Volcanic landscapes are highly dynamic environments that challenge geoscientists to continuously monitor and assess geomorphic processes and related hazard.

Sebastian Granados Bolanos is a 2nd year PhD student of the Department of Geosciences and his research topic relates to fluvial geomorphology in volcanic environments with tropical conditions.

He recently went to Costa Rica, together with his supervisor Prof. Nicola Surian, for a field work that aimed at understanding channel morphology and processes in this highly dynamic and  energetic environment. Another important goal was understanding fluvial processes to link them to hazard. For instance, in the city of Turrialba the river flows very close to the houses, posing relevant hazard for the inhabitants.

“We used drones to survey river sections, we characterized the sediments that flow through this rivers and we also analyzed transport processes throughout the reaches”, Sebastian Granados Bolanos explained.

“Rio Turrialba is very dynamic and the bank erosion is quite intense. This is causing major issues in terms of hazard because houses are very close to the edge of the banks”, Prof. Nicola Surian added.