Eleanor Earl

Research Topic:

Improving the flood resilience of Pacific Island Communities

Supervised by:

• A/Prof Fiona Johnson
• Prof Lucy Marshall
• Prof David Sanderson

Research

Given flooding causes significant damage to Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICTs), our research investigates how nature-based solutions can contribute to flood management, often referred to as Natural Flood Management (NFM).

Currently, nature-based solutions research in the PICTs has been focussed on coastal flooding, instead this research investigates surface water and river flooding, particularly in volcanic high islands. Although there has been some research and application of NFM in the PICTs, information is sparse.

To improve NFM knowledge in the PICTs this research aims to:

•              Better understand how nature-based solutions can contribute to flood management in the PICTs.

•              Explore approaches used to optimise and prioritise NFM in catchments, including developing catchment models to investigate these methodologies.

Project Funding

This PhD is funded by UNSW’s Scientia PhD Scholarship Fund. The UNSW Scientia PhD Scholarship Scheme is part of UNSW’s dedication to harnessing our cutting-edge research to solve complex problems and improve the lives of people in local and global communities.

Biography

Eleanor Earl MEng CEng MICE is a civil engineer with experience working in the Caribbean, Europe, sub-Saharan Africa and across the Asia-Pacific region. She is currently undertaking a PhD, researching flood resilience in the Pacific Islands, at UNSW's Water Research. Prior to moving to UNSW, she was an engineer at Arup for 7 years based in London and Hong Kong working on a variety of multi-disciplinary infrastructure and building projects. Whilst at Arup, she was seconded to the Resilience Shift (now Resilience Rising) where she led the Resilient Water Governance portfolio.

Education

MEng Civil and Environmental Engineering, Cardiff University, UK (2014)