DPLUS206 - Climate impacts on Falkland Islands past, present and future freshwater dynamics

Project Overview

Falkland Islands terrestrial ecosystems are unique and sensitive to changes in land use and climate change. Recognizing these challenges, and given farming is the very fabric of FI community, a growing desire exists for data driven solutions to facilitate innovation and sustainable land management and climate change adaptation. We will work toward solving these challenges through a locally driven project, which brings together existing data and data tools and harnesses technological solutions for land management and climate change adaptation. 

This 2-year position is a Darwin Plus project funded through UK government. The project is led by SAERI but involves project partners including Falkland Islands Government and UKCEH. 

The high-level research aims are to:

  • Use freely available Landsat and Sentinel satellite imagery to assess past (last 30 y) and present freshwater dynamics (surface water extent and soil moisture (e.g. Normalized Difference Moisture Index, Soil Water Index).
  • Model future scenarios of freshwater dynamics using a number of data-driven gridded models

Project Funding

This project is funded by the UK Government through Darwin Plus Local (project DPLUS206).

Project Partners

Project Manager

Dr Nyein Thandar Ko

Ko holds a Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering from Technological University (Mandalay), Myanmar, and a Master's degree in Water Engineering and Management from the Asia Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand. Her Master's research focused on water resource allocation trade-offs between hydropower, irrigation, and environmental flows in the Panlaung River Basin, Myanmar, utilizing advanced hydrological modelling techniques. After completing her Master's, Ko lectured in Water Resources Engineering at Yangon Technological University, teaching both undergraduate and graduate courses. In 2022, she earned a PhD in Water Management from Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), Netherlands. Her doctoral research focused on river health in the Ayeyarwady River Basin, specifically investigating the effects of hydropower dams and land-use pollution on freshwater ecology. Ko employed remote sensing and GIS techniques, using the Landsat 8 dataset to monitor surface water quality, including suspended sediment concentration and water temperature in Myanmar’s rivers. Ko’s expertise spans field sampling and laboratory experiments, with research experience at La Trobe University, Australia, and TU Delft, Netherlands. From October 2023 to October 2024, she collaborated with TU Delft and Kasetsart University (KU) on projects related to hydrological modelling and sediment concentration monitoring
FALKLAND ISLANDS OFFICE:
PO Box 609, Stanley Cottage North
Ross Road, Falkland Islands
Stanley, FIQQ 1ZZ
Falkland Islands: +500 27374
UK Office: +44 (0)20 3745 1731
© Copyright 2022 - SAERI
Proudly designed with Oxygen, the world's best visual website design software
envelopephone-handsetmap-marker linkedin facebook pinterest youtube rss twitter instagram facebook-blank rss-blank linkedin-blank pinterest youtube twitter instagram