Rachel Teen

Lecturer Water Governance (post-graduate), Water Resource Management (undergraduate).

PhD (submitted) How do urban water managers strategise toward sustainability transitions?

Masters in Water Resource Management (Lincoln University)

Masters in Business Administration (University College Dublin)

Bachelor of Arts in Education (University of Canterbury)

I am interested in the ways institutions strategise and make decisions that drive (or inhibit) transitions toward more sustainable ways of managing water.

This is an exciting and challenging time to be researching and teaching about ways society intersects with the water system. My past career experiences working in the private and public sectors motivate me to learn more about systemic reforms and ways to advance public policy.

My research areas include urban water governance, sustainability transitions, institutional theories, and strategic practices within water management organisations.

Having recently submitted my PhD, I aim to continue my social-ecological-technical systems (SETs) research by investigating and documenting the motivations or inhibitions of urban strategists and decision-makers in settler-colonial cities. Understanding how SETs influence regime-level decision-makers and strategists will assist in more rapidly transitioning toward more sustainable urban environments.

Publication:
Disruption as opportunity for transformation? Insights from water supply contamination in Havelock North, New Zealand (2020).

Water-borne illnesses in Aotearoa New Zealand - past, present, future (2024) OPM-Chief Science Advisor Fellowship

Working papers:
Teen, R. (in prep) Urban water management biographies of two Australasian cities.

I lecture (teaching and admin) in the following Waterways papers:

WATR201 Freshwater Resources

WATR301 Water Resource Management

GEOG309 Research for Resilient Environments and Communities

WATR411 Water Governance