Keynote Speakers

Debbie Tiako

Director NZILA Registered Landscape Architect

Tuia Design 

Debbie Tikao is the President and Chairperson of Tuia Pito Ora New Zealand Institute of Landscape Architects, the director of Tipu Design, and the manager of the Environmental Portfolio for Ōnuku Rūnanga. She is a panelist on the Christchurch City Council Urban Design Panel and is leading the process of developing a mountains-to-sea management and climate change adaptation and mitigation plan for Akaroa Harbour.

For 7.5 years she was the General Manager of Matapopore. During this time Debbie worked closely with local and central government to ensure post-earthquake Christchurch embedded the values and stories of mana whenua and emerged as a 21^st-century city rich with meaning and character, expressing our dual histories and treaty partnership.

Dr Leanne Morgan

Associate Professor 

The University of Canterbury

Dr Leanne Morgan is an Associate Professor at University of Canterbury, where she teaches groundwater hydrology at undergraduate and postgraduate level, and supervises Master’s and PhD research students. She is interested in understanding how hydrologic systems function, specifically the groundwater component. Her research areas include groundwater dynamics in coastal regions and groundwater - surface water interaction. She characterise field systems using various methods and parameters including pressure, conductivity and natural tracers. She tests processes and performs sensitivity analyses using analytic, numeric and physical modelling. She is Associate Editor for Journal of Hydrology Regional Studies and Hydrogeology Journal, and regularly reviews for several international journals.

She is also a Principal Investigator on the following MBIE Endeavour research programs:

• Subsurface processes in braided rivers - hyporheic exchange and leakage to groundwater (2019 - 2024)
• Transforming coastal lowland systems threatened by sea-level rise into prosperous communities (2021 - 2026)

Leanne will be providing a keynote talk on the impacts of sea-level rise on coastal groundwater.