Studying at the University of Birmingham, my Human Geography degree became in-part defined by my interest in and pursuit of post/decolonial studies. These are fields that de-centre and challenge Western colonial knowledges and power structures, instead centring traditional knowledges. For me, the specific and intentional dismissal of traditional knowledge from the scientific and academic sphere is something that needs to be combated. This is where DAWN drew me in: the intentional and explicit inclusion of traditional knowledge, something that has never been done in irrigation modelling.

In the project with DAWN, I will create a series of irrigation models that include such traditional knowledges. These models will represent an outcome of what happens when scientific and traditional irrigation knowledges are activated within irrigation modelling, both independently and when merged together, and the researcher decisions that led to that outcome. To assess this outcome, I will conduct uncertainty and sensitivity analysis on each of the models to understand what variables and decisions shape and impact the models, with such assessments able to provide more nuanced understandings on the structure of irrigation models, how traditional irrigation knowledge can be included, and how irrigation models themselves can be simplified.