Water management, agriculture, and communicating during flood, fire and drought – it was a packed itinerary for Laurie Gleeson Development Award winner Rosalind Martin during her study trip to California.
The Goulburn-Murray Water (GMW) water resource officer was the 2017 recipient of the highly-regarded award, which offers $5000 to a water industry professional to undertake a professional development project.
Ms Martin used the money to fund a two-week study tour to the United States earlier this year, predominantly spending time in California.
The itinerary included the California Department of Water Resources, the National Weather Service, Oroville Dam Operations, Yuba County Water Agency, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the California-Nevada River Forecast Centre.
She said a highlight was the Water Education Foundation Central Valley Tour, which included 23 speakers and 18 locations over three days.
The tour took in the middle section of California, between Sacramento and the Los Angeles Basin, a productive and well-irrigated region that was once arid and dry.
“The tour down the Central Valley was really interesting in terms of seeing an area that’s similar to the Goulburn-Murray Irrigation District,” she said.
“The situation in California is quite similar to Victoria, agriculture is a large industry in that area and they have extreme weather events such as droughts, fire and flood, just like we do.
“It was really valuable to learn about what they do and how they manage water.”
Ms Martin also visited the United States Geological Survey Earthquake Centre, where scientists study the landscape of the country, its natural resources, and the natural hazards that threaten it.
“They are developing new programs on how they communicate with the community during natural disasters, including an early warning system that aims to send a text message to 22 million people within five to 70 seconds of an earthquake,” she said.
Now Ms Martin is sharing the information she learned, giving presentations within GMW and externally.
“Some of the information I learned would be really good to apply in the Victorian water industry, if we’re able to; hopefully I’ll be able to get the learnings out into the industry,” she said.
She said organising the study tour was a big job, and a great opportunity for professional development.
“I got a lot of out of it professionally, so think about what you’d like to get out of it for yourself,” she said.
“That side of the award was bigger than I initially thought it would be, organising my trip involved a lot of cold calling and cold emailing, and walking into massive government organisations and asking for someone’s time. It was really good.”