New Zealand Hydrological Society –2016 Technical Workshop, Gisborne, North Island.

The New Zealand Hydrological Society recently held its annual Technical Workshop at Gisborne on the North Island of New Zealand. The workshop also incorporated an ADCP Regatta.

The workshop theme was “Meeting Changing Expectations (technology, data outputs, health and safety)”.

Over 80 field hydrologists from Regional Councils, power utilities, private consultancies and university/research teams participated in the workshop with seventy of those participating/ observing the Regatta day. Participants weren’t just Kiwis but included the US, Canadian, French and Australian participants.

The Regatta was held on the Waimata River approximately 10 minutes from Gisborne Town Centre. The river reach provided a variety of good to poor options from a discharge measurement point of view resulting in an interesting range of results.

While the site provided difficulties for good flow measurement sections (weed, rocky, uneven) this in turn generated quite robust discussions about something more important than how expensive your bit of kit is – and that is, understanding the primary importance of site selection and recognising the limitations of the technology or technique you are using!