WEBINAR
When streams don’t recover: Drought driven threats to our water security
Friday 20th March at 12:30pm
About this Webinar
We are joined by Associate Professor, Tim Peterson from Monash University who will be sharing research findings from previous years which demonstrate how annual and seasonal catchment runoff has recently been shown to shift states during droughts and often it does not recover, resulting in less runoff per unit rainfall than prior to the drought.
Importantly, evidence suggests that the non-recovered catchments appear to be persisting within an alternate runoff state, rather than just being slow to recover. One-third of Victoria's gauged unregulated catchments have not recovered 12 years after the Millenium drought, resulting in an average of 37% less streamflow per unit rainfall.
Overall, these findings suggest water security is significantly overestimated and that catchments can have a finite resilience to disturbances.
The biophysical causes of these multiple catchment states and the switching between them does, however, remain an open question. Many hypotheses have been proposed that explain the observed changes to catchment water balance; most notably changes in plant water use, recharge and maybe groundwater-surface water interactions.
Tim will outline additional emerging evidence of catchment non-recovery and will spend time reviewing the latest leading hypotheses. He will also present a conceptual framework on the role of climate variability which is driving shifts into and out of low runoff states.
Our Speakers
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Richard Campbell
Managing Director, HydroTerra
Richard Campbell is an entrepreneur with deep expertise in environmental monitoring, combining a strong understanding of monitoring applications with the capabilities of modern technologies. His early career in geology, hydrogeology and environmental science underpins his work across a wide range of industries.
Richard has built and led HydroTerra into a high-quality monitoring company, supported by skilled engineers, scientists and a strong network of technology partners. His integrated knowledge of applications and technology has enabled the delivery of innovative, automated and cutting-edge monitoring solutions.
Tim Peterson
Environmental Engineering Course Leader, Monash University
Associate Professor Tim Peterson is an academic at Monash University. His research focuses on making better use of hydrological observation to understand long-term change in catchment water dynamics, including groundwater, and catchment resilience. In his spare time he also explores long term groundwater change.
Tim completed a PhD in hydrological resilience at the University of Melbourne (2009). Since 2010 he has held an ARC Post-Doctoral Fellowship, led multiple industry funded projects and been a chief investigator on two ARC Linkage projects.
Join Our Live Webinar
When streams don’t recover: Drought driven threat to our water security
Be part of this session and learn about the following:
- Research showing how catchment runoff can shift to lower-flow states during droughts and often does not fully recover.
- Evidence that many Victorian catchments remain in a persistent low-runoff state, with reduced streamflow per unit rainfall since the millennium drought.
- The implications of catchment non-recovery for long-term water security.
- Leading hypotheses explaining these changes, including plant water use, recharge, and groundwater–surface water interactions.
- A conceptual framework on how climate variability may drive shifts between runoff states.
📅 Fri 20th March 2026
🕐 12:30 PM AEDT