Postdoctoral Fellow
Environmental modelling, forest inventory, water resources
Phone: +61 (0)2 6125 7762
Fax: + 61 (0)2 6125 0746
E-mail: wendy.merritt@anu.edu.au

After completing a Bachelor of Science degree in Natural Resource Management at the University of Western Australia, Wendy Merritt undertook her PhD at the Centre for Resource and Environmental Studies at the Australian National University. Wendy's thesis involved the development and testing of biophysical models for assessing land and water resource management options in rural catchments in northern Thailand. On completing her PhD, she worked for 13 months as a Post Doctoral Fellow at the Department of Forest Resource Management at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, before travelling around Canada for approximately three months. Research conducted at UBC involved the development of hydrologic models of the Okanagan Basin, a major horticultural and agricultural centre in British Columbia, and application of the models under scenarios of climate change. Wendy has been employed as a Post Doctoral Fellow at SRES since October 2003.

Professional Activities

My research interests are in the broad field of resource assessment and modelling, particularly water and forest resources. Currently, I am working on a project funded by the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) in Victoria. The objectives of the research are to review the State-wide Forest Resource Inventory (SFRI) implemented by DSE and to develop approaches for estimating the extent of inaccuracies in the SFRI resource estimates and gauging the sensitivity of scheduled yields to these inaccuracies.

Selected Publications

Cohen, S., Neilsen, D., Smith, S., Neale, T., Taylor, B., Barton, M. Merritt, W.S., Alila, Y., Shepherd, P., McNeill, R., Tansey, J., and Carmichael, J. Learning with local help: expanding the dialogue on climate change and water management in the Okanagan region, British Columbia, Canada. Climatic Change, (in press).

Merritt, W.S., Y. Alila, M. Barton, B. Taylor, and S. Cohen. Hydrologic response to scenarios of climate change in the Okanagan Basin, British Columbia, Journal of Hydrology (submitted).

Merritt, W.S., Croke, B.F.W., and Jakeman, A.J. 2005. Sensitivity testing of a model for exploring water resources utilisation and management options, Environmental Modelling and Software, 20, 1013-1030.

Croke, B.F.W., Merritt, W.S., and Jakeman, A.J. 2004. A dynamic model for predicting hydrologic response to land cover changes in gauged and ungauged catchments. Journal of Hydrology, 291, 115-131.

Merritt, W.S., and Alila, Y. 2004. Chapter 7. Hydrology. In Cohen, S., Neilsen, D., and Welbourn, R. (eds.) Expanding the dialogue on climate change and water management in the Okanagan Basin, British Columbia, Final Report, 63-88.

Merritt, W.S., Croke, B.F.W., Jakeman, A.J., Perez, P., and Letcher, R.A. 2004. A biophysical toolkit for assessment and management of land and water resources in rural catchments in northern Thailand. Ecological Modelling, 171: 279-300.

Neilsen, D., Koch, W., Merritt, W.S., Frank, G., Smith, S., Alila, Y., Carmichael, J., Neale, T., and Welbourn R. 2004. Risk assessment and vunerability - case studies of water supply and demand. In Cohen, S., Neilsen, D., and Welbourn, R. (eds.) Expanding the dialogue on climate change and water management in the Okanagan Basin, British Columbia, Final Report, 115-135.

Merritt, W.S., Alila, Y., Barton, M., Taylor, B., and Cohen, S. 2003. Exploring impacts of climate change on the hydrology of the Okanagan Basin. Proceedings of the 56th Canadian Water Resources Association Annual Conference, 11-13 June, Vancouver, Canada.

Merritt, W.S., Letcher, R.A., and Jakeman, A.J. 2003. A review of erosion and sediment transport models. Environmental Modelling and Software, 18: 761-799.

Letcher, R.A., Croke, B.F.W., Jakeman, A.J., Merritt, W.S., and Perez, P. 2002. IWRAM: an integrated modeling toolbox for considering impacts of development. Proceedings International Environmental Modelling and Simulation Society (iEMSs) Conference, Lugano Switzerland 24-27 June 2002, vol 1, pp. 97-102.

Perez, P., Ardlie, N., Kuneepong, P., Dietrich, C., and Merritt, W.S. 2002. CATCHCROP: Modelling crop yield and water demand for an Integrated Catchment Assessment in northern Thailand. Environmental Modelling and Software, 17: 251-259.

Merritt, W.S., Croke, B.F.W., and Jakeman, A.J. 2001. Tools for assessing the nutrient and sediment components of water quality: a review. Prepared for the Sydney Catchment Authority, July 2001.

Letcher, R. A., Jakeman, A. J., McKee, L. J., Merritt, W.S., Eyre, B. D., and Baginska, B. 1999. Review of techniques to estimate catchment exports. Technical Report, NSW EPA.