Current activities
Dr Barron is currently involved with the South-West Western Australia Sustainable Yields Project which is providing water managers and users with robust estimates of current and future water yields for Western Australia's south-west. Specifically she is assessing the ability of surface and groundwater resources to meet estimated future demand and environmental needs.
Other activities
Southern River Integrated Catchment Management Plan
This project is providing a regional perspective for new development, identifying opportunities to use local water resources for non-potable use and monitoring adopted water management options.
Wungong Urban Water Master Plan
This project is conducting a comprehensive water monitoring program to better understand the impacts of urban development on the aquatic environment. Outcomes will ultimately support the selection of water management options for the new Brookdale housing development in Perth, Western Australia.
Investigation of techniques to better manage Western Australia's non-potable water resources
This project, for Western Australian Premier's Water Foundation, is investigating the quality and quantity of drainage and groundwater for non-potable uses and trialling its use on a fit-for-purpose basis in the Southern River area of Perth.
Rural Town Water Management
This project is developing a water management framework based on systems modelling and suitable technology for Western Australian towns to ultimately demonstrate improved water resource management at a local scale and provide the capacity for rural communities to solve the most pressing problems facing country towns – both environmental and socio-economic.
Best management practices to reduce nutrient flows in urban drains
This project is evaluating the efficacy of best management practices (BMPs) to reduce nutrient concentrations and loads in Perth’s main urban drains. Practices of other cities cannot be reliably extrapolated due to Perth’s unusually sandy catchments and the major contribution of groundwater to nutrient concentrations.
Predicting the impact of urbanisation on nutrient loads to receiving water environments
This project is developing a modelling framework to define nutrient targets for the water and nutrient management of new urban developments in catchments affected by shallow groundwater systems; with a particular emphasis on remobilisation of legacy nutrients.
Groundwater contribution to nutrient export from the Ellen Brook catchment
This project is evaluating the effect of surface and groundwater fluxes in the nutrient cycle of Ellen Brook. This is improving our understanding of the connectivity and travel times of water and nutrients in groundwater systems for different parts of the catchment and their interaction with surface waters. The project is employing remotely sensed data to delineate the groundwater discharge zones.
Background
Dr Olga Barron joined CSIRO as a hydrogeologist in 2003. She is a Principal Research Scientist with the Water Reuse research group of CSIRO Land and Water and leads the Water Sensitive Urban Environments project for CSIRO’s Water for a Healthy Country Flagship.
Dr Barron was awarded a doctorate in Engineering Geology and Environmental Geology from Moscow State University in 1986 and a doctorate in Chemical and Environmental Sciences from the University of Limerick, Ireland in 2000.
She previously worked as a senior scientific researcher for the Research Institute of Survey for Construction in Moscow and as a senior research fellow at the University of Limerick, Ireland.
Achievements
Dr Barron has been an eminent speaker for Engineers Australia. She is author of over 16 scientific papers, 7 conference papers and 22 technical reports.
She holds positions in the following committees/groups:
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Western Australia Advisory Group on Urban Water R&D (member)
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Perth NRM Technical Working Group on Integrated Water Management
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Technical Working Group (Southern River MOU group, Chair)
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Technical Working Group (Brookdale Master Plan).
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