me

About

I am an engineering hydrologist with 43 years experience. I am a Ministry of the Environment Hearings commissioner. I have published numerous reports on water resource studies to further water resource management and presented research findings to stake holders, Regional Councillors, Commissioners, and at New Zealand conferences. I have also presented evidence at the environment court, resource consent and planning hearings as well as being active in environment court negotiations. I specialise in integrated catchment water resources management, in particular mapping water resources, naturalisation of modified flow data, and quality checking data.

I have provided hydrology consultancy advice for Regional Councils for the last 8 years.

I modeled the optimal management of storage dams and lakes, which included a practical water balance model of Lake Ellesmere to predict level changes for optional management rules. He also reported on the hydrology of the flood that resulted in the Opuha Dam collapse.

Also calibrated and tested a flood forecasting model which provides 16 hours warning to Christchurch of Waimakariri River floods.

I also developed a methodology for identifying catchments that are most sensitive to water resource reductions from landuse change to plantation forestry.

I have led teams in diverse situations, including the operation of a large hydrometric network and has setup various investigations to solve specific water resource management issues.

Professional speciality

Hydrologist: Groundwater fed lowland streams, surface and groundwater interactions, cumulative abstraction effects, naturalising stream flow, drought, hydrological modelling, flood forecasting, flood hydrology, mapping precipitation and runoff, rainfall-runoff routing, lake/lagoon water balance.

Water management: Integrated catchment water resource management, environmental flows, allocation, river mouth flows