Christian Birkel is a Professor and Researcher at the University of Costa Rica, Department of Geography – Water and Global Change Observatory.
“I am a hydrologist and my research is focused on the measurement and simulation of runoff generation processes and the storage of water and biogeochemical substances. My main motivation is the understanding and quantification of dynamic systems in order to facilitate decision making informed by rigorous scientific methods.”
“My research broadly focuses on catchment hydrology and the measurement and modelling of streamflow generation and biogeochemical processes. The basic aim is to better understand catchment functioning and the great variability of hydrological behaviours across different temporal and spatial scales. Insights from my research can be applied to assess the impacts of stream regulation and environmental change on the quality and quantity of surface waters with the objective to inform a sustainable management of water resources. More specifically, I am interested in tracer techniques to better understand dynamic catchment behaviour, the development and application of parsimonious rainfall-runoff models coupled to solute and biogeochemical processes, impacts of environmental change on the hydrology in tropical regions and statistical time series modelling to explore temporal patterns in environmental data.”
