Impacts of recent bush fires on water resources
View the video of Water Security Series: Disaster resilience held on Tuesday 25 February 2020.
Overview
The panel discussion will address the impacts of fire on streamflow, water quality and post-fire mass erosion events threatening infrastructure and property. The discussion will outline the impacts of increased landscape drying and the ecohydraulic feedbacks that occur as a direct result of landscape disasters. The panelists will also address the potential policy, management and operational responses from the recent bushfires.
Speakers
Chair, Assoc. Prof Meenakshi Arora
The University of Melbourne
Dr Meenakshi Arora is an an Associate Professor and Assistant Dean International in the Melbourne School of Engineering at The University of Melbourne. She teaches Water and Waste Water Management, Civil Hydraulics, Engineering Risk Analysis and supervises Masters and PhD students. Dr Arora has extensive experience in water resources and and integrated urban water research and teaching. She completed her PhD from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India in August 2006 on Fluoride and Arsenic removal from underground water. Dr Arora has close collaboration with Victorian water authorities such as Melbourne Water, Yarra Valley Water, City West Water and industries including BP, Veolia Environment and PANalytica. She has made significant contributions in understanding the integrated urban water cycle modelling, water-energy nexus and interactions between various centralised and decentralised water supply systems and their impacts on the existing infrastructure.
Prof Patrick Lane
The University of Melbourne
Professor Patrick Lane has been a forest hydrologist for over 23 years, working mainly in southeastern Australian forests. His areas of research include the measurement and modelling of evapotranspiration and streamflow in response to disturbance and growth dynamics, and processes of erosion and water quality from forested landscapes. He has a particular interest in the impacts of fire. Professor Lane currently leads the Integrated Forest Ecological Research (IFER) program, a multi year large research program with the Victorian Government, and has a long history of working with land and water managers such as Melbourne Water. He has been a member of several Cooperative Research Centres and has been in the School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences at the University of Melbourne since 2004.
Assoc. Prof Gary Sheridan
The University of Melbourne
My research focus is the hydrology and geomorphology of flammable upland forests. I am particularly interested in understanding and modelling the effect of fire on runoff processes, soil erosion, and water quality. Our Forest Hydrology research group in the School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences has published extensively on the prediction of high magnitude post fire erosion events such as debris flows, which are common after bushfire in steep south east Australian mountains. This research has been integrated operationally into water and land management agencies such as Melbourne Water and the Victorian Department of Environment Land Water and Planning (DELWP) for policy development, strategic planning, and post fire risk assessment and mitigation. Over longer timescales I am interested in the coevolution of flammable forests, soils and fire regimes, and how these patterns of “coevolution” in the landscape can help us understand the current hydrologic behaviour of forests, and to predict the future trajectory of hydrologic change, particularly in Melbourne’s water supply catchments.
Geoff Steendam
Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning
Geoff manages the hydrology and climate science team in the Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning. The team invests in a range of water and climate research activities and works with the Victorian water sector to help access and apply the science. Geoff has worked in water resource planning roles in the department for more than 15 years, and previously worked for consulting engineering firms in Australia and the UK.