Cuban scientist concludes doctoral research in French institution

HAVANA, Cuba, Mar 14 (ACN) Master of Science Minerva Sánchez Llúll, a specialist from the Center for Environmental Studies of the city of Cienfuegos (CEAC), thanked the French-Cuban scientific cooperation for facilitating her doctoral research.

Sánchez Llúll explained the positive results of her internship at France’s Laboratory of Functional and Environmental Ecology (LEFE), attached to the National School of Agronomy of Toulouse (ENSAT).

The Nuclear Communicators Network (RECNUC) gave details about her stay at that facility, where she used the SWAT model—a mathematical guide for the study of watercourses, rivers and watersheds—to evaluate the impact of soil, water, vegetation and crop management practices on water and sediment production in large and complex hydrological basins.

Sánchez Llúll, who made on online presentation of, and got full endorsement for, her research project to the Doctorate Committee of the Cuban University of Computer Science (UCI), said that the new alliance among LEFE, the CEAC and UCI strengthened scientific cooperation between France and Cuba.

Her research included the design and implementation of a methodological procedure to design land use/cover maps based on the remote sensing tools of the Geographic Information System and the use of satellite images and made it possible to know and predict the impacts of those variables on water quality, as well as to facilitate the management of water, forest and soil resources, in keeping with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal No. 15 on the life of terrestrial ecosystems.

“This year we expect to finish the manual calibration and validation of SWAT based on the results of the sampling processes in the basins, the flows recorded by the hydrometric station and the sedimentation rates of the bay of Cienfuegos,” she added. “Besides, we will also finish the first version of the thesis work and two scientific articles for publication.”