Crikey Creek is a tributary of the Haast River on the West Coast, New Zealand. It is also a blog about the water cycle, its surprising patterns, and how its gears mesh with societies’. Water has shaped the landscapes around us, the organisms that cover them, and the societies we make up. It is our most important natural resource, and yet it can be a very polarising subject. Enter Crikey Creek – the local watering hole for conversations about the science of water. The introductory post sets the scene.

Daniel Collins is a hydrologist at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA)*. If it didn’t rain, he’d be out of a job. As a scientist, he juggles his curiosity about how the world works with his drive to make the world work a little bit better. His PhD at MIT was spent contemplating how plants shape landforms and how hydrology shapes plants. A postdoc in Wisconsin taught him about catchment biogeochemistry and home insulation. And while in Uganda, he ditched the insulation to apply science in the interest of rural water resource resilience. Back in New Zealand, his attention is directed towards ecohydrology, sustainable water resources management and the lack of home insulation.

* The views expressed on this blog are those of the author and do not reflect the views of NIWA.