Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE220100907
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$434,107.00
Summary
Tracking groundwater variations via 4-dimensional seismic imaging. This project aims to develop an advanced seismic framework to sense subtle subsurface changes related to groundwater variations beneath the Great Artesian Basin. Groundwater storage is subject to climatic and anthropogenic forcing, but modern monitoring tools are not sufficient to capture its detailed response in both time and space. Using novel techniques and extensive seismic recordings, this project expects to generate time-la ....Tracking groundwater variations via 4-dimensional seismic imaging. This project aims to develop an advanced seismic framework to sense subtle subsurface changes related to groundwater variations beneath the Great Artesian Basin. Groundwater storage is subject to climatic and anthropogenic forcing, but modern monitoring tools are not sufficient to capture its detailed response in both time and space. Using novel techniques and extensive seismic recordings, this project expects to generate time-lapse images across the basin in unprecedented resolution to reveal the system's dynamic evolution and a static basin model to aid the interpretation. Potential benefits include improved geophysical techniques for groundwater tracking and enhanced scientific understandings to underpin future groundwater management.Read moreRead less
Effect of faults and barriers on groundwater flow and solute transport. This project will address the role of faults and dykes on groundwater flow and solute transport. Faults and dykes can act as barriers to groundwater flow, yet faults can also be conduits for flow through otherwise impermeable layers. Understanding their role is critical to assessing the impacts of mining, unconventional gas and water resource developments. This project expects to develop new methods to quantify groundwater f ....Effect of faults and barriers on groundwater flow and solute transport. This project will address the role of faults and dykes on groundwater flow and solute transport. Faults and dykes can act as barriers to groundwater flow, yet faults can also be conduits for flow through otherwise impermeable layers. Understanding their role is critical to assessing the impacts of mining, unconventional gas and water resource developments. This project expects to develop new methods to quantify groundwater flow through and along faults and dykes by combining geological, hydraulic and geochemical approaches with detailed 3D numerical models. The expected outcome will be an improved understanding of the role of faults and barriers in subsurface hydrology, and an improved ability to model complex groundwater systems.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE140100088
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$150,000.00
Summary
A coupled high temperature elemental analyser - gas chromatograph - mass spectrometer for climate, water and ecological research. A coupled high temperature elemental analyser - gas chromatograph - mass spectrometer for climate, water and ecological research: This project is for a high temperature, elemental analysis, gas chromatography, isotope mass spectrometry facility. This would permit the analysis of the isotopes of up to four elements in a range of environmental samples such as tree cell ....A coupled high temperature elemental analyser - gas chromatograph - mass spectrometer for climate, water and ecological research. A coupled high temperature elemental analyser - gas chromatograph - mass spectrometer for climate, water and ecological research: This project is for a high temperature, elemental analysis, gas chromatography, isotope mass spectrometry facility. This would permit the analysis of the isotopes of up to four elements in a range of environmental samples such as tree cellulose, ecological samples and dissolved nutrients in surface and ground waters. Results will help improve our understanding of climate - surface water - ground water interactions, ecosystem function, and past climate and environmental change. The new facility will meet the need for organic isotope analyses to better understand the underlying physical processes.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE160100027
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$600,000.00
Summary
Australian National Facility for Noble-Gas Radio-Isotope Measurements. Australian national facility for noble-gas radio-isotope measurements:
This facility is designed to provide researchers with the ability to accurately date water and ice cores using the natural radio-isotopes in the sample. Radiocarbon dating has been a revolutionary tool in providing answers to a range of questions in anthropology, archaeology and the earth sciences. However, radiocarbon dating has a strong limitation in th ....Australian National Facility for Noble-Gas Radio-Isotope Measurements. Australian national facility for noble-gas radio-isotope measurements:
This facility is designed to provide researchers with the ability to accurately date water and ice cores using the natural radio-isotopes in the sample. Radiocarbon dating has been a revolutionary tool in providing answers to a range of questions in anthropology, archaeology and the earth sciences. However, radiocarbon dating has a strong limitation in that it can only date periods from 1000–50 000 years: the use of radioactive noble-gas isotopes can extend this range out to 1 year to 1 million years. This capability in the new facility is expected to support new understanding of processes in artesian reservoirs, ocean currents and geology that may affect questions of water availability, climate and environmental change.Read moreRead less
Groundwater flow age distributions: Understanding open pit mine hydrology. This project aims to improve the estimation of the age of groundwater. Understanding groundwater age is critical for sustainable management and environmental tracers are increasingly used for this purpose. However, groundwater samples are inevitably mixtures of water of different ages. Since for most tracers the relationship between tracer concentration and age is not linear, different tracers can produce different mean a ....Groundwater flow age distributions: Understanding open pit mine hydrology. This project aims to improve the estimation of the age of groundwater. Understanding groundwater age is critical for sustainable management and environmental tracers are increasingly used for this purpose. However, groundwater samples are inevitably mixtures of water of different ages. Since for most tracers the relationship between tracer concentration and age is not linear, different tracers can produce different mean ages for the sample. This project aims to determine whether it is possible to determine moments of the groundwater age distributions from measurements made with different environmental tracers. The project also aims to examine whether the degree of heterogeneity within the aquifer can be determined from the disparity between ages obtained with different tracers. This project aims to tackle the largest problem with using groundwater chemistry to estimate water age – that mixing processes in the subsurface are never known. Solving this problem will allow much more accurate estimates of groundwater velocity and aquifer recharge rates. The groundwater industry contributes an estimated $6.8 billion per annum to the Australian economy, and this project will contribute to the sustainable management of the groundwater resource.Read moreRead less
Climate variability, water allocation and land use change impacts on surface-groundwater interactions and salinity discharge. This project contributes to the national research priority of an Environmentally Sustainable Australia and its three sub-priorities: Water-a critical resource; Overcoming salinity and acidity; and Responding to climate change and variability as well as to the National Water Initiative goal: connected surface and groundwater resources managed as a single resource. These em ....Climate variability, water allocation and land use change impacts on surface-groundwater interactions and salinity discharge. This project contributes to the national research priority of an Environmentally Sustainable Australia and its three sub-priorities: Water-a critical resource; Overcoming salinity and acidity; and Responding to climate change and variability as well as to the National Water Initiative goal: connected surface and groundwater resources managed as a single resource. These embody the clear imperative in Australia to improve the management and use of our stream and groundwater systems in the face of long-term climate variability and changing water use. Knowledge gained from this study of coupled surface-groundwater systems in nationally important catchments will be used to improve water allocation and use strategies and salinity mitigation. Read moreRead less
Unlocking the secrets of the groundwater cycle using Si and Li isotopes. This project aims to determine how non-conventional lithium and silicon isotopes can be used to understand groundwater processes using an innovative source-to-target approach. The project aims to apply these isotope tracers to trace the water cycle within a well constrained system: an island aquifer with a dense borefield which has been analysed using traditional isotopic techniques. Supporting hydrochemical data will be us ....Unlocking the secrets of the groundwater cycle using Si and Li isotopes. This project aims to determine how non-conventional lithium and silicon isotopes can be used to understand groundwater processes using an innovative source-to-target approach. The project aims to apply these isotope tracers to trace the water cycle within a well constrained system: an island aquifer with a dense borefield which has been analysed using traditional isotopic techniques. Supporting hydrochemical data will be used to determine the relationship of the isotopes with environmental processes. The project impact will be the development of new methods to help understand our groundwater resource. The improved process understanding will be translated to groundwater management in general. The projects' focus on carbonate aquifer systems typical of coastal regions of southern, eastern and western Australia will have relevance to groundwater management in urban areas such as Perth and in rural areas for tourism and viticulture, and for management of natural resources in National Parks.Read moreRead less