Focus on rivers and tributaries

WINNING WAIKATO REGIONAL COUNCIL’S Roger Harris (Waihou Valley) Scholarship allowed forestry student, Liam Gilroy, to focus on his research investigating the turbidity levels of rivers and tributaries.

Liam, who has just achieved his Bachelor of Forest Engineering with honours from Canterbury University, was awarded the Roger Harris Scholarship late last year.

The former Morrinsville College student says he is grateful for the $6000 scholarship, as it enabled him to stop working part-time in the last term so he could focus on his dissertation to “achieve a greater outcome”.

For his dissertation, Liam used satellite imagery to remotely monitor turbidity levels in rivers and tributaries, something that had only been previously done for larger bodies of water.

Waihou Piako Flood Protection Advisory Subcommittee Chair, Stu Husband, says Liam was chosen as 2021’s scholarship recipient because of his studies in river and catchment management: “In his 2020 year, Liam was a summer student with the council’s Asset and Land Licencing Team, completing inspections of our leased land and stopbanks.”

The Roger Harris (Waihou Valley) Scholarship was established in 1995 to mark the substantial completion of the Waihou Valley flood protection scheme and particularly to acknowledge the contribution of the late Roger Harris to the successful implementation of that major project.

The scholarship is available to students undertaking post-secondary study in the fields of civil engineering or resource management, with particular focus on river and catchment management.

Students whose families are resident in the Waihou Valley Scheme rating classification area are eligible to apply for the scholarship.