Welcome to the Ecological Engineering Laboratory

The research at ECOL addresses quantitative understanding of physical, ecological, physical, chemical and biological processes, especially their interactions, to be utilized to improve sustainable design.

The generation of scientifically based systems that utilize ecological principles is of particular relevance to water resources problems, where there is often a challenge to balance demands between water uses for drinking, agriculture, etc., and that needed for ecological balance and biodiversity.

Our research foci also involve water movement and water quality in natural and built environments, from porous media to lake hydrodynamics to coastal processes. Research activities involving combinations of laboratory, field and theoretical work, to investigate questions in different environmental compartments. The group completed numerous projects on soil and aquifer remediation, vadose zone flow, and hyporheic exchange, often based on coupled models of porous media flow and biogeochemical reactions. Recent projects have mainly focused on understanding physical phenomena in large water bodies such as lakes, using Lake Geneva as a large, outdoor laboratory.

Since 2005, ECOL is headed by Professor D. Andrew Barry.

EESS seminars

Weekly seminars are organized by the Environmental Engineering Institute (IIE), Tuesday from 12:15 to 13:00 during the fall and spring semesters.

These seminars aim at broadening the range of disciplines of interest within IIE and ENAC as well as fostering new and/or stronger research synergies. The upcoming seminar is below and the full agenda of the seminars is available here