The Drought Resilience Interdisciplinary Network
The Drought Resilience Interdisciplinary Network, ‘DRI-Net’, brings together researchers across academic disciplines involved in all aspects of drought resilience research. DRI-Net will foster innovative and collaborative research, whilst connecting academics with key stakeholders including landholders, community organisations, industry and government. DRI-Net researchers will receive regular updates about drought resilience research, funding and training opportunities and events through a shared communication platform disseminated via the Vic Drought Hub so that research outputs result in real on-the-ground impacts.
DRI-Net will be launched at Drought Resilience 2025 and DRI-Net members will have the opportunity to take part in special networking and career-development opportunities at the conference.
More information about DRI-Net and the opportunity to join the network will be available soon. To get updates about DRI-Net in the meantime, sign up to our mailing list, below.
Featured Researcher
Udara Induruwage Don
Udara is a PhD candidate in the School of Life and Environmental Sciences at Deakin University, with research interests in hydrology, hydrogeochemistry, soil erosion, and water resource management.
Udara's doctoral research contributes to the project “Plugging Leaky Landscapes: Turnip Creek Catchment Rehydration” in Badaginnie, Victoria, in collaboration with Bush Heritage Australia. He is investigating how selected landscape rehydration interventions such as contour ripping, improved vegetative cover, and deep-rooted pasture mixes with rotational grazing can enhance catchment water retention and pasture productivity. To support this, Udara is developing a multi-criteria decision-making framework to guide the selection of interventions suited to different catchment conditions. Using predictive modelling, he assess the impacts of landscape rehydration interventions on water yield, with a focus on reducing overland flow and enhancing subsurface flow.
In parallel, Udara is conducting a field experiment to monitor the real-world effects of these interventions on soil moisture, soil properties, and pasture health. This integrated approach combines modelling and field data to deliver practical, evidence-based, and scalable solutions for restoring degraded catchments and strengthening ecosystem resilience.
Udara's experience includes GIS-based catchment water yield modelling, soil erosion modelling, and carbon sequestration modelling, as well as field experimentation, soil monitoring, and pasture monitoring. He welcome opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration on drought-related challenges and knowledge exchange across research and practice.
For his excellent presentation at Drought Resilience 2025, Udara won the Victoria Drought Resilience Adoption & Innovation Hub's Gippsland Node Priority Reasearch Area Award for Sustainable Landscapes, which will enable him to work in collaboration with Food and Fibre Gippsland to support Drought Resilience in South-Eastern Victoria.
