Transcript for Climate change workplace interview

[Speaker: Sandra Dharmadi]

My name is Sandra Dharmadi and I work in the Hydrology and Climate Science team at DEECA and I've been with the team since 2020.

What interests you about working in water?

What interests me working with water is that water is important to all life and therefore you contribute to the management, the sustainable management of water. Also, I found the subjects to be interesting when I was at university, and there's also a little bit of unpredictability with water. We know a lot about the water cycle, but there's still a lot of things that we are learning.

What does your work involve?

I work with scientists and researchers from different institutions such as the Bureau of Meteorology, CSIRO, different universities in climate research and hydrology.

One of the main projects that I'm working on is the Victorian Water and Climate Initiative. It is a research project that tries to understand how Victorian climate has changed and also its impact on hydrology. We look at what might happen in the future, so that's projection of rainfall and stream flows that will help us to plan for a future under climate change.

Why does a career in water and climate change matter?

To get to where I am now, I did a degree in civil engineering and bachelor of science, and I was interested in hydrology. So, I ended up doing a major in water management. I worked for a while as a water resource engineer, then I went back to uni and did a PhD in forest hydrology. I've always been interested in the way water moves through the landscape, so working in a water sector is a natural career path.

Climate change will affect water supply in Victoria because Victoria is projected to be drier and hotter, and that means less rainfall, more evapotranspiration and also, less water in our streams. And droughts are likely to be more severe and also last for a longer duration than in the past.

More than ever with the threat of climate change, we need people to consider a career in climate science and hydrology, so that we can study, we can understand the processes and also just understand the impact on our resources.

How does urban cooling help us combat climate change?

So, urban greening and cooling helps to combat the impact of climate change through providing more shade and increase evapotranspiration, which cools down the temperature. It also absorbs excess rainfall and storm flow, and that will improve the water quality in the creeks. And finally, the plants also absorb carbon dioxide, which then reduces our emissions.

Can technology also help?

Climate change impacts different places differently, so we need more research to understand its regional impact. In my line of work, I rely on climate and hydrology data such as rainfall, evaporation, solar radiation, and stream flow data. And this data comes from field measurements, by weather stations, for example, or stream flow gauges. But also, we use remote sensing and satellite data. What I love about my job is being on the cutting edge of scientific knowledge and technology and help people to apply those findings to create a better future.