CRC for Catchment Hydrology Postgraduate, Rebecca Bartley wins CRC Young Scientist of the Year Award 2001
April 11, 2001
Rebecca Bartley was named 'Young Water Scientist of the Year' at the Australian Water Association Conference in Canberra last week. This award recognises young scientists with outstanding research ability, good communication skills and an understanding of industry needs.
The award is made annually to a student in one of five water-related CRCs, collectively called the Water Forum CRCs that have joined with the Australian Water Association (AWA) to present the award. Rebecca's win is the third for the CRC for Catchment Hydrology in the four years it has run.
Rebecca's research forms part of the CRC for Catchment Hydrology's Land-use Impacts on Rivers and River Restoration programs. She has developed a classification system that can help predict whether streams and creeks will recover from the damage caused by massive pulses of sediments and so help restore Australian waterways. According to Rebecca, increasing sediment loads are as significant as other, better-recognised environmental problems such as erosion and excessive land clearing. Rebecca measured various physical characteristics of a number of streams around south-east Australia, looking for a way of predicting how waterways would respond to restoration attempts. "Knowing what streams we can save will help us direct our conservation resources more effectively," says Rebecca.
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