Profile of the scientist: Kathleen (Kate) Harriden | Earth Resources | meriSTEM
Channel: meriSTEM Education
Date: 20/10/2021

Kathleen (Kate) Harriden (PhD candidate) from the Australian National University (anu.edu.au). Tells the story of how she came to work on water management, incorporating indigenous science into her projects.

This clip has been created by the Research School of Earth Sciences (rses.anu.edu.au). These resources are part of a comprehensive program, curriculum matched to the unit 'Unit 3 Living on Earth - extracting, using and managing Earth resources'.

Kate's bio: 
B. As (Thai) (ANU), B. Sc (ANU), GradDip. PA (Canberra), M. A. (As) (ANU), M. Geog (ANU), PhD candidate (ANU)

Kate is an advocate of multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary research, as evidenced in much of her previous research from slums as environmental actors to opening the black box of intra-household water use.  She is particularly interested in including traditional ecological knowledge in contemporary urban water management practices and policy development.  She will continue combining water science with social science during her PhD research.

Kate is the current holder of the Icon Water Aspi Baria Scholarship.  She has held positions on a number of committees, including the Aust. Water Assoc. (AWA) ACT Branch Committee and the Aust. Assoc. for Environmental Education (AAEE) ACT and National committees.

Her Master of Geographical Sciences sub-thesis, “Fluid boundaries: the hyporheic zone of a tropical, tidal river”, investigated the hyporheic zone of a small site on the Bang Pakong River, Thailand.  Whereas her Master of Arts (Asian Studies) sub-thesis, “Stormwater: why waste it”, examined the influence of different ecological knowledge systems on the way stormwater is perceived and valued.

Kate has worked both as an independent researcher and held a number of positions across all levels of government.  This PhD project was inspired by her most recent public sector position, in the ACT Government's Healthy Waterways project.  The Healthy Waterways project will see the construction of a series of water sensitive infrastructure projects, across a number of catchments, to contribute to improved water quality in the Murrumbidgee Catchment. 

While working as an independent researcher, Kate developed a water diary, variations of which are now widely used in many research projects examining intra-household water flows.  This research lead her to a guest lecturer role in a post-graduate ANU unit, Exploring Gender and Development, from 2008 - 2012.  She was also the co-ordinator of the organizing committee for the international conference on water’s social dimensions "Tapping the Turn", held at ANU in 2012 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QM0sk2Z6wSc).  Kate was a guest editor of the Tapping the Turn special edition of the Australasian Journal of Environmental Management (V. 20 No. 3 2013).  From 2009 - 2014 she was the co-ordinator of the international network of household water use researchers.  She has also translated children’s books (from English to Thai) and fables and folk tales (from Thai to English), that are in the process of being published.

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This video is part of meriSTEM Australian senior science educational resources (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). Email the team (contact.meristem@anu.edu.au) for further information, course access and curriculum links.