Pre-Conference Workshop: Videomonitoring

This hands-on workshop is aimed at hydropower operators, environmental consultants, researchers, and regulatory staff who are planning to implement or improve video monitoring at fish passes or in migration corridors. Based on over 14 years of real-world experience in designing, deploying, and operating camera systems in diverse freshwater environments, the workshop will deliver a broad range of practical knowledge directly from the field.

Participants will learn how to choose and configure suitable hardware (cameras, lighting, enclosures), design monitoring strategies tailored to site-specific conditions, and overcome common challenges such as poor visibility, power constraints, or false triggers. Through concrete examples from projects in Germany, Switzerland and beyond, we will explore best practices.

The focus is not on theoretical concepts, but on giving participants the practical tools, know-how, and confidence to successfully plan and carry out their own video monitoring projects. As part of the workshop, a compact video monitoring system will be set up and demonstrated in a vertical slot fishway, offering participants the opportunity to experience the full process of practical implementation.