Biography 

Dr Mark Graham is an aquatic ecologist with 30 years’ experience in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem functioning and management. Marks’ early career started at Umgeni Water, where he had extensive involvement in the management and development of an ISO 17025 quality accredited laboratory and the National River Health Programme – Quality Assurance programme. Mark then made a move to professional consulting in starting GroundTruth, Water, Wetlands, Biodiversity and Environmental Engineering. Over the years Mark has provided specialist input on numerous projects for national and international corporations and government departments, developing innovative solutions to a range of practical and applied environmental and water-related issues. Furthermore, Mark is actively involved in the leading of water resources research on numerous research projects for the Water Research Commission and the Department of Water and Sanitation, having co-developed numerous of the published assessment tools and EcoStatus models currently used in South Africa (e.g. SASS5, IHI, VEGRAI, MIRAI). He is a registered professional natural scientist (Pr Sci Nat), a Fellow of the Water Institute of SA (FWISA) and the regional SASS5 quality assurance auditor appointed by the Department of Water and Sanitation. Mark plays an active role in promoting and developing citizen science within the water sector of South Africa, with an aim to empowering and educating the public to collectively improve the state of our water resources.