Associate Professor Anthony Kiem

Dr Anthony Kiem's research focus is on understanding the drivers and impacts of climate variability and change in the Asia-Pacific region. Of particular interest are hydrological extremes and how these may change in the future. Anthony has extensive experience in characterising impacts of climate variability and change, seasonal/interannual forecasting, extreme event (e.g. flood, drought, bushfire etc.) risk analysis, hydrological modelling, stochastic modelling, and water resources management.

Anthony has also been involved in a wide range of consulting projects where insights into the impacts of climate variability and change are used to enable stakeholders from a range of public and private sector organisations to better assess their climate related risk and to develop more informed climate adaptation and mitigation strategies.

Stay up to date with Anthony's activities via the Centre for Water, Climate and Land (CWCL) Facebook page.

 
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

• Nov 2016 - present: Associate Professor - Hydroclimatology, Centre for Water, Climate and Land (CWCL), School of Environmental and Life Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Newcastle, Australia.
• Jan 2015 - present: Program Advisor (Education and International Exchange) for Interdisciplinary Centre for River Basin Environment (ICRE), Uni. of Yamanashi, Japan.
• Oct 2014 - present: Visiting Professor (~1 month per year), College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University, China.
• Nov 2012 - Nov 2016: Hydroclimatologist/Senior Lecturer, Centre for Water, Climate and Land (CWCL), School of Environmental and Life Sciences, Faculty of Science and IT, University of Newcastle, Australia.
• Nov 2008 - Nov 2012: Hydroclimatologist/Lecturer, Environmental and Climate Change Research Group (ECCRG), School of Environmental and Life Sciences, Faculty of Science and IT, University of Newcastle, Australia.
• July 2006 - Nov 2008: Hydroclimatologist, Sinclair Knight Merz (SKM), Melbourne, Australia.
• Nov 2003 - June 2006: Postdoctoral researcher, Hydrology and Environmental Engineering, Takeuchi-Ishidaira Lab, University of Yamanashi, Japan.
• May 2003 – Oct 2003:Regional Operations, NSW Environmental Protection Authority, Australia.
• Mar 1999 - May 2003: PhD researcher, Hydrology and Environmental Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Newcastle, Australia.

 
AWARDS, FELLOWSHIPS, HONOURS

Awards

• 12/2016: Institution of Engineers Australia, 2016 GN Alexander Medal for the best paper in hydrology and/or water resources published between Jun 2015 and Dec 2016. (Ho, Kiem and Verdon-Kidd (2015): Droughts and pluvials in the Murray-Darling Basin over the past two and a half millennia. Proc. 36th Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium, Hobart, Australia, 7-10 December 2015. Proc. 36^th Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium held in Hobart, Australia from 8-10 Dec 2015.
• 03/2015: 2014 Outstanding Reviewer for Journal of Hydrologic Engineering (American Society of Civil Engineers).
• 11/2014: Lead supervisor for successful awardee (Michelle Ho) of UON Faculty of Science and IT 2014 Award for Outstanding Postgraduate (Research) Student Achievement.
• 12/2013: University of Newcastle Faculty of Science & IT Academic Team of the Year Award for Geographic Information Systems (GIS) teaching – Anthony Kiem was Team Leader and Course Coordinator.
• 06/2011: Institution of Engineers Australia, 2011 GN Alexander Medal for the best paper in hydrology and/or water resources published between Dec 2009 and Jun 2011. (Verdon-Kidd and Kiem (2009): Relationship between large-scale climate drivers and Victorian rainfall variability – why was the last decade so dry? Proc. H2009 (32nd Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium) held in Newcastle, Australia from 30 Nov-3 Dec 2009.
• 07/2004: Awarded 3,000,000Yen (approx. $AU40,000) “Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research” by Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science & Technology (MEXT).

Fellowships

• 10/2016: University of Newcastle Faculty of Science Visiting Fellowship Grant 2016 ($10,000): Academic exchange visit to College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University, China.
• 07/2013: Australia-China Science and Research Fund (ACSRF): Young Scientists Exchange Program – $10,000 for Research Visit to China in September/October 2013.
• 04/2013: Research Fellowship ($6,400) to the International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management (ICHARM) from Australian Academy of Science Scientific Visits to Japan program (2013-2014).
• 11/2003: Two year postdoctoral research fellowship (approx. $AU180,000) in Japan from the ‘Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) - Australian Academy of Science Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme’.

• 08/2016: Invited speaker at Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre (ACE CRC) Symposium 2016 – Ice core data for Australian climate reconstructions: Hydrological risk management applications.
• 02/2016: Expert speaker at Victoria’s Dept. of Environment, Land, Water & Planning workshop to develop guidelines for dealing with impacts of climate variability and change on water supplies in Victoria.
• 11/2015: Expert speaker on “Rare but high impact hydroclimatic extremes - What if rare is common and extreme is moderate? What if planning for the worst flood/drought on record is not enough?” at Engineers Australia’s Newcastle Civil/Structural Branch AGM.
• 04/2015: Keynote speaker at the 7^th World Water Forum held in Korea. Talk was on “Advances in Drought Analysis Tools”.
• 10/2014: Expert speaker for a series of 3 x 3 hour lectures over 5 days on hydrology, water resources, climate variability and climate change at Beijing Normal University, China.
• 09/2014: Keynote speaker at the 17^th International Riversymposium held in Canberra. Talk was on “How and why hydrological risk changes over time – climate change is only part of the story”.
• 07/2013: Expert speaker on “Decision making under uncertainty” at Melbourne Water Industry Climate Change Committee (MWICCC) one day workshop on “Climate change and the Melbourne water industry”.
• 12/2012: Expert speaker on “Australian flood risk and natural variability” at Engineers Australia’s Newcastle Civil/Structural Branch AGM.
• 10/2011: Expert speaker at Victorian Bar monthly seminar series in Melbourne. Talk was on “The Science of Climate Change: How do the Models work? What are the latest projections and associated uncertainties?”.
• 11/2009: American Geophysical Union “Journal Highlight” (Verdon-Kidd and Kiem (2009): Nature and causes of protracted droughts in Southeast Australia - Comparison between the Federation, WWII and Big Dry droughts, Geophysical Research Letters, 36, L22707).
• 08/2008: Invited speaker – “H07: Hydroclimatic variability and change” session at the 2008 Western Pacific Geophysics Meeting (AGU), Cairns, Australia.
• 11/2006: Invited speaker – “Future hydroclimatology of the Mekong River basin under climate change” at the 2^nd International Young Scientists’ Global Change Conference, Beijing International Convention Centre, Beijing, China.
• 10/2004: Invited speaker – “ENSO links to flood risk in eastern Australia and the Mekong River basin” at the Climate Variability and Climate Change Workshop, Research Institute for Humanity and Nature, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
• 04/2003: American Geophysical Union “Journal Highlight” (Kiem, Franks and Kuczera (2003): Multi-decadal variability of flood risk, Geophysical Research Letters, 30(2), doi:10.1029/2002GL015992).

 
RESEARCH EXPERTISE

• Climatology, hydrology, climate variability and climate change in the Asia-Pacific region
• Extensive experience in understanding the multi-temporal drivers of Australia's climate and characterising their associated impacts
• Climate forecasting on seasonal, annual, multi-year and multi-decadal timescales
• Experienced in quantifying extreme event (e.g. flood, drought, bushfire) risk and vulnerability
• Experienced in analysing and interpreting climate model output and utilising this information, combined with spatial and temporal downscaling techniques, to assess possible regional (and large-scale) impacts of climate change
• Experienced in stochastic data generation and familiar with a variety of different approaches
• Have utilised a variety of different hydrological models including the University of Yamanashi Distributed Hydrological Model (YHyM) (which I was also a developer of), TOPMODEL, VIC, REALM, IQQM
• Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS)
• Experienced in handling large datasets, meeting deadlines, working on several projects at one time, and presenting/communicating results and information (orally and in writing)
• Knowledge of the Victorian, New South Wales, Australian Capital Territory and Queensland water supply reservoir operations, drought/flood management procedures and experienced in working with similar organisations

 
TEACHING EXPERTISE

• Climatology and hydrology
• Understand and modelling the causes and impacts of climate variability and climate change
• Extreme event risk quantification
• Statistics and stochastic modelling
• Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS)
  

 
ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERTISE

• Project management
• Student supervision

 
COLLABORATIONS

• Centre for Water, Climate and Land (CWCL)
  
• Interdisciplinary Centre for River Basin Environment (ICRE), Japan
• Australian Water Partnership (AWP)
• College of Water Sciences, Beijing Normal University, China
• Australian Energy and Water Exchange (OzEWEX) research initiative
• American Geophysical Union (AGU)
• International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS)
• European Geosciences Union (EGU)
• Australian Meteorological and Oceanographic Society (AMOS)
• Asia Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS)
• Asia Pacific Association of Hydrology and Water Resources (APHW)
• UNESCO International Hydrological Programme (IHP) International Drought Initiative (IDI)