Kirstie's work focuses on fluvial geomorphology and river management. She researches the structure and function of rivers, how they adjust and evolve, how they have been impacted by anthropogenic disturbance and how to best use geomorphology in river conservation, recovery and rehabilitation. She also researches how catchment sediment budgets and (dis)connectivity operate and how rivers and catchments may respond to future disturbances, particularly floods and droughts.

She is probably best known as the co-developer of the River Styles Framework and portfolio of professional development short courses (see www.riverstyles.com). The River Styles Framework is a geomorphic approach for the analysis of rivers that includes assessment of river type and behaviour, physical condition and recovery potential. These analyses are used to develop prioritisation and decision support systems in river management practice. Uptake of the River Styles Framework has now occurred in many places on six continents.

Kirstie has strong domestic and international collaborations in both academia and industry. She has worked for many years on various river science and management projects as part of multi-disciplinary, collaborative teams that include ecologists, hydrologists, social scientists, practitioners and citizens. 

Kirstie has also been lucky enough to work in Antarctica for two summer seasons, undertaking research on heavy metal contamination at Casey and Wilkes stations.

Kirstie has published over 150 journal articles and co-written and co-edited three books titled "Geomorphology and River Management" (Blackwell, 2005), "River Futures" (Island Press, 2008) and "Geomorphic Analysis of River Systems: An Approach to Reading the Landscape" (Wiley, 2013).

Kirstie holds several research, teaching and postgraduate supervision awards including the international Gordon Warwick medal for excellence in research.

Kirstie is also a Certified Environmental Practitioner in geomorphology, CEnvP(geomorphology), www.cenvp.org.

Kirstie is an active member of the Future Ecosystems Research Network (FERN) and the Australian Harmony Centre for Ecosystem Futures at Macquarie University.

Kirstie currently teaches in the Earth and Environmental Sciences, and Environmental Management programs. She also teaches microcredential units (MQMC) for industry. Units include:

ENVS3439* - Fluvial geomorphology and river management

ENVS3462* - Environmental Management

MQMC0000* - Geomorphic analysis of rivers (see link here)

MQMC0001* - Use of geomorphology in river management (see link here)

*= convenor

Kirstie has supervised dozens of PhD, Masters and Honours students to completion. Research topics have covered areas such as: post-colonisation geomorphic river change, geomorphic condition and recovery potential, river sensitivity and resilience, sediment budgets and (dis)connectivity, geomorphic effectiveness, flood hydrology and natural flood management, best practice river rehabilitation techniques, applications of the River Styles Framework, Holocene river evolution, upland swamp and chain-of-ponds geomorphology and hydrology, riparian seedbanks, riparian vegetation quality and management, freshwater ecology, cost:benefit analysis of recovery-based river management, socio-geomorphology, nature-based solutions, use of geomorphology in river management........etc.

Kirstie also co-supervises research with ecologists, hydrologists, social scientists and industry practitioners on interdisciplinary and applied topics.