Predicting the impacts of land use and climate change on water resources, floods and water quality

Neil McIntyre leads a group of research on the planning and management of land and water resources in mining and coal seam gas regions. This includes water balances of operational, closed and abandoned mine; the hydrology of mine wastes and covers; cumulative impacts over mine regions; water security assessments; land and water use planning tools; and fundamental research into hydrological processes and modeling approaches.

Neil holds an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship Award (2014-2018). He has BEng and MSc degrees in civil and environmental engineering from Edinburgh University and Imperial College London, and a PhD in water quality modelling and uncertainty analysis from Imperial College London. He is a Chartered Engineer (UK) and previously worked for 6 years as a water engineer in the Scottish Water industry and then 14 years as an researcher and academic at Imperial College London. He has twice been awarded an Institution of Civil Engineers award for his research into quantifying risks to water resources. He was a member of the British Hydrological Society National Committee, the Institution of Civil Engineers Water Expert Panel, and has served as a scientific expert on river water quality at the International Court of Justice.

Industry Engagement

Neil works with a number of mines in Australia and Chile on improving water sustainability performance. Neil co-leads projects for UQ’s Centre for Coal Seam Gas towards improving accuracy of inputs to groundwater impacts assessments. He does peer review work for national government related to hydrological impacts of mines; and advises a regional government on impacts model uncertainty analysis procedures. In 2015, with mining industry representatives, he co-authored the Australian Government’s revised Leading Practice Sustainable Development Program guide on Water Stewardship. He has worked with a number of water authorities, land developers and environment agencies on developing special-use environmental models and peer reviews of catchment management plans.

Collaborations

Neil is a Visiting Professor at Imperial College London. Other current and recent international collaborators include the University of Concepcion (Chile), University of Desorollo (Chile), Los Andes University (Colombia), Witwatersrand University (South Africa), Chulalongkorn University (Thailand), Tsinghua University (China), University of Stuttgart (Germany), University of Saskatchewan (Canada), University of Nottingham (Malaysia campus) and University of Wellington (New Zealand).

Funding

Neil has co-held approximately A$10M of research grants from research councils and industry.