Meryl Pearce

Senior Lecturer in Geography
Water Supply and Use in Aboriginal Communities
Response of Aboriginal Communitites to the National Water Reform Initiative

Contact Details Postal: School of Geography, Population and Environmental Management, Flinders University, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide SA 5001, Australia Email: meryl.pearce@flinders.edu.au Tel: (08) 8201 2327 (in Australia);  (618) 8201 2327 (outside Australia) Fax: (08) 8201 3521 (in Australia);  (618) 8201 3521 (outside Australia)

Position Held

• Senior Lecturer in Geography

Current Teaching

• GEOG 1001 Water Resources and society
• GEOG 7003 Advanced Physical Geography
• GEOG 9000 Geography MA Coursework
• ENVS 1701/1701A Environmental Studies
• ENVS 2704/8003 Environmental Systems

Projects

Water Supply and Use in Aboriginal Communities in South Australia
Open link to report here

• Water and Aboriginal Peoples: Culture, Health and service delivery
• Government involvement and service delivery in South Australia
• Water provision to Aboriginal communities in South Australia
• Aboriginal community water issues in South Australia
  

Recent Publications

• Pearce, M.W., Clarke, B. and Gannaway, D. (2007) Developing informal project management skills in a collaborative learning environment, Geographical Education, vol. 20, pp.48-57.
• Rigney, Daryle., Hemming, Steve., Pearce, Meryl, Walker, Steve. & Young, Richard (2007) Ngarrindjeri Ruwe: a Nation-based approach to ‘Natural Resource Management’ In Just Water: Cross-disciplinary Conversations on Water Use and Meaning in Australian Society, sponsored by the Hawke Institute for Sustainable Societies, the Academy of the Social Sciences of Australia and the Australian Academy of the Humanities and for publication with Melbourne University Press, Melbourne.
• Vo, van Phong, Pearce, Meryl and Benger, Simon (2005) Community participation as a driver for sustainable environmental management in Vietnam, A case study of urban household solid waste, eJournal of Environmental, Cultural, Economic and Social Sustainability.
• Pearce, M, Willis, E, Jenkin, T and Wurst, S (2005) The potential for rainwater harvesting to supplement domestic water supply in an Aboriginal community in semi-arid South Australia. South Australian Geographical Journal, vol. 104, pp. 1-10.
• Willis Eileen, Pearce Meryl and Jenkin Tom (2005) Adapting focus group methods to fit Aboriginal community-based research" Journal of Qualitative Research.
• Pearce, M, Willis, E and Jenkin T (2005) Aboriginal attitudes towards paying for water in a water-scarce region of Australia. Environment, Development & Sustainability.
• Pearce, M (2005) A hitchhikers guide to climate variability. SA Geographer (GTASA Journal). November issue. [Also given as a verbal presentation at the SA Geography Teachers Conference 2005].
• Pearce, M., Willis, E. and Jenkin, T. (2004) Aboriginal perceptions of incompatibility of location, lifestyle and water resources. Proceedings of the 30th Water and Engineering Development Centre International Conference: People-centred approaches to water and environmental sanitation, held in Vientiane, Lao PDR, 25-29 October 2004. Paper presented by Meryl Pearce.
• Clarke, B., Pearce, M., and Gannaway, D. (2004) Using collaborative learning to develop transferable skills. Proceedings of the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA) International Conference, held in Miri, Malaysia from 4-7 July 2004. (Paper blind peer-reviewed by two reviewers). Paper presented by Meryl Pearce.
• Willis E, Pearce M, Jenkin T, Wurst S with McCarthy C (2004) Water Supply and Use in Aboriginal Communities in South Australia. Worldwide Online Printing, Adelaide, 289 pp.
• Willis, E., Pearce, M., Jenkin, T. and Wurst, S. (2004) The demise of Murray River: Insights into lifestyle, health and well-being for rural Aboriginal people in the Riverland. Health Sociology Review, 13(2) 187-197.
• Hayball, N. and Pearce, M.W. (2004) Influences of Simulated Grazing and Water-depth on the Growth of Juvenile Bolboschoenus caldwellii, Phragmites australis and Schoenoplectus validus Plants. Aquatic Botany, 78(3) 233-242.
• Pearce, M.W. and Bohl, H.P. (2004) Response to Wet Season Rainfall of an Alluvial Aquifer System in the Lower Herbert River Floodplain, Queensland, Australia. Australian Geographical Studies 42(1), 34-45.
• Pearce, M.W. and Schumann, E.H. (2003). Dissolved oxygen characteristics of the Gamtoos Estuary, South Africa. African Journal of Marine Science 25, 99-109.
• Wilkinson J, Pearce M, Cromar N and Fallowfield H (2003) Audit of the quality and quantity of effluent discharging from wastewater treatment plants into the marine environment, Adelaide Coastal Waters Study: Stage 2 Research Program 2002-2004, November 2003.
• Pearce, M.W. and Schumann, E.H. (2002) The effect of varying rates of discharge on estuarine characteristics in the Gamtoos Estuary, South Africa. Proceedings of the Balancing the Budget, International Groundwater Conference, 13-17 May 2002, Darwin. Paper presented by Meryl Pearce.
• Pearce, M.W. and Schumann, E.H. (2001). The impact of irrigation return flow on aspects of water quality of the Upper Gamtoos Estuary, South Africa, Water SA. 27(3) 367-372.
• Pearce, M.W. (2001) Water-borne microbial pollution in the Hout Bay River Catchment. Vista University Research Journal.
• Pearce, M.W. (2001) Filling the gap in postgraduate environmental education, Environmental Health News, Journal of the Australian Institute of Environmental Health, SA Division, 10(3) 9. (Editorial article)
• Lee, S.M. and Pearce, M.W. (2001) Wastewater irrigation to reduce discharge to Mount Barker Creek, Proceedings of the Environmental Engineering Research Event, Noosa, November 20-23 2001.
  

Current Research

Research Profile

Previous Main Projects

Water service delivery and State and Commonwealth water reform objectives - a response from Aboriginal communities in South Australia.

The key components of each project are given as dot points.

Water Supply and Use in Aboriginal Communities in South Australia

Open link to report here

• Water and Aboriginal Peoples: Culture, Health and service delivery
• Government involvement and service delivery in South Australia
• Water provision to Aboriginal communities in South Australia
• Aboriginal community water issues in South Australia

Adelaide Coastal Waters Study

• Wastewater treatment plant audit

The impact of septic tank systems on surface- and ground water quality
(Hout Bay, South Africa)

• Microbial attenuation in groundwater
• Efficiency of septic tank systems
• Septic tank overflow & stormwater pollution
• Hydrodynamics of the Hout Bay river-estuary system
• The role of reed beds in microbial attenuation

Establishment of an arid-zone groundwater monitoring network 
(Hydrological Research Unit, South Africa)

• Groundwater sampling for isotope analysis
• Soil profile characterisation

Surface- and ground water hydrology of the Gamtoos Estuary and floodplain
(Eastern Cape, South Africa)

• Impact of intensive agriculture on groundwater quality
• Quantification of irrigation return flow (surface drainage systems, tile drain systems and diffuse throughflow)
• Impact of nutrients on estuary water quality
• Estuarine hydrodynamics
• Residence times of pollutants and estuarine flushing
• Environmental flows

Characterisation of an alluvial aquifer system near Ripple Creek, in the Lower Herbert River floodplain
(Queensland, Australia)

• Analysis of groundwater levels in relation to soil characteristics
• Impact of surface drainage on groundwater levels

Other Research Interests

• The impact of changing land-use, small farm dams, surface and ground water abstraction on environmental flows
• Quantification of irrigation return flow and assessment of the impact of irrigation drainage water on surface- and ground water quality
• Impact of artificial drainage systems/ tile drain systems on surface water quality
• Microbial contamination of surface- and ground water systems
• The impact of water re-use on groundwater quality

Professional Memberships

• Member of the Geography Teacher's Association of South Australia
• Member of the Australian Water Association (AWA)
• Member of the Hydrological Society of South Australia
• Member of the Royal Geographical Society of South Australia (RGSSA)
• Member of the RGSSA Awards Committee
  

Qualifications

• PhD – Hydrology – 1997 (University of Port Elizabeth, South Africa)

• MSc – Hydrology – 1989 (Rhodes University, South Africa)

• BSc Honours – 1987 (Rhodes University,  South Africa)

• BSc – 1986 (University of South Africa)

• Nat Diploma in Microbiology – 1984 (Technikon Witwatersrand, South Africa)
  
  
  Last updated 15/08/08