Bronwyn Harch

Last updated

Bronwyn Harch (born Bronwyn Christensen in 1969) is an Australian data scientist.

Contents

Early life and education

Harch comes from a farming family in the rural Lockyer Valley, west of Brisbane. [1]

Career

She has worked with initiatives with government and industry, predominantly in the environmental and agricultural sectors. These large-scale projects combined statistical expertise with the expertise of scientists from other parts of CSIRO as well as universities, government and industry. The projects were initiated to address environmental issues, for example monitoring the ecological health of waterways in one of Australia's most populous regions, south-east Queensland. [2] [3] At CSIRO, she contributed to statistical design for landscape-scale sampling protocols and monitoring programs, and spatio-temporal statistical modelling of agri-environmental systems. She moved to Queensland University of Technology in 2014 having held senior positions in CSIRO. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eco-industrial park</span>

An eco-industrial park (EIP) is an industrial park in which businesses cooperate with each other and with the local community in an attempt to reduce waste and pollution, efficiently share resources, and help achieve sustainable development, with the intention of increasing economic gains and improving environmental quality. An EIP may also be planned, designed, and built in such a way that it makes it easier for businesses to co-operate, and that results in a more financially sound, environmentally friendly project for the developer.

As countries and regions around the world began to develop, it slowly became evident that industrialization and economic growth come hand in hand with environmental degradation. Eco-efficiency has been proposed as one of the main tools to promote a transformation from unsustainable development to one of sustainable development. It is based on the concept of creating more goods and services while using fewer resources and creating less waste and pollution. "It is measured as the ratio between the (added) value of what has been produced and the (added) environment impacts of the product or service ." The term was coined by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) in its 1992 publication "Changing Course," and at the 1992 Earth Summit, eco-efficiency was endorsed as a new business concept and means for companies to implement Agenda 21 in the private sector. Ergo the term has become synonymous with a management philosophy geared towards sustainability, combining ecological and economic efficiency.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Logan River</span> River in Queensland, Australia

The Logan River is a perennial river located in the Scenic Rim, Logan and Gold Coast local government areas of the South East region of Queensland, Australia. The 184-kilometre (114 mi)-long river is one of the dominant waterways in South East Queensland that drains the southern ranges of the Scenic Rim and empties into Moreton Bay after navigating the City of Logan, a major suburban centre located south of Brisbane. The catchment is dominated by urban and agricultural land use. Near the river mouth are mangrove forests and a number of aquaculture farms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salinity in Australia</span>

Soil salinity and dryland salinity are two problems degrading the environment of Australia. Salinity is a concern in most states, but especially in the south-west of Western Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scottish Environment Protection Agency</span> Environmental regulator in Scotland

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency is Scotland's environmental regulator and national flood forecasting, flood warning and strategic flood risk management authority. Its main role is to protect and improve Scotland's environment. SEPA does this by helping business and industry to understand their environmental responsibilities, enabling customers to comply with legislation and good practice and to realise the economic benefits of good environmental practice. One of the ways SEPA does this is through the NetRegs environmental guidance service. It protects communities by regulating activities that can cause harmful pollution and by monitoring the quality of Scotland's air, land and water. The regulations it implements also cover the storage, transport and disposal of radioactive materials.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eco-Management and Audit Scheme</span>

The Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) is a voluntary environmental management instrument, which was developed in 1993 by the European Commission. It enables organizations to assess, manage and continuously improve their environmental performance. The scheme is globally applicable and open to all types of private and public organizations. In order to register with EMAS, organisations must meet the requirements of the EU EMAS-Regulation. Currently, more than 4,600 organisations and more than 7,900 sites are EMAS registered.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Herbert River ringtail possum</span> Species of marsupial

The Herbert River ringtail possum is a species of possum found in northeastern Queensland, Australia. It is a dark brown to black species, sometimes with a white belly. The Herbert River ringtail possum was long considered conspecific with the cinereus ringtail possum, despite the fact that they are very different in appearance. They are, however, the only members of their New Guinea-centred genus found in Australia. The Herbert River ringtail possum is restricted to tropical rainforest from Mount Lee, west of Ingham, to the Lamb Range, west of Cairns.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Environmental threats to the Great Barrier Reef</span>

The Great Barrier Reef is the world's largest reef systems, stretching along the East coast of Australia from the northern tip down to the town of Bundaberg, is composed of roughly 2,900 individual reefs and 940 islands and cays that stretch for 2,300 kilometres (1,616 mi) and cover an area of approximately 344,400 square kilometres (133,000 sq mi). The reef is located in the Coral Sea, off the coast of Queensland in northeast Australia. A large part of the reef is protected by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.

The Lancaster Environment Centre (LEC) in Lancaster, England, is an interdisciplinary centre for teaching, research and collaboration at Lancaster University, founded in 2007.

The CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (CSIR-NEERI) is a research institute created and funded by Government of India. It was established in Nagpur in the year 1958 with focus on water supply, sewage disposal, communicable diseases and to some extent on industrial pollution and occupational diseases found common in post-independent India. NEERI is a pioneer laboratory in the field of environmental science and engineering and part of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR). NEERI has five zonal laboratories at Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai. NEERI falls under the Ministry of Science and Technology (India) of the central government. The NEERI is an important partner organisation in India's POPs National Implementation Plan (NIP).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">UNU-CRIS</span>

The United Nations University Institute on Comparative Regional Integration Studies (UNU-CRIS) is a Research and Training Institute of the United Nations University (UNU). Based in Bruges, Belgium since 2001, UNU-CRIS specializes in the comparative study of regional integration and the provision of global and regional public goods, including environmental stability, poverty reduction, peace and justice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South African Environmental Observation Network</span> A network to perform long-term ecological research in South Africa and surrounding waters

The South African Environmental Observation Network (SAEON) is a science network of people, organisations and, most importantly observation platforms, that perform Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) in South Africa and its surrounding oceans. The SAEON is of global importance as an innovative approach in ecology to understand environmental change and to determine the impact of anthropogenic forces at multiple scales but it is a remarkably complex challenge to statistically discern between ubiquitous natural variability and exogenous forcing. The SAEON constitutes a national government response to the World Summit on Sustainable Development and is a component of the GEO. The SAEON has become the leader in environmental science and observation in South Africa, but has been criticised for taking a long time to establish, a situation which was inevitable in view of SAEON's multiple stakeholder corps. It has also been raised that the cost of replicated experimental treatments across SAEON sites will be high.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karin Dubsky</span> German-Irish marine ecologist and environmentalist

Karin Dubsky is a German-Irish marine ecologist working in Trinity College Dublin, notable as an environmental activist, the coordinator and co-founder of Coastwatch Europe, an environmental NGO and a member of the European Environmental Bureau.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Water-sensitive urban design</span>

Water-sensitive urban design (WSUD) is a land planning and engineering design approach which integrates the urban water cycle, including stormwater, groundwater, and wastewater management and water supply, into urban design to minimise environmental degradation and improve aesthetic and recreational appeal. WSUD is a term used in the Middle East and Australia and is similar to low-impact development (LID), a term used in the United States; and Sustainable Drainage System (SuDS), a term used in the United Kingdom.

Environmental certification is a form of environmental regulation and development where a company can voluntarily choose to comply with predefined processes or objectives set forth by the certification service. Most certification services have a logo which can be applied to products certified under their standards. This is seen as a form of corporate social responsibility allowing companies to address their obligation to minimise the harmful impacts to the environment by voluntarily following a set of externally set and measured objectives.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Lindenmayer</span> Australian scientist

David Lindenmayer,, is an Australian scientist and academic. His research focuses on the adoption of nature conservation practices in agricultural production areas, developing ways to improve integration of native forest harvesting and biodiversity conservation, new approaches to enhance biodiversity conservation in plantations, and improved fire management practices in Australia. He specialises in large-scale, long-term research monitoring programs in south-eastern Australia, primarily in forests, reserves, national parks, plantations, and on farm land.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NASA research</span>

Since its establishment in 1958, NASA has conducted research on a range of topics. Because of its unique structure, work happens at various field centers and different research areas are concentrated in those centers. Depending on the technology, hardware and expertise needed, research may be conducted across a range of centers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women in climate change</span>

The contributions of women in climate change have received increasing attention in the early 21st century. Feedback from women and the issues faced by women have been described as "imperative" by the United Nations and "critical" by the Population Reference Bureau. A report by the World Health Organization concluded that incorporating gender-based analysis would "provide more effective climate change mitigation and adaptation."

Melanie Harrison Okoro is a marine estuarine and environmental scientist. She is the founder, CEO, and principal of Eco-Alpha Environmental & Engineering Services. Okoro focuses on environmental aquatic biogeochemistry, professional natural resource management, and STEM diversity initiatives. She is the first African-American women early-career scientist to serve on the Council of the American Geophysical Union (AGU).

Kerrie Ann Wilson is an Australian environmental scientist and the Pro Vice-Chancellor at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). Wilson is also an affiliated professor in conservation science at the University of Copenhagen, honorary professor at The University of Queensland, a member of the Australian Heritage Council and the Australian Natural Sciences Commissioner for UNESCO.

References

  1. McDonald, Stephanie (8 August 2018). "CSIRO's new division led by farmer's daughter". CIO. Retrieved 13 November 2018.
  2. 'Keeping trouble at bay: Moreton Bay Water Quality Management Strategy', W. Pyper, ECOS, issue 112 (2002), pp15-17 http://www.ecosmagazine.com/?act=view_file&file_id=EC112p15.pdf
  3. 'Fresh measures: the South-east Queensland Regional Water Quality Management Strategy', W. Pyper, ECOS, issue 112 (2002), pp20-21 http://www.ecosmagazine.com/?act=view_file&file_id=EC112p20.pdf
  4. 'Bronwyn Harch: using maths to solve the planet's big issues', I.McDonalds, ECOS, Issue 179 (2013), http://www.ecosmagazine.com/?paper=EC13006