Landloch Staff

Dr Rob Loch, B.Agr.Sc., B.A., Ph.D., CPSS
Principal Consultant, Director

Rob has over 30 years experience in the research and application of land management, soil conservation, and land rehabilitation, both nationally and internationally. His experience encompasses dryland and irrigated agriculture, feedlots, forest management, effluent disposal, and minesites. He has particular expertise in the measurement and modelling of soil erosion and sediment movement, in the management of soil profile productivity, and in soil remediation. His achievements include development of new methods for assessing erodibility of Australian soils, for measuring sediment properties, and for assessing soil properties that determine infiltration rates of rainfall. His current research interests include:

• the erodibility of rocky materials;
• the identification and management of dispersive mine spoils;
• methods for assessment of gully stability/stabilisation.

His work has been distinctive for its emphasis on the need to consider erosion processes, particularly in identifying causes of instability and potential methods for site stabilisation.

He has published over 100 technical articles, including over 50 in refereed scientific journals. He is an Honorary Research Fellow of the University of Southern Queensland.

Cameron Vacher, B.E. (Civil), Grad. Cert. (Mineral Resources), CID (ASP2104)
Environmental Consultant, Director

Cam has extensive experience with computer modelling of erosion and assessment of soil erodibility, and in the identification and management of dispersive mine spoils. He has considerable experience with rehabilitation monitoring, including use of Ecosystem Function Analysis, digital photogrammetry, Landloch’s Geomorphic Gully Assessment System and instrumented runoff/erosion plots to monitor long-term stability of rehabilitation areas.

His previous experience has included irrigation design and software support and he is a current Certified Irrigation Designer (Agricultural Sprinklers ASP2104) — 2001.

Evan Howard, B. Eng. (Environmental)
Environmental Consultant, Director

Evan is based in Landloch’s Perth office, and has particular interests in soil and spoil characteristics, computer modelling of erosion, land stability assessments, water use efficiency and wastewater reuse.

He has experience in characterisation of soils and spoil materials for a wide range of sites across Australia. He has been responsible for the collection and analysis of erodibility data using both laboratory-based and field-based methods.

Evan has been involved in the field of water use efficiency for irrigated agriculture and has performed water balance studies on a wide range of distribution and irrigation systems. He has worked with the latest technologies used to measure all facets of water balances, including flow meters, weather stations, water storage depth sensors, storage evaporation measurement devices, and soil water infiltration and deep drainage sensors.

He also has experience in modelling soil, water, and solute balances from numerous soil/vegetation systems under a range of management conditions. Previously, Evan has been involved in research into urban water reuse options including grey water recycling and sustainable effluent disposal systems. Evan is also a Certified Landscape Irrigation Auditor.

Tim Loch, Cert. III (Horticulture)
Technical Services Manager

Tim Loch is responsible for equipment construction, including construction of runoff and erosion measurement and sediment control products, rainfall simulators and ancillaries, and flumes. He is responsible for installation and maintenance of field equipment.

His work includes field and laboratory erosion assessments (flume and rainfall simulator measurements, plot construction, sample analysis). He has been involved in rainfall simulator studies on minesites in South Africa and New Caledonia, Queensland, Western Australia, and the Northern Territory; in agricultural and manufacturing areas in Queensland; and a range of other field measurements on sites in Queensland and New South Wales.

Tim operates Landloch’s dozer-mounted seeder, and has qualifications in weed spraying and chainsaw operation.

He is also involved in Landloch’s soil sampling activities, and Ecosystem Function Analysis (EFA) monitoring.

Helen Squires, B.Sc (Soil Science), M.Env.Mgt (GIS)
Environmental Consultant

Helen has specialist skills in land management assessment, soil and landscape surveying, and mapping and statistical analysis of environmental data using a variety of GIS software. Her experience includes soil, vegetation, and water surveying, land quality assessments for development proposals and agronomic property plans, and the development of land assessment and rehabilitation plans. She is currently involved research projects investigating erosion and landform design issues for the turf and mining industries, and the use of flocculants in mitigating impacts associated with off-site sediment movement that will benefit both the council involved and the construction industry.