Ian Lawrence ‘The place of home gardens in a sustainable world’

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Thursday, 28 June 2012 - 12:30pm

 

Ian Lawrence is an environmental engineer, planner and scientist with 50 years’ experience in planning, assessment and management of water resources in Australia and South East Asia. He is currently a Senior Research Fellow with the Cooperative Research Centre for eWater, Canberra.
 
Recognising that residential gardens are a key element of open space and water management systems across urban areas generally, and particularly in Canberra, Ian and his wife Helen decided in 2000 that it was time to re-develop their garden to be more sustainable, and to contribute to a limited set of ‘waterwise’ gardens available at that time, to raise awareness regarding sustainability and alternative landscaping opportunities.
 
Ian’s interest in exploring the application of ‘waterwise’ principles to a residential garden arose from a professional role nationally and internationally in changing the way in which we manage water in urban areas, with particular emphasis on the detention, harvesting and management of rainwater across urban areas, and the need to move away from pipe-based drainage systems.