Turbulence plays a very important role in natural flows. Pollutant dispersion, sediments transport, seabed morphology, and plant invasion through seeds dispersal are few examples. All these turbulence-related problems have in common the complexity of their prediction. Understanding and managing such flows, however, is a key factor for the development and maintenance of a sustainable environment. Environmental and geophysical flows are all structured with a wide range of spatio-temporal scales, and in many cases with strong interaction among them. In the case of sediment transport, for example, scales range from few micrometers where vortex-sediment interaction is of relevance to several meters or kilometers where the interaction of the flow with bedforms is important.
Substantial methodological advances in theoretical/numerical modeling, physical experimentation and field instrumentation have greatly expanded our understanding of the dynamics of these flows across this range of scales. This minisymposium will focus on contributions from research teams working on numerical simulation, laboratory modeling and field observation to study coherent turbulent structures and their influence on transport, mixing and segregation phenomena in environmental and geophysical flows. The minisymposium seeks to draw contributions from researchers applying innovative techniques to these problems.