University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension, Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources

September 8, 2006

Australian drought expert to speak at UNL Sept. 14

An Australian drought expert will speak Sept. 14 at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln about her country's experience with drought.

Linda Botterill of the Research School of Social Sciences at the Australian National University in Canberra will give a free public lecture titled "Australia's National Drought Policy: Promise, Problems and Prospects." The talk will be at 3 p.m. at UNL's East Union. Botterill will discuss the importance of monitoring drought and allocating scarce water supplies.

Botterill is a regular commentator on drought policy for Australian media. Australia is consistently the driest inhabited continent on the planet and, "like parts of the western United States, regions of Australia have experienced several consecutive years of severe drought," said Don Wilhite, director of the UNL-based National Drought Mitigation Center. Botterill also has extensive experience in public policy development in the Australian Public Service, as a ministerial adviser and as a policy officer in two industry associations.

Her research focuses on public policy development and on the role of values and expertise in the policy process. Besides drought policy, her main research areas are rural and regional policy and food regulation. Her UNL presentation is part of an ongoing collaboration with the drought mitigation center, which is part of UNL's School of Natural Resources and Institute for Agriculture and Natural Resources.

Botterill also will speak at the Geological Society of America conference in Longmont, Colo., Sept. 18-20, an event organized by Wilhite. For more information, please visit the conference Web site: http://www.geosociety.org/meetings/06drought.

For more information contact Ann Fiedler, (402) 472-6707, or Kelly Smith, (402) 472-3373, at the National Drought Mitigation Center at UNL.

Kelly Smith
Science Communicator, National Drought Mitigation Center

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