Author: Alex

We’re now seeking expressions of interest for the role of Science Leadership Team (SLT) member for the Impacts & Implications Programme of the Deep South Challenge: Changing with our Climate. Deadline is 5pm, Wednesday 10 April 2019, so get your applications in quickly.

The Challenge undertakes and coordinates research to achieve its mission of  “enabling New Zealanders to anticipate, adapt, manage risk, and thrive in a changing climate.” We have been re-funded for Phase 2 (2019-24) and are currently developing our research portfolio across climate modelling and observations for model development. We will soon begin to develop and call for research proposals across our four key domains (Māori, Communities, Infrastructure, and the National Economy). 

The Impacts and Implications (I&I) Programme Leader provides critical science and planning support to the Deep South Challenge. You will draw on your extensive knowledge and research networks (both national and international) to ensure the wider Challenge research programme contributes to our mission. You will work closely with the Deep South Challenge team to ensure I&I research is integrated within the Challenge, and will strengthen and develop relationships with stakeholders, partners, other research providers and other research programmes, including other National Science Challenges. 

The I&I programme currently includes 15 research projects, with many dependencies between them. Research ranges from physical impacts (such as climate impacts on hydrology) to impacts on people and economic systems (for example, climate change impacts on land-use suitability) or research into adaptation options (for example, an application of real options analysis to water storage). Part of the SLT role involves supporting individual research projects to ensure they are effectively contracted and delivered, as well as facilitating collaborations between projects. This position also shares responsibility (with the Engagement Lead) for overseeing the work of the Partnerships Director, who runs our tailored engagement programme. 

The successful applicant will have the exciting opportunity to help define our research in Phase 2. We therefore require a strategic thinker who can operate effectively as part of a team and assist in pulling together multidisciplinary research projects.  

Up to 0.3 FTE is available for this position, for an appointment until June 2021, with the potential for extension. 

The SLT is led by the Challenge Director and comprises the Challenge Manager and one representative for each of the five Challenge Programmes. The Director reports to the Deep South Challenge Governing Board. Our other advisory groups include the Kāhui Māori, the Independent Science Panel and the Representative User Group.

Please submit your CV, together with a covering letter outlining your experience and interest in the role, to the Challenge Director, Dr Mike Williams ([email protected]) by no later than 5pm, Wednesday 10 April 2019. For more information regarding this position, call Mike on +64-4-386-0389.

We have some big announcements about the Deep South Challenge team. We’re saying “Hello and welcome!” to our new Challenge Manager, Anne-Marie Rowe. We’re also saying a sad farewell to our Impacts and Implications Programme Leader, Andrew Tait (at the same as offering him our congratulations for the huge role he’s stepping into as NIWA’s Chief Scientist – Climate, Atmosphere & Hazards). Andrew’s decision means we are now also seeking applications to this role. Please read on for more information.

Welcome to Anne-Marie Rowe

We’re absolutely delighted to announce that Anne-Marie Rowe has been appointed as our new Challenge Manager. Anne-Marie is coming directly from our sister National Science Challenge, Resilience to Nature’s Hazards, so brings crucial experience navigating the relatively new, many-headed creatures that are the NSCs. Anne-Marie also has around 20 years of experience in university research management, more recently at Victoria University of Wellington, with previous research management roles at Massey University and University of Otago’s Christchurch School of Medicine and Health Sciences.

Congratulations Andrew, really!

Andrew Tait joined us in August 2018 as our Impacts and Implications Lead, and in six short months has provided wise advice to the 15 projects in the programme. Andrew is both well-known and well-respected among our diverse stakeholder and partner communities, so we think it’s no wonder NIWA has appointed him as new Chief Scientist: Climate, Atmosphere & Hazards. Andrew has been a NIWA climate scientist for 20 years and more recently, as well as working with the Challenge, has been on secondment with the Department of Conservation working across the science-policy interface. We congratulate Andrew on his promotion – he can expect a call shortly about that panel we need an expert for!

In the first of our Deep South Challenge seminars for 2019, we hear from Lisa Ellis and Catherine Iorns, researchers from different fields, both looking at the question of who should fund climate adaptation.

Lisa Ellis’s research report, How should the risks of sea-level rise be shared?, was published late last year, and received wide coverage in the media. In a recent long-form Stuff NZ article, Beach Rd: The rising sea and the reshaping of New Zealand, Lisa said, “Sea-level rise as a whole poses the threat of a ‘perfect moral storm of risk transfer’ – without a solid, fair legal framework, the disadvantaged would bear the brunt of the problem… The problem is we don’t have a predictable, legal framework outlying where those risks should lie.” 

Lisa will be joined by Catherine Iorns, whose Deep South Challenge research project, Sea level rise, housing and insurance: Liability and compensation, is due for completion later this month. Catherine’s research investigates the extent to which homeowners can or should rely on the EQC, or on local or central government, to compensate them if their homes become uninsurable, or uninhabitable, due to sea level rise, or because of associated climate risks like storm surges or coastal erosion. The research also looks into current trends in international climate litigation, and investigates the Crown’s Treaty of Waitangi obligations in relation to sea level rise.

About our presenters

Lisa Ellis is a political theorist who teaches ethics, environmental philosophy, and philosophy, politics and economics at the University of Otago. Her current book project, Extinction and Democracy, asks how democratic practices interact with species conservation policies. She is also writing about the collective ethics of flying, the human value of biodiversity loss, and (with the Deep South Challenge) the principled distribution of the risk of sea level rise.

Catherine Iorns is a Senior Lecturer in Law at Victoria University Wellington. Her research interests include Indigenous Rights in International and Domestic Laws, Statutory Interpretation and Environmental Law and Management. Her current research covers indigenous political representation in international and domestic laws, indigenous (co-)management of natural resources, and indigenous reparations and grievance settlements.

Physical hubs: 

• University of Victoria: Government Buildings Lecture Theatre 1 (GBLT1)*
• University of Otago: MA 229, 2nd Floor, Science III Building*
• NIWA Wellington: Allen Board Room (Ground Floor Allen Building)
• NIWA Christchurch: TerraNova Room
• University of Canterbury: Puaka James Hight 501D

*Our presenters will be speaking from these hubs.

Please note, all visitors to NIWA must sign in on arrival.

We encourage you to set up your own hub and bring friends and colleagues together to participate in the seminar. Please let us know if you do set up your own hub.

Email: [email protected]

New Zealanders are increasingly confronted with the obvious climate impacts like flooding, drought, heat stress and coastal flooding. We’re also now asking whether we should build sea walls or retreat to higher ground, or what we should do when insurance become unavailable for our coastal homes.

But we’re not yet thinking about how climate impacts, and our responses to them, interact with each other. We also haven’t properly considered how these impacts flow on to affect our wider social and economic activities. We haven’t considered how impacts combine and compound, creating cascading effects across communities and inter-linked economic activities. New research led by Drs Judy Lawrence (Victoria University of Wellington), Paula Blackett (NIWA) and Nick Cradock-Henry (Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research), Cascading impacts and implications for Aotearoa New Zealand, uses innovative methods to identify these interdependencies using network and systems tools. The research argues that we need to break out of our “siloed” and “linear thinking” in order to make more robust climate adaptation decisions.

“We need to understand the dependencies and feedback loops between the climate impacts and the wider systems they affect,” Lawrence says, “so that we can ‘stress-test’ our risk assumptions.” The research uses the Circle tool developed by Deltares in the Netherlands to better understand the consequences of critical infrastructure failures, and combines it with “systems thinking” to identify critical dependencies between urban systems, infrastructure, financial services and governance systems. Using these tools, the research team ran workshops with practitioners from each of these systems, to better understand how climate change impacts flow them. One participant, Blair Dickie (Principal Strategic Advisor with the Waikato Regional Council), said, “This work recognises the interconnected nature of climate change and gives us the means to consider potential impacts beyond the obvious. It allows us to get nearer to answering those so-what questions that relate to the four well-beings now and into the future. [It’s] a step closer to sustainable decision-making.”

The research shows how every level of society is impacted by the compounding and cascading nature of climate change impacts. “There is a lot at stake,” Lawrence concludes, “for communities in New Zealand from the impacts of climate change. To enable us to adapt more successfully we need decision processes that deepen our understanding of how systems are stressed by climate change. By responding only to single impact events as they happen, and ignore the cumulative stress and costs of multiple impacts that cascade, our adaptation choices will increase the risks to society.”

This project in the media:

• The Cascade Effect: Re-thinking climate resilience, Nine to Noon, Radio NZ
• New Zealand’s response to climate change disasters needs a rethink, Three News
• Long-term thinking needed on climate change, Stuff NZ
• ‘Significant proportion’ of New Zealanders under threat of sea level rise, The AM Show
• Adapting to climate change, Radio NZ
• Government lacks ‘coordinated plan’ for climate change, withheld report shows, Stuff
• Hotter weather will change New Zealand forever, RadioNZ
• The cascading impacts of climate change, Newsroom

Last last year, we indicated our plan to release a Vision Mātauranga funding round early in 2019. This funding round supports research within the Māori Domain of the Deep South Challenge: Changing with our Climate. We want to let you know that this funding round will now open in July 2019. 

Some iwi partners have requested a longer lead time to develop research proposals. Delaying this funding round also means we can bring research in our Māori Domain on to the same timetable as our other Domains research (Communities, Infrastructure, National Economy). We hope this will also encourage meaningful cross-fertilisation with other Deep South Challenge research projects in development, including research rooted in tikanga and te reo Māori.

We’ll be holding research development workshops for all Domains in July 2019. We will also be dedicating time at our May 2019 Conference to reflect on the challenges and opportunities identified in our first phase of Vision Mātauranga research. We encourage all interested researchers to begin developing your research proposals and research teams now. We also encourage you to reach out to our Vision Mātauranga Programme Lead, Sandy Morrison, to talk about your research idea. 

The Deep South Challenge has four years of successful kaupapa Māori climate adaptation research under our belt and we encourage innovation, interdisciplinarity and co-creation in Māori-led projects. We will be looking for projects that contribute substantive and transformative outcomes for Māori and for wider Aotearoa New Zealand through one or more of these five research themes:

1. Understanding climate change: linkages, pressure points and potential responses
2. Exploring adaptation options for rural and urban Māori communities
3. Aiding the decision-making and long-term sustainability of Māori businesses
4. Investigating products, services and systems derived from Mātauranga Māori (including Te Reo Māori, Tikanga Māori and new technologies)
5. Promoting sustainable futures

Check out our Research Strategy here.

We’re on the lookout for a new Challenge Manager! This is an exciting opportunity to apply your scientific background and management abilities to a critical challenge facing our nation.

The Deep South Challenge: Changing with our Climate is a multi-disciplinary, collaborative initiative which aims to enable New Zealanders to anticipate, adapt, manage risk and thrive in a changing climate. The Challenge weaves together new research and engagement approaches – including physical science, climate modelling, social science and mātauranga Māori – to achieve meaningful outcomes for Aotearoa New Zealand’s key climate-affected sectors and communities. After a successful first five years, we’re now entering our second research phase (2019–24). The Challenge Manager will play a key role ensuring a smooth transition.Based at NIWA on Wellington’s waterfront, this is a 0.8 FTE, 5 year fixed-term role. You’ll be working alongside key players in New Zealand’s climate change and adaptation arena, as well as internationally renowned climate scientists. For more information, contact the Challenge Director, Dr Mike Williams. Check out the job ad on Seek here, and for the full Job Description and to apply for the job, visit NIWA’s online applications: www.niwa.co.nz/careers

One of our key team members is wrapping up her work with us and moving on to a new challenge (this time with a lower case ‘c’). Lucy Jacob, manager of the Deep South Challenge for the past two and a half years, has secured a role as Oceans Specialist with the World Wildlife Foundation. In this Q&A, we asked Lucy about her time in the Challenge and her plans for the future.

The National Science Challenges are creatures with multiple heads, arms, legs and hearts. What has been the most challenging part of your role as Challenge Manager?

As you say, there are many bodies to satisfy in the Challenge. Keeping on top of the many moving parts, ensuring we meet routine deadlines, constantly striving to improve the way we do things, while still working strategically, has been the biggest challenge. It’s particularly tough, as everyone in the Challenge (including myself) works part time, and people are spread around the country (and in some cases, the world).

I believe in the vision of the National Science Challenges, and in being impact-driven, to ensure science is actually integrated into decision-making. Nevertheless, this is really hard to achieve! It has been wonderful to work with our evolving science leadership and engagement teams, and with researchers and organisations across New Zealand, to try to achieve our vision. I’ve seen real commitment to mission-led science across the National Science Challenges, which are growing in momentum. All this has made the Challenge an exciting thing to be a part of. I will miss the team hugely.

Is there one moment that stands for you as symbolising the Deep South Challenge?

The day that springs to my mind is when I attended a hui in Horowhenua to witness how one research team, funded through our Vision Matauranga programme, had worked with hāpu in this low-lying coastal community to identify their climate adaptation options. This research is truly innovative, in that it combines art, science, mātauranga Maori and landscape architecture. The team had cleaned up a series of disused dairy sheds, from where they presented their remarkable final exhibition. The community was present, and it was truly a privilege to attend. It was made even more remarkable when an ephemeral rainbow rose from the ground nearby.

We have since funded this team for the second phase of their research, which is working with the community to co-develop transition action plans.

After almost three years in the Deep South Challenge, tasked with the mission of supporting New Zealanders to adapt to our changing climate, how has your thinking changed about climate change or climate adaptation?

Prior to working with the Deep South Challenge, my experience of climate change came from working and living on coral reef islands. I was very aware of the risks of warming ocean temperatures and ocean acidification on coral reef habitats etc., and I’d worked a little with coastal communities susceptible to sea level rise.

But working in the Challenge has opened my eyes to the impacts and implications of climate change for urban communities, as well as to the challenge of adapting to an uncertain future while we lack a strong framework for doing so. This is an exciting time to be working in the climate change field, and as the role of the interim climate commission becomes clear, and the government moves forward on plans for a national risk assessment, it’s my hope that adaptation planning will become easier for those at the forefront (for example, coastal dwellers or local governments).

Your background is both in experimental psychology and in marine science – particularly Marine Protected Areas in the Pacific. And you’re returning to your field in your new role as Oceans Specialist with the World Wildlife Fund. Congratulations! What do you think you might bring from the Deep South Challenge into your new job?

My role with the Challenge has given me lots of transferable skills. For example, I now have a great understanding of the NZ science system and of how the multiple parts of government and science interact.

I’ve learnt a lot from the amazing people I’ve worked alongside, from our excellent science leads and engagement experts, to our Governance Group and Independent Science Panel. We have received consistently good advice on how to improve, which has also helped me build my skills and knowledge, including knowledge in earth system modelling, adaptation planning, kaupapa Māori principles, communications and much more!

On top of this, New Zealand is a relatively small place, and although my work in the Challenge hasn’t been much in or around the ocean, I have met lots of people I will keep in touch with in my new role.

Finally, you’ve got two gorgeous young kids. What are your fears or hopes for the world (local or global) they will inherit from their parent’s generation?

I am an optimist, and in some ways, I also think I’m in denial about what the future could hold for my children and grandchildren. I want to believe that they will be lucky enough to have the same experiences I have had.

I grew up with limitless fresh water to drink and bathe in. I’ve been around many oceans and rivers that have generally been healthy enough to support ecosystems and provide special recreational opportunities, although this is changing. My happy place (which is harder to get to now), is diving on a coral reef, schools of fish encircling me and sharks cruising by. It’s still possible to find these places today, but I’m not sure if this will be the case in 30 years’ time.

This is why I feel so passionate about taking my new job. My four year old is keen to come to work with me, as she’s decided she wants to pick up every single piece of plastic, to stop it from entering the ocean. I believe we can change the course we’re on, but that it requires everyone to swim in the same direction (this will make sense if you’ve seen Finding Nemo).

Even though she will be sorely missed, we wish Lucy every success in her new role. We’ll be recruiting for a new Challenge Manager within the next month.

Kia hiwa rā! We’re now seeking funding proposals for climate modelling and observations to support model development. This RfP builds on our Research Strategy, for projects that will begin in our second phase of research, from July 1, 2019:

Climate Modelling

The delivery of projections of New Zealand’s future climate is core to the Deep South Challenge. We make these projections through a series of linked models: the NZ Earth System Model (NZESM), the NZ Regional Climate Model, and hydrological modelling. To understand climate extremes and how they may change, we use large ensembles of climate models (for example, through the Weather@Home framework).

The Deep South Challenge has allocated $4,140,000 (ex GST) over a three-year period (July 1, 2019 – June, 30 2022) to continue delivering our core climate modelling needs. We’re specifically seeking proposals to collectively address the following research topics:

• Production of climate projections for New Zealand using the NZESM
• Research to continue the development of the NZESM
• Projections of the impact of climate change on New Zealand’s hydrological cycle
• Large ensemble modelling to understand changes in climate extremes

Observations for Model Development

In Phase 1, the Deep South Challenge enabled the collection of significant observational datasets, to support both a greater understanding of climate processes and the integration of these understandings into the NZESM. We will now support further research which takes advantage of these datasets, and others collected by international research programmes (for example, satellite datasets). Research funded out of this RfP will increase our understanding of climate processes and support the development of the NZESM.

The Deep South Challenge has allocated $600,000 (ex GST) to fund two to three projects, for a one-year period, from July 1, 2019. We expect these projects will build on Phase 1 research, in the following areas:

• Sea ice
• Clouds and aerosols
• Ocean processes

Submit your Proposal by Friday March 15, 2019

Find out more about this Funding Round at this page of our website. You will also find:

• the full RfP form
• the Funding Proposal form
• Guidance to help you complete the form
• Template Budget and CV documents you’ll need to finish your application.

We encourage you to revisit our Research Strategy here.

Revisit our current or concluded climate modelling and processes & observations research projects.
 

Submit your application by Friday 15 March 2019, by emailing Lucy Jacob: [email protected]

Facing the faraway threat of sea-level rise, responses range from, “Your place, your problem!”, to “Don’t worry, the government will take care of it.” But unless we consider the issue and respond ethically, it’s very likely that the risks of sea-level rise will not be shouldered fairly.

Research recently concluded in the Deep South Challenge: Changing with our Climate has found that without a new legal framework to deal with sea-level rise, based on a broad social consensus, the risk will be transferred from the least to the most vulnerable.

The research report, How should the risks of sea-level rise be shared?, by Elisabeth Ellis from the University of Otago, addresses a key question that emerged from a Deep South Dialogue between insurance companies and researchers: On a principled level, how should the risks of sea level rise be distributed between individuals, insurance, local and central government? Should we choose to view responsibility as individual or collective? And either way, which approach delivers the best and fairest outcomes?

“If we stick with the status quo,” Ellis says, “the way we adjust to sea level rise will exacerbate existing inequality. Nobody in New Zealand wants that,” she continues. “They want policy to be in line with consensus ethical values. They want the government to do what people think is right.”

Ellis and her research team considered two main situations: existing communities that need protection against new or escalating risks, and new, obviously risky developments.

Within our current framework, for existing communities such as low-lying Petone or South Dunedin, “individual members of our most vulnerable communities will bear the burden of risks they could not have foreseen.”

But for new developments, “the government – that is, effectively, everyone – will be expected to cover losses for development that is already predictably risky.”

Ellis and her research team found that, “The most important immediate step New Zealand can take toward an ethically robust sea-level rise policy is to bring certainty and consistency into the legislative framework.” Central government should resource adaptation to sea-level rise nationwide, so that community resilience does not vary with the ratepayers’ ability to pay. And at a local level, the public should be engaged “as early and deeply as possible” in these important decisions about their lives.

The report makes three key recommendations:

• New Zealand must bring certainty and consistency to the regulatory framework governing adaptation policy, in order to end the “collective action” problem and the transfer of risk to the most vulnerable.
• Adaptation funding must address both spatial and temporal inequalities, so that we don’t transfer risk to the most vulnerable, whether that vulnerability is due to ratepayer capacity, membership in future generations, or some other factor.
• Policy pathways planning must include regular, ethical evaluation of both processes and outcomes. Monitoring is necessary to prevent unintended consequences of otherwise egalitarian and inclusive procedures, such as the regional loss of accessible beaches due to uncoordinated local engineering solutions.

Ellis also noted that research gaps remain and must be filled. Given the disproportionate stake members of younger generations have in the success of climate change adaptation policies, it is critical to engage young people in the policymaking process: How can the New Zealand climate adaptation policy process engage more substantially with young people?

Finally, while Ellis’s research focussed on the general, consensus ethical values of equality and agency, more research is needed in two ethical values specific to New Zealand. First, What do New Zealanders think about ethical tradeoffs, like the tradeoff between solidarity and moral hazard, and how are their ethical views different from people in other places? And second, How are New Zealanders’ views on the ethics of climate change adaptation policy changing as they themselves experience sea-level rise and its consequences? For more details and the final report, visit the project page here.

In the specialised world of New Zealand climate modelling, contributing to the Unified Model, run by the UK Met Office, is the ultimate success story.

New Zealand researchers have recently contributed two such “tickets” to improve the Unified Model code, and are in the process of contributing two more, an unprecedented success from the smallest country in the UK Met Office club.  

We spoke to NIWA researchers Fraser Dennison and Olaf Morgenstern about what this means both for global climate modelling and for New Zealand’s ability to better predict our “local” southern ocean climate.

First things first, what is a “ticket,” and why are we so excited about it?

Fraser: A “ticket” refers to any incremental change to the UK’s Unified Model. Any change to the model code – from the fixing of a minor bug to a major change in the model science – has a ticket attached, in order to keep track of the changes and for quality control. For significant scientific changes (such as our work), a ticket includes a description of the change, some evidence from model test runs illustrating the impact of the change, and a checklist to make sure the change doesn’t unintentionally break another aspect of the model.

Olaf: Technically, the Unified Model is the name for the atmosphere component of our model. NIWA has been using it for 20 years – under licence from the UK Met Office, for weather forecasting and climate studies. These days, the United Model is supported by a consortium of six “tier-1” member states (represented by meteorological services or research institutes) and a couple of “tier-2” players like the US Air Force. As a rule, all tier-1 members (including New Zealand) should contribute to model development, but in practice almost all model development has occurred in Britain. So New Zealand’s recent contribution is a little out of the ordinary.

Other countries in the club include South Korea, India, South Africa and Australia. Their level of contribution doesn’t necessarily relate to their size. Australia, for example, has a lot more Unified Model users than us, but their contribution to its development isn’t proportionally bigger than ours, because they focus on developing their own model, which requires a large effort to sustain.

The UK Met Office, which leads and coordinates this global collaboration effort, is forever trying to increase the value of the partnership to all its users. We in New Zealand don’t aim to have our own, fully independent model, which means we can focus more on contributing improvements. This gives us a disproportionate standing in the consortium. We’re targeting our model development efforts in areas that are critical to climate projections for New Zealand: Southern Ocean clouds, Antarctic ozone depletion, Antarctic bottom-water formation and sea ice. And yes, we’re making progress in all of these areas.

For a ticket to be accepted, it has to meet a range of criteria, including:

• Scientific suitability. Does the science stack up? Is it beneficial, or at least neutral, in all configurations of the model (which cover both weather and climate modelling)?
• Technical suitability. Even if a change is scientifically desirable, is it too expensive to run? In this case, it may be accepted, but won’t necessarily be active in operational versions.

Why is it so important for New Zealand to participate in the international global climate modelling community?

Olaf: Generally speaking, all the low-hanging fruit in climate modelling have been picked. Model improvement is becoming ever more complex and demands a bigger and bigger effort. Against this backdrop, the UK Met Office decided some time ago to turn the Unified Model into a multi-institutional and international research collaboration as the model had outgrown their own resources. The collaboration gives us an opportunity to get involved in climate modelling and to pursue our own, unique research agenda, without meeting the size requirements that would otherwise be prohibitive. For the Deep South Challenge, it means we can live up to our ambition to produce climate simulations that are better than what we’ve got at the moment. This is only possible because we are in this international partnership.  

Fraser: The goal of the stratospheric chemistry project is to improve the  simulation of ozone in global climate models – which we’ve been doing successfully. This is important globally, but it’s most important in the Southern Hemisphere, where the “ozone hole” plays a large role in controlling the climate. Even though ozone depletion occurs up in the stratosphere, it has effects (via complicated atmospheric processes) on surface climate in Antarctica and around the “mid-latitudes” – that is, Australia, New Zealand and South America. In New Zealand, for example, you can link stratospheric ozone depletion with less rainfall along the west coast.

Olaf: Overall, this collaboration means that our own NZ Earth System Model actually remains very closely tied to the UK Earth System Model. Sometimes, for Deep South Challenge purposes, we may choose to use a model configuration that differs in some way from the UKESM, but these differences are superficial. It’s important to understand our relationship with the global modelling effort. We’re not going it alone, and that’s great – for New Zealand, and for the international community.

Olaf and Fraser would also like to acknowledge NIWA’s Vidya Varma, who is very active in model development.

Interview by Lorraine Taylor.