Bano Mehdi
In the broad context, I am interested in freshwater systems and anthropogenic impacts on these. To examine potential impacts on hydrology, my research is focused on changes that may occur in a watershed, such as land use change and climate change. Furthermore, I am interested in investigating how adaptation measures may improve the resilience of the freshwater systems, while underpinning coping mechanisms that make practical sense. At McGill, I concentrate on modelling surface water quality, determining the drivers of agricultural change at the farm level, developing scenarios of land use change for watersheds, and examining field level adaptations with regards to climate change. My goal is to provide decision makers and policy makers with scientific information based on available tools, new methods and rigorous analysis that account for uncertainties, to better manage the anthropogenic influences on our ecosystems.
Research focus
Rivers and lakes provide important ecosystem services to humans, such as clean drinking water, sources of nutrition, transportation and recreation. Yet human activity directly or indirectly threatens the aquatic systems’ capacity to provide these services by activities that decrease water quality and through structural changes of the river system, such as irrigation and hydropower dams.