Forest Hydrology at Melbourne

https://twitter.com/vicsesnews/status/1227431968087969792

VICSES News on Twitter “Did you know that VICSES is the control agency for landslide? This week VICSES Corryong Unit attended a landslide that occurred after heavy rain fell on fire affected hillside. Great work by everyone involved in this mammoth clean up! 👏”

https://www.npr.org/2020/02/10/803669266/with-australia-s-hillsides-stripped-bare-by-fire-scientists-work-to-predict-mudf

With Australia's Hillsides Stripped Bare By Fire, Scientists Rush To Predict Mudflows Heavy rains in eastern Australia are causing mudslides and debris flows in areas that burned. Scientists are trying to predict when and where slides are likely to happen.

https://pursuit.unimelb.edu.au/articles/bushfires-and-storms-threaten-water-supply-and-much-more

Bushfires and storms threaten water supply and much more Burned forests in steep mountains can be just as hazardous after the rains come and the flames have been extinguished explain University of Melbourne experts.

https://nrmjobs.com.au/jobs/2019/20004032/Risk_Analyst

https://theconversation.com/freak-mud-flows-threaten-our-water-supplies-and-climate-change-is-raising-the-risk-116418

Freak mud flows threaten our water supplies, and climate change is raising the risk Australia's water supplies are at risk as climate extremes provoke erosion events that threaten lakes and dams.

https://nrmjobs.com.au/jobs/2019/20002868/Senior_Project_Officer_Climate_Water_Resources?utm_source=NRMjobs&utm_campaign=fe499d95e7-NRMjobs%2C+5+April+2018_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8cda2ee71f-fe499d95e7-16974709

Senior Project Officer - Climate & Water Resources Dept of Environment, Land, Water & Planning, $96-117k, East Melbourne

Congratulations to Petter Nyman, one of our groups Post-docs, on his new research paper out this week in Geology journal linking debris flows with Enso cycles in south eastern Australia. Not an easy journal to get into - Geology is the highest ranked geological sciences journal in the world for the last 13 years. Quite an achievement!

https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article/569815/debris-flows-in-southeast-australia-linked-to

Debris flows in southeast Australia linked to drought, wildfire, and the El Niño–Southern Oscillation | Geology | GeoScienceWorld Petter Nyman, Ian D. Rutherfurd, Patrick N.J. Lane, Gary J. Sheridan; Debris flows in southeast Australia linked to drought, wildfire, and the El Niño–Southern Oscillation. Geology doi: https://doi.org/10.1130/G45939.1

Casual Research Assistant (RA1) field work for 2 weeks from April 1 2019, with possible additional work following this. The project work involves working with Gary Sheridan and Petter Nyman from SEFS and assisting visiting colleagues from Swansea University (UK) and United States Forest Service (USFS) setting up post-fire erosion research sites in the Thompson Reservoir catchment (near Mt Baw Baw, Victoria) which was burned extensively in February 2019. The work is part of an international collaborative project “ Fire and water: predicting and mitigating water pollution risk from wildfire ash” funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), the UK's leading public funder of environmental science. Field work will involve working with a small team in steep remote, burned, forested areas installing erosion monitoring equipment and collecting soil and ash samples and staying overnight in nearby accommodation. Accommodation and meals provided.
Please contact Gary on 0429859384 or [email protected] asap for more details.

http://sydney.firebehaviorandfuelsconference.com/program/

Program – 2019 Fire Behavior and Fuels Conference, Sydney

http://www.swansea.ac.uk/personnel/jobs/details.php?nPostingID=23098&nPostingTargetID=37812&option=52&sort=DESC&respnr=1&ID=QHUFK026203F3VBQB7VLO8NXD&LOV5=7978&JOBADLG=UK&Resultsperpage=20&lg=UK&mask=suext

Jobs

https://nrmjobs.com.au/jobs/2018/20001621/Risk_Analyst_Forest_and_Fire?utm_source=NRMjobs&utm_campaign=122d957bbf-NRMjobs%2C+5+April+2018_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_8cda2ee71f-122d957bbf-16974709

Risk Analyst - Forest and Fire Dept of Environment, Land, Water & Planning, $82-93k, Heidelberg, Victoria

Our “Forests in a global context” class for 2018, on a field trip to Wallaby Creek, one of Melbourne’s water supply catchments. Thanks Rene for providing a Melbourne Water perspective on catchment management.

A new research article from us looking at microclimate and surface fuel moisture in forests: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1Wb4mcFXJKxU3
Very nice to see the reward for our efforts!

Eco-hydrological controls on microclimate and surface fuel evaporation in complex terrain

Success! All that searching and trekking has paid off- well done Jamie! This hilltop vantage point provides a great overview of Jamie's newly - discovered forest flammability research sites in the densely forested Central Highlands of Victoria. Gary, Jane and Jamie here (attempting) to point to the contrasting forest types that have resulted from past bushfire; an Acacia stand on the left, a Mountain Ash stand in the middle, and a mixed understory forest (aka "scrub") on the right. A fantastic natural laboratory to measure and explore the future flammability of our changing forests. Next comes the hard work installing the instrumentation for the coming summer to measure fuel moisture differences in these contrasting forest types.

Interesting Forest Science Post-Doc opportunity...

https://atsv7.wcn.co.uk/search_engine/jobs.cgi?amNvZGU9MTY4MDQyNiZ2dF90ZW1wbGF0ZT03Njcmb3duZXI9NTAzMjUyMSZvd25lcnR5cGU9ZmFpciZicmFuZF9pZD0wJnZhY2Zpcm0udmFjdGl0bGU9NTgxNzkmcG9zdGluZ19jb2RlPTExNw%3D%3D&jcode=1680426&vt_template=767&owner=5032521&ownertype=fair&brand_id=0&vacfirm.vactitle=58179&posting_code=117

WCN ATS

Welcome to Jamie Burton, another of our new Master of Forest and Ecosystems Science project students for 2018. Jamie’s research project is testing the theory that forest types that may replace Mountain Ash in a more fire-prone future, such as Acacia forest or scrub/shrubland, may in-turn be more flammable, resulting in a positive feedback, and even more frequent bushfire than may be expected under climate change. The first step is to find suitable experimental locations where these contrasting forests are adjacent to one-another, holding all other variables constant, so that flammability differences (ie fuel load, fuel structure, fuel moisture) between these forest types can be isolated. These photos are from a reconnaissance trip to a forest near Powelltown in the Central Highlands Victoria, which is looking promising as a research site, having been burned in 1939 and in 2009, with multiple forest types nearby. Jamie is working as part of a larger research team with both the Forest Hydrology group and the Fire Research group to tackle this multi-disciplinary research question.

https://jobs.careers.vic.gov.au/jobs/VG-925191

Team Leader Forest Monitoring and Evaluation | Location negotiable | Vacancies - Careers.vic.gov.au • Lead a small team • Build strong relationships with stakeholders • Location: Negotiable with manager Responsible for overseeing the operation of the Victorian Forest Monitoring Program, Victoria’s state-wide public land forest monitoring program.

And another in catchment management...

Project Officer Catchments Program Coordination Location: Melbourne CBD Salary: $64,583 to $78,418 + super. Position No: 819931 Provide operational and administrative support  Building strong stakeholder relationships Location: Melbourne CBD    Provide  support in administering the National Landcare Programme bilateral funding...

A great opportunity to shape Victorian forest policy into the future....

www.linkedin.com

Expressions of interest for some casual Research Assistant work in our group...

Research Assistant Forest Hydrology Research Assistant Forest Hydrology, University of Melbourne, Melbourne

interesting environmental modelling opportunity with ARI...but you will have to be quick...closing date tomorrow!

https://jobs.careers.vic.gov.au/jobs/VG-923372

Senior Scientist - Ecological Modelling | Melbourne - Eastern Metro | Vacancies - Careers.vic.gov.au • Environmental Research • Build and maintain effective relationships with a range of stakeholders • Location: Heidelberg Support the implementation of Protecting Victoria’s Environment – Biodiversity 2037 and other biodiversity projects.

Welcome to Joe Hall, one of our new masters students. Joe is exploring the idea that soils in flammable forested uplands have co-evolved with vegetation and fire regimes. Road cuttings, where soil profiles are exposed and easy to measure, are being used to rapidly build a dataset of the relationship between soils, vegetation, and fire history.

Christine Schärer recently presented her post-wildfire water contamination Masters research at the European Geosciences union (EGU) General Assembly in Vienna, Austria. Christine, a visiting Masters student from ETH Zurich, completed a collaborative research project with Melbourne Water, HydroNumerics, and our Forest Hydrology group at The University of Melbourne. Her hydrodynamic modelling work investigated the propagation of fire related pollutants through Melbourne’s key water reservoir, the Upper Yarra, calculating the duration the reservoir would need to be taken “off-line” in the case or various fire scenarios. Christine is pictured here with her poster presentation at one of the massive EGU poster sessions with colleague Dr Christoph Langhans.

I was recently fortunate to visit Dr Christian Schunk and Prof. Annette Menzel at the Ecoclimatology research group at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) as part of an Australia-Germany Joint Research Co-operation Scheme project. Our Forest research groups are collaborating on the development of better methods for monitoring and predicting fuel moisture in contrasting forest types, a key factor in the prediction of wildfire risk. Many thanks to Christian for the tour of the amazing Kranzberger long-term research forest and the Freising Waldklimastation near the TUM campus. Such impressively instrumented research sites – I am jealous!

http://jobs.unimelb.edu.au/caw/en/job/891191/research-fellow-in-ecohydrology

A new Post-doc opportunity in ecohydrology research within our Forests and Water Research group.

Jobs : Human Resources : The University of Melbourne Search for jobs at the University of Melbourne

Our research put to good use...
http://www.afac.com.au/auxiliary/publications/newsletter/article/science-backed-tools-enhance-water-catchment-management

More detail on our work with ACT Parks here:
http://www.afac.com.au/docs/default-source/ru/1703_casestudy08_final3.pdf?sfvrsn=10&download=true

News

Deakin University is advertising to recruit a postdoctoral research fellow for a 3 year position working in integrated modelling and analysis of land systems sustainability. https://jobs.deakin.edu.au/psp/HCMP/EMPLOYEE/HRMS/c/HRS_HRAM_FL.HRS_CG_SEARCH_FL.GBL?Page=HRS_APP_JBPST_FL&Action=U&FOCUS=Applicant&SiteId=1&JobOpeningId=170139&PostingSeq=1

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Fieldwork in beautiful places 2. Warrumbungle National Park, March 2017. Debris flows after wildfire and thunderstorms in 2013. Being an old shield volcano (~15 million years old) this provides a very interesting geologic setting and something different to what we typically see further south.