Waterway and wetland management

Ross Hardie

Director

Ross is a founder, Director and Past Chair of the Alluvium Group. Ross is a chartered professional engineer and a certified practicing geomorphologist with over 30 years of experience in the environmental water resource and waterway management sectors. Ross’s work has included delivery of environmental water assessments, stream geomorphic investigations, the development and review of waterway management programs and the design of waterway management works across Australia and into south-east Asia. Ross has been called upon to lead stakeholder engagement exercises and provide expert witness statements in these fields.<br><br>Ross is regarded by his peers as a national leader in stream management science and has an innate ability to communicate complex water and waterway processes in layman’s terms.<br><br>Ross is the author of “Technical Guidelines for Waterway Management”, a technical manual on the design and implementation of stream management works for the State Government of Victoria and the author or co-author of the over 25 peer reviewed professional papers in the field of stream and floodplain assessment and design. Papers include the outcomes of industry leading research in areas such as the role of vegetation in reducing flood related channel change, environmental water policy and practice, and stream geomorphic processes.<br><br>Ross has conducted training courses in Tasmania, Victoria, South Australia and Queensland on the application and implementation of the principles of geomorphic channel design. Ross founded and continues to lecture at Wise Waterways an annual five day stream restoration workshop held in Beechworth Victoria. In the post workshop feedback from one stream management course, one participant described the training as ‘the best course I have ever attended’.<br><br>Ross is an inaugural fellow of the Peter Cullen Water and Environment Trust Leadership Program and was Chair of the organising committee for the 6th and 7th Australian Stream Management Conferences.

Rohan Lucas

Director

Rohan is a geomorphologist and environmental engineer with 30 years experience largely focussed around driving continuous practice improvement in the management of our waterways through system understanding. This work has been across diverse climates, terrains and client sectors in Australia and the Asia-Pacific.<br><br>Rohan has extensive had extensive involvement in the planning and implementation of catchment and watercourse management programs for government and non-government agencies across much of Australia.<br>Rohan plays an industry leading role for Alluvium in the mining sector in managing surface water systems. This includes roles in practice and research, substantially in the design, construction oversite and rehabilitation of watercourse diversions. Rohan has also played industry leading roles in developing practice guidance around impacts of mining subsidence on waterways and management response. Much of this work has been included in government guidance to the mining industry in Queensland.<br><br>Rohan also plays an industry leading role in the geomorphic assessment of infrastructure projects such as gas pipelines and water resource developments. Assessing the impact the projects could have to the riverine environment and risks posed to the project by the riverine environment.<br><br>Rohan is a founder and director of the Alluvium Group.

Stuart Cleven

Stuart provides stormwater engineering advice to the natural resource industry on best practice management for stormwater and waterway management works. Drawing on a combined background of urban stormwater management, water sensitive design, ecohydrology and river restoration engineering, Stuart has been involved in development of innovate water management solutions to help offset the impacts of urbanisation on the receiving environment in Australia for over 22 years. <br><br>Stuart has coordinated and designed works for a range of unique urban and rural environments across Australia that contains differing geomorphic conditions, geometric challenges, sensitive ecosystem values and high levels of community and stakeholder engagement.<br><br>As the practice lead for the design and engineering practice at Alluvium, Stuart has been instrumental in the development and application of technical design and quality assurance guidelines, which he has applied to range of urban and rural designs for water authorities, Councils, CMA's and the private development industry. Stuart's in depth of knowledge on multidiscipline engineering and science assessments provides him with a unique set of tools in which he is able to coordinate large teams and derive accurate and efficient results.

Misko Ivezich

Misko is an environmental engineer with over 15 years of consulting experience specialising in the interactions between hydrology, hydraulics, sediment transport processes and fluvial geomorphology. Following widespread flooding across eastern Australia in recent years Misko has led efforts to understand river adjustments and sediment generation, transport and storage processes for water authorities, local councils, State governments and natural resource management groups. He works with clients to find pragmatic stream and floodplain management solutions which balance risk against cost. He has extensive experience at all stages of waterway planning from leading multi-disciplinary design teams to regularly supervising the construction of major river management programs.  

Dr Alex Sims

Alex is a geomorphologist working at the intersection of river processes and society in Australia and New Zealand. For the past ten years, Alex has worked with all levels of government, universities, water utilities, NGOs, peak industry bodies, traditional owners and private clients to solve complex problems in catchment management. Alex is an experienced project manager and technical lead on projects that range from small to large and complex.<br> <br>Much of Alex’s work is undertaken in partnership with hydrologists, engineers, ecologists and planners. Working in collaborative teams to identify and then design the interventions that can be used to manage landscapes, mitigate the impact of geomorphic hazards on communities and ecosystems and improve the condition of urban and rural waterways. This work draws on Alex’s experience using field assessments, hydrological, hydraulic and sediment transport modelling, spatial data workflows, conceptual and numerical model development and stakeholder engagement.<br><br>Alex contributes to the wider river management sector through peer-reviewed publications and participation in the River Basin Management Society (Australia), the Australia New Zealand Geomorphology Group and the NZ Rivers Group.

Professor Ian Rutherfurd

<p>Ian is a fluvial geomorphologist with 30 years working with governments and communities in stream and catchment management. His research spans basic and applied river processes, and he has completed over 150 publications, $7m in funded research projects, and 70 consulting projects. Ian also has rich experience in education and professional training of all types.</p><p>After spending twenty years at the University of Melbourne (of which several years were spent seconded to the Victorian State government working in river policy) Ian joined Alluvium in a part-time capacity.  In addition to his involvement in many consulting projects, he chairs the Alluvium Foundation and helps coordinate the Research and Insights Program. He brings deep experience in the application of research to all aspects of river and water management, as well as excellent connections across the water sector. </p>