Review group

This expert group, including four distinguished international participants, helped formulate the appropriate questions to be posed, and reviewed the Working Group's answers, in particular to ensure they provide a balanced, authoritative perspective within the current state of knowledge.

Dr Andrew Ash - Director, Climate Adaptation Flagship, CSIRO, Brisbane

Andrew has a keen interest in better integrating our understanding of climate science with decision-making and developing ways to mainstream climate adaptation into policy processes. Much of his past work has been in the link between climate, ecosystems and management of rangelands in northern Australia. Andrew is Chair of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation Solutions and Adaptation Working Group and is a member of the Ecosystem Reef Advisory Committee to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.

Professor Richard Ashley - Co-Director, Pennine Water Group, University of Sheffield, United Kingdom

Richard is a civil and environmental engineer at the University of Sheffield. He led the urban area flooding aspects of the UK Government's 2004 Foresight Future Flooding study and advised the UK Government Cabinet Office inquiry into the 2007 UK floods, undertaken by Sir Michael Pitt. Richard is currently advising the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering on adapting to climate change in the urban environment.

Professor Gerrit Basson - Director, Institute for Water and Environmental Engineering, Stellenbosch University, South Africa

Gerrit has 24 years experience in the fields of hydraulic engineering, river and reservoir sedimentation and water resources development. He specialises in hydraulic and sedimentation engineering and modelling, hydrology, water quality modelling and water resources planning.

Professor CHENG Xiaotao - Vice Chief Engineer, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research (IWHR)

Xiaotao specialises in river engineering and hydraulics, numerical analysis in hydraulic systems, and flood and drought risk management. He is the Executive Chief Editor of the Journal of Hydraulic Engineering.

Mr David Dole - Independent Consultant, Melbourne

David has some 50 years experience as an engineer in water resources management. For 30 years David worked in the Murray Darling Basin, including several years as the General Manager of River Murray Water. Since retiring in 2003 David has continued working in water resource management as an independent consultant.

Professor Paul Greenfield, AO - Vice-Chancellor, The University of Queensland, Brisbane

Paul is a chemical engineer with interests in biotechnology, environmental management and R&D management and commercialisation. He is Chair of the Group of Eight, a network of research-intensive Australian universities, Chair of the Scientific Advisory Group of the SEQ Healthy Waterways Partnership until 30 June 2011 and currently Chair of the Science Integration Panel for the SEQ Natural Resource Management CEO’s Committee.

Mr Trevor Jones - Strategic Adviser, Risk & Impact Analysis Group, Geoscience Australia

Trevor has more than 20 years' experience in assessing natural hazards in Australia and the region. He has a strong interest in bringing risk-based science to government policy and practice in disaster management and climate change adaptation. Trevor was originally a seismologist and has led several natural hazard risk assessment projects for Australian cities. He led the National Risk Assessments Project that worked on national reforms in natural disaster management.

Dr Sandra Knight - Deputy Federal Insurance & Mitigation Administrator for Mitigation, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), USA

Sandra is a water resource engineer with executive leadership responsibility for the development and administration of regulations, policies and procedures for all programs related to mitigating risks from natural hazards. Before FEMA, she was a director of policy for research at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Having previously served in the US Army Corps of Engineers, Sandra was the lead engineer for the Mississippi Valley following the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the US Gulf Coast.

Professor George Kuczera - Professor of Water Engineering, Department of Civil, Surveying and Environmental Engineering, University of Newcastle

George is a civil engineer specialising in water engineering with interests in statistical methods in hydrology and water resources systems analysis. He has co-authored over 250 journal and conference papers. His research group has developed software for model calibration, water resource system simulation and optimisation at a range of scales, and flood frequency analysis. He is involved in the revision of the flood estimation guide, Australian Rainfall and Runoff, serving on the Technical Review Committee and managing the revision of the at-site and regional flood frequency methods.

Professor Tom McMahon - Professor Emeritus, Department of Infrastructure Engineering, University of Melbourne

Tom is a former Professor of Environmental Hydrology at the University of Melbourne. His previous research covered a wide range of water issues including global hydrology, hydrologic modelling and water resource management and planning. Tom has co-authored more than 385 articles and refereed conference papers and 7 books dealing with hydrology. Since retiring in 2004 Tom continues to work in the water field as a specialised hydrology consultant and is chief investigator of an ARC Linkage Project in global hydrology.

Dr John Radcliffe - Honorary Research Fellow, CSIRO, Adelaide

John is a former Deputy Chief Executive of CSIRO, responsible for its natural resources divisions. He is Chair of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering's Water Forum and a former Commissioner of the National Water Commission from 2005 to 2008. Earlier, he was Director-General of the South Australian Department of Agriculture.

Dr Michael Raupach - Research Scientist, Continental Biogeochemcial Cycles Research Team, CSIRO, Canberra

Michael is an earth system scientist with expertise in biosphere-atmosphere interactions and global and continental change. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, the American Geophysical Union and a CSIRO Fellow. He has published widely in many fields of earth system science. In 2010 he co-chaired the Working Group that produced the Australian Academy of Science report 'The Science of Climate Change: Questions and Answers'.

Professor Beth Woods - Chief Scientific Officer, Queensland Department of Employment, Economic Development & Innovation, Brisbane

Beth is an agricultural economist with interests in supply chain management. In 2004 Beth chaired the National Drought Policy Review and she is currently the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) Policy Advisory Council President.