Leigh Smith
Leigh is a Principal Scientist who leads the Waterways and Ecology discipline.
He offers a breadth of expertise in the investigation, mapping, monitoring and management of waterways, (rivers, wetlands, and estuaries), and other types of natural assets; gained across 25 years working in the Victorian water industry. He has technical knowledge and skills in the realms of fluvial geomorphology, remote sensing and GIS, and river health.
He has complementary skills in leadership, program development and implementation, project management, mentoring and coaching, stakeholder engagement and collaboration.
At Water Technology, Leigh works collaboratively with clients to ensure technical deliverables and reports meet their needs and support improved understanding and enable decision-making. He enjoys tackling conceptually complex problems by working together in a logical and creative way to develop straightforward solutions.
Leigh has a good understanding of client needs in the public sector, having worked at Melbourne Water for 17 years in various technical and leadership roles spanning the river health, development planning and asset management parts of the business. Prior to that, he worked for Glenelg Hopkins CMA in their river health team for 3 years. His time client side has taught him the importance of being provided with reliable and actionable advice.
At Melbourne Water, Leigh was instrumental in the development and application of a novel approach for embedding asset management principles and practice into waterway management. This cross-business model now forms the foundation of Melbourne Water’s investment planning and risk-based prioritisation of capital projects and maintenance works addressing multiple aspects of waterway condition and value.
Leigh continues to expand his professional development and has most recently completed a Grad Cert in Spatial Science at the University of Newcastle, NSW, focused on advanced remote sensing and GIS. At Water Technology, he frequently applies these remote sensing techniques to vegetation type and extent mapping, and time series change analyses in coastal, estuarine and wetland environments.
