The SUSE5 program includes invited talks by four scientists working on the forefront of urban stream research: Prof. Taurai Bere, Dr. Michael Chadwick, Asst. Prof. V. Kelly Turner, and Assoc. Prof. Chris Walsh will join us in Austin. Please see more about their work and the subjects of their talks below.
Asst. Prof. Kelly Turner
Wed, 12 Feb - 3:30 pm STORMS: Translating Local Decision-Making to Environmental Outcomes V. Kelly Turner is an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles where she is Associate Director of Urban Environment Research at the Luskin Center for Innovation and faculty affiliate at the Institute of Environment and Sustainability. She researches the relationship between institutions, urban design, and the environment. Her approach draws from social-ecological systems frameworks to address urban planning and design problem domains. In recent work she has used this approach to investigate microclimate regulation, green infrastructure for stormwater management, and residential landscaping. This talk describes the interdisciplinary STORMS project, which aims to determine how heterogeneous decision-making processes and management actions in the Cleveland, Ohio and Denver, Colorado regions influence environmental outcomes at the watershed scale. One aspect of the project aims to understand the role formal rules and individual norms in shaping stormwater management actions, especially the likelihood of adopting green infrastructure as a stormwater control measure. Emerging results from the project will be presented and discussed with respect to the capacity of regional stormwater management programs to facilitate collective action to improve hydrology and ecosystem health in urban regions. |
Assoc. Prof. Chris Walsh
Wed, 12 Feb - 5:00 pm You need a little space, in the right place, and a lot of demand for the water. Lessons for urban stream protection from the Little Stringybark Creek Project. Chris Walsh co-leads the interdisciplinary Waterway Ecosystem Research Group (https://thewerg.org) at the University of Melbourne and is also a principal researcher in the Melbourne Waterway Research-Practice Partnership (https://mwrpp.org), a collaboration between Melbourne Water and The University of Melbourne. He has arrived at this point after 25 years a stream ecologist, most notably studying streams of urban environments, and working with practitioners towards urban land and water management for stream protection. He is a confirmed urbanite in the great metropolis of Melbourne, where he convened the first Symposium on Urbanization and Stream Ecology in 2003. In this talk, Chris will describe The Little Stringybark Creek project; a large, ambitious, catchment-scale experiment designed to test if the ecological degradation of streams resulting from urban stormwater runoff could be reversed through retrofitting catchment drainage systems. After installation of more than 600 dispersed stormwater control projects across 5 small experimental catchments, and 17 years of hydrologic and ecological monitoring of their streams (and control and reference streams), in-stream responses have been variable, but lessons learnt have been big and influential. The talk will highlight lessons from the project, and how they have influenced plans for major stormwater retention and harvesting in a large greenfield development in northwest Melbourne, to protect currently rural Emu Creek: the site of the next experiment. |
Dr. Michael Chadwick
Thu, 13 Feb. - 12:00 pm Urban Streams in London: wicked problems and messy solutions? Michael Chadwick is a Senior Lecturer at King’s College London interested in exploring both applied and basic ecological questions in aquatic science. A central aim of his research has been to understand the effects of natural and human-induced ecosystem changes in lotic ecosystems. Past work has spanned large spatial scales in varied aquatic systems. This includes work on the main channel of the Mobile River (Alabama), tidally-influenced rivers in England, tributaries of the St. Johns River (Florida), and intermittent streams (Maine and Florida). Current projects focus on evaluating London’s urban rivers. In this talk, Michael will present research which has evaluated ecological structure and functional processes among highly urbanized tributaries of the River Thames in Greater London, UK. Given the history of river use and urban development in London, these streams suffer from a myriad of pressures ranging from intensive urban development, sewage misconnections to invasive species. Regulatory pressures to achieve good ecological potential along with grassroots citizen science have driven restoration activities which have provided mixed results. As such, improving these streams could be viewed as a classic wicked problem which will require rigorous science and policy to achieve sustainable healthy conditions. The talk will seek to draw parallels from research in other regions to contextualize London’s urban river issues. |
Prof. Taurai Bere
Fri, 14 Feb. - 12:00 pm Urban stream time bombs: critical reflections on sustainability of urban stream water resources in developing countries. Taurai Bere is a Professor at the Chinhoyi University of Technology in Zimbabwe. His areas of expertise include river health assessment, biological monitoring of aquatic systems (especially diatom-based biological monitoring), aquatic eco-toxicology, and integrated water resources management. He has published over 40 research articles in peer reviewed international journals, has won research grants from international funding organisations and has presented his work at several international conferences. Taurai will describe that in developing countries, urban streams are under severe pressure from such activities as water abstraction, discharge of untreated sewage, siltation and pollution, leading to changes in the ecological integrity, abundance, and quality of freshwater resources. In this talk, Taurai will critically analyse the current threats to ecological integrity of urban streams in developing countries and their implications on sustainability and proffer science-based solutions to these threats. Water pollution, eutrophication, invasive species, siltation, water abstraction and climate change are highlighted as major threats to urban streams in developing countries. Challenges include funding, inadequate infrastructure for freshwater research and management, inadequate and poor implementation of the existing policy frameworks due to lack of political will and corruption leading to breakdown in public service delivery. A balanced science program characterised by building long-term stability required to support decision and policy making by maintaining an integrated monitoring program and a comprehensive scientific data management program is proposed. |