Charles Pearson
NIWA
Charles is National Manager, Environmental Information Operations, NIWA, based in Christchurch. He joined the Ministry of Works and Development in 1982 as a scientist in the Hydrology Centre. He was co-author of a national study of flood frequency in NZ in 1989 and has co-edited three books for the NZ Hydrological Society. He has carried out flood studies and network design analysis for numerous catchments and regions. He has provided hydrological statistics courses to numerous groups. He is NZ’s Hydrological Adviser to the World Meteorological Organisation.
History And Evolution of Operational Hydrology In New Zealand
Operational hydrology covers measurements of basic elements from hydrometeorological monitoring networks, instruments, telemetry, data collection and management, and hydrological modelling and forecasting, and development and improvement of the relevant methods associated with these activities. An overview of the history and evolutionary changes of some key components of operational hydrology in Aotearoa New Zealand will be provided.
The first systematic hydrological data networks in NZ began in the early 1900s, and earlier, for rainfall, river and lake levels, river flows, and groundwater levels. The networks were installed for numerous purposes such as hydropower and irrigation investigation, water resource and flood hazard assessment, and from a range of funding sources, including central and local government, power and irrigation companies. The data collected from these networks have been invaluable for the range of purposes they were collected for and many unanticipated purposes, such as climate change assessment. It has often been shown that the value of the data is orders of magnitude greater than the cost of collection.
As well as the development of hydrological science in New Zealand, the NZ Hydrological Society has been supportive of field, instrument and data hydrologists with the inception of its annual Technical Workshops in the early 2000s. The improvements in hydrological monitoring have been evident from these meetings. It is a reminder that NZ has been a pioneer in the development of operational hydrological areas such as quality assurance systems and environmental monitoring standards.
Operational hydrology provides core platforms for increasing understanding of NZ’s hydrological processes, testing hypotheses and models, forecasting hydrological extremes, and securing our water future.