancements in sustainable watershed management; for example, new frameworks of environmental flow requirements such as ELOHA are promoted as means of improving ecosystem resilience. These new and advanced methods require manageable freshwater units to be applied, preferably accompanied with attributes that allow for stratified grouping or classification. Such units have previously been created on watershed and country levels, but a global classification at high spatial resolution is not yet available. The Global River Classification (GloRIC) project aims to create such units based on the analysis of geo-physical characteristics of river reaches at the global scale. Physical and climatic variables such as slope and temperature, as well as hydrological data that express characteristics of the flow regime are used to distinguish different river types. The spatially detailed and explicit global assessment is facilitated by the digital river network of the HydroSHEDS database at 500m pixel resolution. The classification uses a two-step cluster analysis based on Bayesian and Log-likelihood techniques.

    As part of this project, previously used variables are evaluated regarding their feasibility and applicability on the global scale. A particular focus of GloRIC is to use a minimal number of variables to differentiate river reaches based on their eco-hydrological characteristics. Australia, New Zealand and the Amazon Basin have been used as test cases and initial results highlight the necessity for a tailored selection of indices that are capable of capturing the large variability of the world’s rivers.  We believe that the resulting global river reach classification will improve our understanding of the distinguishing features of large river basins, will enhance the assessment and analysis of environmental flow requirements, will serve as a first-order proxy for large scale aquatic biodiversity patterns, and will ultimately support the development of management strategies, global policies and perspectives.

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Prelimairy Results combining hydrology and physio-climatic variables on a world sample (September 2010, McGill University)

Background

    Geography first impacted me when I was in Cegep. Pierre Letarte, one of my teachers, found a way to ask questions that  pushed my mind to the limit of its imagination and knowledge. After that, landscapes were no longer just beautiful, they were living enigma.

My bachelor degree of science was completed at Laval University, Quebec, Canada, in Geography with a short stop at the University of Victoria, British Colombia, Canada. I mostly focussed on physical geopgraphy with particular interests in GIS and geomorphology. I now work on my M.sc. at McGill University under the supervision of Dr. Bernhard Lehner.

I am also part of the organization of the first edition of the McGill Sustainabilty Symposium. This event will take place on March 4th, 2011 and will consist of a serie of guess speakers, a poster session and a world-cafe discussion. We will try to ignite discussion between students and faculty across scale and discipline.

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