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Our group works on three overarching research goals:
- Contribute to the basic understanding of flow and turbulence in complex canopies (urban, forest). Specifically, develop methods to spatially sample, quantify, visualize and model flow and turbulent exchange in those canopies.
- Develop experimental sampling methods, analysis strategies, and models to quantify greenhouse gas emissions and uptake in urban and other managed ecosystems.
- Develop models that describe and predict energy and water exchange in urban ecosystems with the aim to promote more sustainable design and management practices for cities.
Active projects and programs
 Direct measurement of greenhouse gas exchange in urban ecosystems
A research program funded by a Discovery Grant of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) - 2012 to 2017.
Our group will develop methods to quantify and analyze GHG exchange through direct concentration and flux measurements of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide in the urban atmosphere. Our goals are to identify and quantify GHG emission (and uptake) processes in representative neighborhoods and allow monitoring of long-term GHG emission trends. We apply micrometeorological and biogeochemical methods, including mass flux measurements by the eddy covariance (EC) approach, closed-chamber measurements, and stable isotopes. Those methods are combined with detailed spatial models about the part of the urban surface that is directly influencing the measurements.
 A spectroscopy system for measuring isotopic carbon-dioxide fluxes in the urban atmosphere.
Suported by a Leader's Opportunity Fund of the Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI), the British Columbia Knowledge Development Fund and UBC - 2009 - 2014.
The urban carbon cycle is distinct from most other terrestrial ecosystems due to the interaction between spatially and temporally highly variable sources and sinks and complex anthropogenic, biologic, and climatic controls. This infrastructure grant funds a tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy system that will allow us to develop methods for a partitioning of urban carbon-dioxide exchange based on a stable isotope apporach.
→ Our urban flux tower in Vancouver
A Training Network funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) - 2011 to 2016.
Co-Applicants: S. Simard, S. Aitken, A. Black, G. Bradfield, A. Christen, M. Johnson, M. Krzic, D. McKinney, C. E. Prescott, T.T. Satterfield, R. Talalay.
The NSERC CREATE network TerreWEB aims to have Master and PhD students integrate global change science, social science and communications research. TerreWEB is an enriched, interdisciplinary and collaborative graduate training program focused on global change impacts on terrestrial ecosystems, mitigation and adaptation strategies, and the role of scientific communication to affect appropriate changes in human behaviour for adapting to global change.
→ Program website
Completed projects and programs
 EPiCC - Environmental Prediction in Canadian Cities
funded by the Canadian Foundation for Climate and Atmospheric Sciences (CFCAS) - 2007 to 2012. Selected collaborators: Environment Canada, McGill University, King's College London, Univeristy of Western Ontario.
In this network researchers from Universities and government institutions develop and incorporate an urban surface parameterization scheme in Canada's numerical weather forecasting system. As part of this effort, we run a validation field experiment in Vancouver (2007-2010) and focus on the role of irrigation in the urban water, energy and carbon balance.
→ Project website
 A LIDAR-based urban metabolism approach to neighbourhood scale energy and carbon emissions modelling
A research contract with Natural Resources Canada - 2010.
Co-Applicants: R. Kellett, N. Coops
We developed an urban metabolism approach to neighbourhood-scale energy and carbon modelling driven by a novel combination of remote sensing observations (LiDAR), building energy models, and ecological approaches. Modeled emissions at fine resolution were then directly compared against eddy covariance measurements on our urban flux tower.
→ Final project report
 Impact of the mountain pine beetle outbreak on the carbon and water balances of lodgepole pine stands in the BC interior
funded by a Strategic Grant of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) - 2009 to 2011.
Co-Applicants: A. Black, P. Burton, A. Christen, N. Coops, A. Fredeen, D. Spittlehouse, J. Trofymow.
We assessed the impact of different forest management strategies following Mountain Pine Beetle attacks on the regional-scale carbon and water cycles. Our research group worked on wind, turbulence and radiation transfer inside the attacked forest canopies. We developed approaches to determine the sink and source distribution of carbon-dioxide, water and sensible heat. This allows us to determine the role of different processes (soils, secondary structure, dead Lodgepole pine trees) on the forest's carbon exchange, and to model growth conditions for the secondary structure.
→ Project website
 Turbulence at rough and porous land-atmosphere interfaces
funded by a Discovery Grant and a Research Tools and Instruments Grant of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) - 2007 to 2012.
In this program we completed a series of field experiments to improve and foster theoretical understanding of flow, turbulence and turbulent exchange processes inside and above porous surface-atmosphere interfaces (vegetation canopies, urban canopies). Further, we developed new approaches to track organized structures using thermal thermography.
 HX 06
A field experiment I completed at TU Berlin in collaboration with Universities of Basel, Freiburg and Padova - 2006
In this field experiment we investigated turbulence and trace-gas exchange in the trunk space of a forest. We probed the in-canopy flow with a horizontal array of ultrasonic-anemometers and gas-analyzers to determine selected spatial statistics of the flow in the lower canopy layer, including the role of dispersive fluxes and the convection velocity of coherent structures.
→ Project website
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