On June 17, 2025, Prof. Marwan Hassan from the Department of Geography at the University of British Columbia, Canada, visited the China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research (IWHR) and presented a seminar on “Controls on sediment dynamics in glacierized, mountain catchments.” Prof. Hongling Shi, Division Chief of IRTCES, hosted the Seminar, with participants of experts and graduate students from the International Research and Training Center on Erosion and Sedimentation (IRTCES) and IWHR.

In his presentation, Prof. Hassan presented advanced understandings of sediment dynamics, with a focus on the controls, variability, and interactions of sediment supply, storage, and yield in glacierized mountain catchments. The work was motivated by a need for greater understanding of how glacial landscapes respond to changing conditions, such as climate change and land use changes. He introduced several important findings, including: how do landscape configurations –such as landform type, confinement, and sediment storage -govern the geomorphic response of channels to flooding; and sediment source partitioning and budgeting over historical timescales in a glacierized, mountain catchment.

During the Q&A session, participants engaged in discussions regarding the movement mechanisms of sediment in glacierized mountain rivers, modeling theories, field observations, and research case studies.

Professor Marwan Hassan’s research covers a wide range of topics in geomorphology and hydrology, including landscape evolution, the interaction between hill-slopes and channels, channel stability and morphology, river sediment transport and sediment yield, stream ecology, in-channel wood dynamics, and modeling fine sediments and their interactions with stream physical and biological characteristics. He has worked on fundamental processes involving flow and sediment transport and contributed to the advancement of river science at various scales, from sediment grains to watersheds, and in fields outside fluvial geomorphology such as urban hydrology, hyporheic flow, desert floods, water quality, and water resources. He received the International Qian Ning Prize in 2019 and has been named a Union Fellow by the American Geophysical Union (AGU) since 2023.