Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Units Program:
Education, Research and Technical Assistance for Managing Our Natural Resources

For my MS thesis in Fish and Wildlife Conservation at Virginia Tech, I am studying the capacity of ecosystem to regulate floods. Floods occur naturally and aquatic ecosystems have adapted to these events; however humans are in dissonance with floods because of the casualties and damages they cause. In recent times the role of natural ecosystems, such as wetlands and floodplains, to mitigate floodwaters is starting to be recognized as a valuable asset to flood regulation. The goals and objectives of my thesis are focused on understanding flood regime in relation to land cover in small catchments over time, the evidence of hard structures in decreasing flooding extent and the spatial distribution of flood controls – both man-made and natural land cover. Research findings can provide evidence for an alternative paradigm to managing floods that can benefit water resources, the environment and people.