Dr Mark Pearse

Principal Hydrologist

Mark is a principal hydrologist with HARC with over 20 years’ experience in hydrology and water resources. His passion has been working on dams with an emphasis on assisting dam owners to develop and manage their portfolio of dams through understanding key factors that drive their risk profile including flood loading, spillway adequacy, dam break modelling and loss of life assessment. He has worked on over 80 dams across Australia. More broadly, Mark has expertise in a variety of fields including flood modelling, hydraulic modelling, water resources, extreme rainfall estimation, data analysis and risk assessment.

Mark was funded by ANCOLD/AWRRC to research the likelihood of extreme rainfall and flood events in Australia. That research has been applied and extended for use in risk based assessment for dams across Australia and Mark continues to serve dam owners across Australia.

Mark has previously worked with SKM (now Jacobs), SMEC Victoria, Monash University (Civil Engineering) and as a research consultant to the Bureau of Meteorology.

Previously, Mark was responsible for developing a hydrology group, and continues to develop and mentor staff. He enjoys working on technically challenging tasks that deliver high value to clients and the broader community. He is appreciated for his capacity to communicate technical outcomes in ways that clients and stakeholders can readily comprehend.