Posted 10 November 2010
Wellington mayor Anne Jones, Professor Ian Acworth and Papua New Guinean student Simon Egara (image credit: Wellington Times).
Only a few hours after a group of Wellington school students performed a traditional Aboriginal rain dance under a sunny evening sky, the heavens opened.
But it didn't matter that Wellington experienced a mix of seasons in a short period of time, as Monday was all about the weather.
The National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training (NCGRT) at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) research station off the Falls Road officially opened this week, with 24 students taking part in the inaugural course on field methods.
The students hail from across Australia, as well as two from overseas.
Belo Da Piedade Osorio came to Wellington from East Timor and Simon Egara made the trip from Papua New Guinea.
A self-taught hydrology student, Mr Egara said after day one he was already glad he was here.
"I find it very interesting and I have not seen all the equipment yet so I'm sure I will learn a lot," he said.
The new facility is for the long-term training of university and professional students in ground water studies.
NCGRT program leader Professor Ian Acworth, who officially opened the site, said the field of ground water studies would be increasingly critical in the future as the demand for safe, secure water supplies for domestic and agricultural use grew.
"Students will be learning to make practical measurements of rainfall and climate, soil water, river water and ground water," Prof Acworth said.
With other senior lecturers - including Connected Waters Initiative deputy director from the University of NSW Dr Andy Baker, Matthew McCabe who specialises in meteorological variables, hydrologist Martin Anderson, and site manager lecturing in geomorphology Peter Graham - students, professionals and the local community will be able to gain a better understanding of the region's alluvium as well as the connection between surface water and ground water in order to practise better water management.
Source: Wellington Times
Links:
Professor Andy Baker features in American Water Resources Association ‘Water Resources Impact’, September 2020 edition.
The Connected Waters Initiative (CWI) is pleased to welcome Taylor Coyne to its network as a postgraduate researcher. If you’re engaged in research at a postgraduate level, and you’re interested in joining the CWI network, get in touch! The CWI network includes multidisciplinary researchers across the Schools of Engineering, Sciences, Humanities and Languages and Law.
The Grand Challenge on Rapid Urbanisation will establish Think Deep Australia, led by Dr Marilu Melo Zurita, to explore how we can use our urban underground spaces for community benefit.
On the 21 August 2020, CWI researchers made a submission to the National Water Reform Inquiry, identifying priority areas and making a number of recommendations as to how to achieve a sustainable groundwater future for Australia.
Results published from a research project between the Land Development Department (LDD) Thailand and UNSW has demonstrated how 2-dimensional mapping can be used to understand soil salinity adjacent to a earthen canal in north east Thailand (Khongnawang et al. 2020).
