Dr Bill Young: improving our understanding of the Murray-Darling Basin

Dr Bill Young is Director of the Water for a Healthy Country Flagship.

• 7 June 2010 | Updated 14 October 2011

• Current activities 
• Background
• Academic qualifications
• Achievements

Current activities

Dr Bill Young is the Director of the Water for a Healthy Country Flagship. He previously led the Murray-Darling Basin Water Assessment project for the Water for a Healthy Country Flagship and was Program Leader, Biophysical Processes in the eWater Cooperative Research Centre. 

He has been a Principal Research Scientist in the Catchment and Aquatic Systems research program.

Dr Young is involved in:

• research and application of environmental flows
• river habitat modelling
• river sediment and nutrient transport modelling
• river hydraulics
• other aspects of river, floodplain and wetland management.

He initially trained as an engineering hydrologist and undertook postgraduate studies in fluvial geomorphology.

Dr Young has 12 years professional experience in river and catchment research, modelling and management. 

Background

Dr Young's expertise includes:

• environmental flow assessment, river condition assessment
• river basin management, integrated water resources management
• river hydrology, sediment and nutrient transport, biochemistry, geomorphology
• environmental modelling, software and decision support systems.

Dr Young's professional experience includes:

• development of nutrient and sediment budgets for the National Land and Water Resources Audit
• assessment of river condition for the National Land and Water Resources Audit
• modelling river channel type and physical habitat condition in the upper Murrumbidgee River
• editor and lead author of Rivers as Ecological Systems – the Murray-Darlin Basin published by the Murray-Darling Basin Commission in 2001
• development of a prototype Environmental Flows Decision Support System.

Academic qualifications

Dr Young has been awarded a:

• Bachelor of Engineering with First Class Honours, Agricultural, from the University of Canterbury, New Zealand
• Doctor of Philosophy in Natural Resources Engineering from the University of Canterbury.

Achievements

Dr Young's expertise has been called upon for a number of government and environment groups, including:

• member of the World Bank Environmental Flows Advisory Group
• member of the Sydney Catchment Authority Expert Reference Panel
• leader of NSW Healthy River Commission Expert Panels for the Bega and Woronora Rivers
• leader of the Scientific Reference Panel for the Coxs River Review, New South Wales
• leader of the Scientific Reference Panel for the Snowy Water Inquiry.

Find out more about the work of the Water for a Healthy Country Flagship.