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Research interests

My main research focus is to inform sustainable management of large river systems, in part by creating tools and datasets and understanding their implications from a multi-scale perspective.

To do so, I try to address these questions:
How we find a balance between freshwater ecology and human needs?

How can it be addressed on the global scale?

How can we implement concepts such as ecosystem services and environmental flows in large-scale context?

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Background

My B.Sc. was completed at Laval University, Quebec, Canada, in Geography with a short stop at the University of Victoria, British Colombia. I focused on physical geography with particular interests in GIS and geomorphology. I completed my M.Sc. under the supervisoin of Dr. Bernhard Lehner at McGill University. I decided to also pursue my PhD under Dr. Lehner supervision and started in September 2014.

I am also part of the organization of the McGill Sustainability Symposium, a student-led initiative running for more than 7 years.  In this event, we try to bridge the gap across disciplines and hierarchies by bringing together students and faculties to celebrate and discuss challenges of sustainability research.

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Current research

During my PhD, I want to explore some of the ways that we can tie together river system management and  large-scale analysis for sustainable river systems. For this, I plan five chapters.

1. GloRiC framework: development of a high resolution typology of river reaches at the global scale.
   • In this project, I will use the GloRiC framework (see project page) and hydroSHEDS to develop a typology of river reaches.
2. Quantifying the relationship between river types and biodiversity in the Greater Mekong Region
   • Using a classification developed based on the GloRiC framework and input from a group of local experts, I want to compare the distribution of species and river types among sub-basins. This could indicate how well river types can perform when used as biodiversity proxies.
3.  Developing a river reach classifications for Canada to support environmental flow assessments and analysis how this can inform environmental flow requirement assessments.
   • For Canadians rivers, I will develop a typology that includes particularity of the Canadians physio-climatic context such as permafrost and spring flooding. Using these types, I want to know if they can represent well characteristic of the river regimes at the daily time step.
4. Comparison and equivalency between daily and monthly discharge indices for environmental flow requirement assessments.
   • Most environmental flow assessments methods require a high amount of data, especially daily discharge. However, this temporal resolution of data is often not available at large-scale. I want to identify potential monthly discharges indices that could be used to represent daily indices using gauges stations around the world.
5. Mapping critical watersheds for supplying aquatic ecosystem services in Canada
   • The provision of aquatic services relies on the capacity on the upstream upland areas to perfom the ecological function needed for its services. These watersheds can extend far beyong the location where these services are comsumed. Using GIS, I want to develop of critical watersheds for Canadians.

For my PhD, I am also part of CNAES, a NSERC network looking at aquatic ecosystem services across Canada. I hope to use river classification at High spatial resolution to model aquatic ecosystem services at the Canadian scale.

 

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Publications

Guenther Grill, C.Ouellet Dallaire, E. Fluet-Chouinard, N.Sindorf, and B. Lehner. 2014. “River fragmentation and flow regulation in the Mekong River Basin due to past and future dam development”. Ecological Indicators. 45: 148-159 (Master work)

Lehner and C. Ouellet Dallaire. 2014. “River reach classification for the Greater Mekong region”. Oral presentation for international conference on the status and future of the World’s Large Rivers. Manaus, Brazil. July 21-25. (WWF consultant work)

Lehner and C. Ouellet Dallaire. 2013. “River reach classification for the Greater Mekong region”. WWF Greater Mekong Program, Vientiane, Laos. (WWF consultant work)

Lehner, G. Grill, C. Ouellet Dallaire, E. Fluet-Chouinard. 2012. “Ecosystem fragmentation and flow regulation in the Mekong River Basin due to past and future dam development: a pilot study”. WWF Greater Mekong, Vientiane, Laos. (Master work)

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Presentations

C. Ouellet Dallaire. 2015. “Toward mapping Aquatic Ecosystem Services of Canadian rivers at large scale”. Invited oral presentation for  national conference of NSERC Canadian Network for Aquatic Ecosystem Services. Sault Ste-Marie, Canada. April 28-30.

C. Ouellet Dallaire and B.Lehner. 2015. “River reach classification at high spatial resolution to support the assessment of environmental flow requirements in Canada”. Oral presentation at the Canadian and American Geo-physical Union – Joint Assembly. Montreal, Canada.  May 3-7. Recipient of the Outstanding Student Paper Award for the Earth Surface Processes section.

C.Ouellet Dallaire and B.Lehner. 2014. “River reach classification for the Greater Mekong Region at high spatial resolution”. Poster presentation at the  American Geo-physical Union – Fall meeting. San Francisco, USA.  December 15-19. Recipient of the Outstanding Student Paper Award for the Hydrology section.

C.Ouellet Dallaire and B.Lehner. 2014. “Multi-disciplinary geophysical classification of Canadian river reaches at high spatial resolution”. Oral presentation for  national conference of NSERC Canadian Network for Aquatic Ecosystem Services. Montreal, Canada. April 30- May 2. (PhD work)

C. Ouellet Dallaire and B. Lehner. 2011. “Development and evaluation of a global river reach at high spatial resolution”. Oral presentation for international conference on the status and future of the World’s Large Rivers. Vienna, Austria. April 11-14. (Master work)

C. Ouellet Dallaire and B.Lehner. 2011. “Global River classification (GloRiC): a multi-disciplinary framework to classify river at high spatial resolution for large-scale studies”. Poster presented at institutional conference the Sustainability Research Symposium, Montreal, Canada, March 4th. (Master work)