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The Healthy Waterway Partnership started out as the Brisbane River and Moreton Bay Wastewater Management Study (BR&MBWMS), with six local councils in Southeast Queensland leading the effort in the early 1990s. The original Healthy Waterways office was located as part of the water management office of Brisbane City Council, led by Harry Holland. Shane Pearce [...]
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While on a field trip to Stradbroke Island as described in a previous blog, Dr. Brian McIntosh and I had a discussion about different types of environmental problems. I used the classification scheme of ‘simple’, ‘complicated’ and ‘complex’ problems (ala Glouberman and Zimmerman, 2002). Simple problems are like following a recipe in which a predictable [...]
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For science communication training for the International WaterCentre Masters of Water Management students, we used the chapel of Cromwell College on the University of Queensland campus. It was an interesting venue for this training. My training colleague was Kate Moore, a talented Science Communicator who works as an independent contractor, associated with the International WaterCentre. [...]
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This blog post discusses the seminar given by Megan Ward of the Nanticoke Watershed Alliance, at the IAN Seminar Series on September 28, 2010. The Nanticoke River conservation efforts have focused on protection, rather than restoration, reflecting its rural and relatively intact watershed. Megan made it clear that the Nanticoke Watershed Alliance was more interested [...]
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This blog post discusses the seminar given by Andrew and Diana Muller at the IAN Seminar Series on August 31, 2010. Pierre Henkart noted that the Severn River had persistent anoxia between June and September which includes noticeable hydrogen sulfide and asked why the South River anoxia was not as pronounced or persistent. Andrew and [...]
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The International RiverFoundation has a unique role in catalyzing groups of people around the world to achieve river restoration, protection and sustainable management. One way this catalytic role is achieved is through the celebration of exemplary case studies of positive outcomes, publicly acknowledged via the annual awarding of The International Riverprize and the Australian National [...]
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Environmental news is typically bad news. It is focused on negative aspects of human impacts on the environment, and often accompanied with dire predictions about the future. This propensity for dire predictions has been called the ‘Cassandra syndrome’, referring to Cassandra from Greek mythology who was cursed with the ability to foretell the future but [...]
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Jean Bernard Léon Foucault, physicist, was born in Paris on September 18, 1819, and he died there on February 11, 1868. Foucault was a gifted experimentalist. He invented the gyroscope, measured the speed of light, improved instruments used in microscopy and astronomy, and applied the new technology of photography to science.i However, these achievements would [...]
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This newsletter was interesting to put together, as it involved looking through hundreds of photographs of flood damage in the Moreton Bay watershed. Some of the photos were staggering. There were photos of tractors and automobiles crushed like small tin cans, a time sequence of water rising over a farm shed within minutes, streambeds stripped [...]
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My university teaching experience has been quite varied. I have taught first year students in massive lecture halls, graduate students in small groups, and everything in between. At the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, we teach using an interactive video network. My attitude about the large lecture setting is that the students forget [...]
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