Alain Mailhot

Storm water management and climate change: The increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere will affect rainfall patterns, including the likelihood of extreme rainfall events. These changes will have a long-term impact on the performance of existing storm water management systems and those that will be built in coming decades. To address this issue, Professor Mailhot’s research work analyzes the impacts of climate change on current storm water management methods and systems and assesses the ability of adaptation measures to maintain an adequate level of performance over the long term.

Hydroclimatic series analysis: Statistical analysis of observed hydroclimatic data series, including precipitation series, is important since the results of such analyses are often used in the design of hydraulic structures, and more generally in risk management. In the context of climate change, these analyses are also useful to detect trends in historical series. This type of analysis is also essential in the development of future scenarios concerning climate variables (including precipitation) based on the results of climate models. Professor Mailhot’s research work focuses on analysis of both observed data series and those produced by regional and global climate models.

Hydrological modelling uncertainties: Operational use of the results of a hydrological model, whether for flood forecasting or flood risk area estimation, must take into account the uncertainties associated with those results. Several sources of uncertainty have to be taken into account: uncertainties in input data and model parameters, structural errors in the model, etc. Professor Mailhot works to develop and test approaches to estimating the uncertainties in model results taking into account the uncertainties in the model’s inputs. An application of the HYDROTEL model to a watershed in Quebec is used to test these approaches.