Improving water quality modelling by better understanding solute transport. Poor stream water quality is a critical problem in Australia and globally. Stream water quality depends directly on pathways and time taken for water to transport pollutants through catchments. Predicting these pathways is highly challenging and currently requires specialised data. This project aims to better model the movement of water from rainfall to streams, enable greatly improved use of water quality data routinely ....Improving water quality modelling by better understanding solute transport. Poor stream water quality is a critical problem in Australia and globally. Stream water quality depends directly on pathways and time taken for water to transport pollutants through catchments. Predicting these pathways is highly challenging and currently requires specialised data. This project aims to better model the movement of water from rainfall to streams, enable greatly improved use of water quality data routinely collected in Australia's catchments and thereby better predict water quality behaviour. Proposed field studies aim to support this development. The outcomes sought are improved planning and management of water quality in our rivers, lakes and estuaries, improved health of these water bodies and improved water supplies.Read moreRead less
Efffective Management of Water Resources in Semiarid Regions Using Remote Sensing. Due to the vast expense and difficulties to access many areas from the ground, there is currently no effective system for assessing and managing water resources over many large semi-arid regions of the world. Through the study of two complementary Basins - The Murray and Lake Chad Basins - we propose a new approach based on satellite imagery to provide regular and detailed information on the state of our water res ....Efffective Management of Water Resources in Semiarid Regions Using Remote Sensing. Due to the vast expense and difficulties to access many areas from the ground, there is currently no effective system for assessing and managing water resources over many large semi-arid regions of the world. Through the study of two complementary Basins - The Murray and Lake Chad Basins - we propose a new approach based on satellite imagery to provide regular and detailed information on the state of our water resources in these areas. These innovative techniques will yield new information on critical water issues: water availability, salinity, groundwater/surface water interactions, climate and land use change impact. This project provides the basis for sustainable water use in regional Australia.Read moreRead less
Satellite based monitoring system of lakes and wetlands water quality. Effectively managing water resources within Australia is critical for social and economic growth. The large-scale of Australian catchments means that many lakes are unmonitored due to time and costs required for on-ground programs. This research project directly addresses the lack of observations. Information on water quality from satellite, on-ground, and modeling investigations are integrated to develop an operational moni ....Satellite based monitoring system of lakes and wetlands water quality. Effectively managing water resources within Australia is critical for social and economic growth. The large-scale of Australian catchments means that many lakes are unmonitored due to time and costs required for on-ground programs. This research project directly addresses the lack of observations. Information on water quality from satellite, on-ground, and modeling investigations are integrated to develop an operational monitoring system for surface water quality. Results are used to model the sensitivity of the water quality to changes in climate and land use. The monitoring system can be used to protect catchment assets by risk assessment and provide insights into management scenarios.Read moreRead less
Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR0354817
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$10,000.00
Summary
Groundwater and the Environment: Understanding the role of groundwater in the maintenance of sustainable ecosystems in Australia.
. 97% of freshwater on earth is groundwater. Despite this, it is undervalued, largely unexplored and poorly understood. In Australia, groundwater plays a critical role in our salinity problem and sustains our ecosystems. It will be a critical water supply in the future, especially in times of drought when surface water is scarce. Our nation's groundwater resources ....Groundwater and the Environment: Understanding the role of groundwater in the maintenance of sustainable ecosystems in Australia.
. 97% of freshwater on earth is groundwater. Despite this, it is undervalued, largely unexplored and poorly understood. In Australia, groundwater plays a critical role in our salinity problem and sustains our ecosystems. It will be a critical water supply in the future, especially in times of drought when surface water is scarce. Our nation's groundwater resources require the same unresounding commitment to preservation that we now see in the Murray-Darling basin. This network develops foundations for a desperately needed National Groundwater Centre to provide research to ensure win-win outcomes for this country's water resources and the users that rely on them.
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Connected Water in Semi Arid Environments. Water is undoubtedly our most valuable resource, and continued economic and social development is critically dependant on water resources. Ephemeral rivers in semi-arid areas that lie above the water table commonly recharge the underlying aquifers. In much of the Murray Basin of southeast Australia, river recharge has provided rare fresh groundwater that is both a potential source of water for irrigation and domestic supply and a buffer to saline region ....Connected Water in Semi Arid Environments. Water is undoubtedly our most valuable resource, and continued economic and social development is critically dependant on water resources. Ephemeral rivers in semi-arid areas that lie above the water table commonly recharge the underlying aquifers. In much of the Murray Basin of southeast Australia, river recharge has provided rare fresh groundwater that is both a potential source of water for irrigation and domestic supply and a buffer to saline regional groundwater entering the rivers as baseflow. This project will allow the risk to these groundwater lenses from landuse changes and river regulation to be quantified as well as constraining whether the water resources may be used sustainably. Read moreRead less
A new paradigm for catchment management: detection, forecasting and management of water catchments with multiple steady states. Understanding the response and recovery of Australia's water catchments to climatic change and variability is become increasingly urgent. Our catchments are vulnerable because there is a fundamental gap in our understanding of how they recover from high or low rainfall periods. This project will: a) advance water management concepts; b) build tools to understand how and ....A new paradigm for catchment management: detection, forecasting and management of water catchments with multiple steady states. Understanding the response and recovery of Australia's water catchments to climatic change and variability is become increasingly urgent. Our catchments are vulnerable because there is a fundamental gap in our understanding of how they recover from high or low rainfall periods. This project will: a) advance water management concepts; b) build tools to understand how and when catchments might switch to new states when hit by a disturbance; and c) identify how best to build the buffering capacity to reduce the chance of a switch occurring. The project will make Australia's groundwater and streamflow resources more secure and make Australian researchers and water resource managers world leaders in the emerging science of catchment resilience.Read moreRead less
Salinity processes in Lake Eyre Basin rivers. The unregulated rivers of the Lake Eyre Basin (LEB) provide a unique opportunity to study natural salinisation processes at multiple scales, in systems that have hydrological and biological similarities with dryland rivers in the Murray Darling Basin (MDB) and elsewhere. The rivers of the LEB maintain a high quality of ecological health despite salinity levels that can vary over two orders of magnitude with changing flow conditions. This project wil ....Salinity processes in Lake Eyre Basin rivers. The unregulated rivers of the Lake Eyre Basin (LEB) provide a unique opportunity to study natural salinisation processes at multiple scales, in systems that have hydrological and biological similarities with dryland rivers in the Murray Darling Basin (MDB) and elsewhere. The rivers of the LEB maintain a high quality of ecological health despite salinity levels that can vary over two orders of magnitude with changing flow conditions. This project will study salinity processes in the unregulated rivers of LEB and identify the dynamics of stream salinity using a combination of novel tracer and hydrological measurements and modelling.Read moreRead less
Use of remote sensing actual evapotranspiration estimates and water delivery data for assessing water use efficiency in an irrigated landscape. Improving management of water in irrigated agriculture will lead to increased sustainability, decreased environmental impacts and increased profitability. Quantifying water use efficiency for an irrigation district is a vital part of improving water management. This project aims to develop new methods for quantifying water use efficiency by combining ac ....Use of remote sensing actual evapotranspiration estimates and water delivery data for assessing water use efficiency in an irrigated landscape. Improving management of water in irrigated agriculture will lead to increased sustainability, decreased environmental impacts and increased profitability. Quantifying water use efficiency for an irrigation district is a vital part of improving water management. This project aims to develop new methods for quantifying water use efficiency by combining actual evapotranspiration estimates with water delivery information at the farm scale for an entire irrigation district. Remote sensing techniques will be utilized to map actual evapotranspiration and water meter data will be combined with cadastral and channel network data to map water delivery.Read moreRead less
Airborne electromagnetic estimation of groundwater quality and distribution in the top 100m of the earth. This research will develop processing methodology to predict groundwater concentration and quality in the top 100m of the earth, using continuously sampled airborne electromagnetic data. The method to be developed will process received responses to separate and identify propagation delays, distinct from the usual diffusive delays caused by shallow conductive materials. The extracted propagat ....Airborne electromagnetic estimation of groundwater quality and distribution in the top 100m of the earth. This research will develop processing methodology to predict groundwater concentration and quality in the top 100m of the earth, using continuously sampled airborne electromagnetic data. The method to be developed will process received responses to separate and identify propagation delays, distinct from the usual diffusive delays caused by shallow conductive materials. The extracted propagation delays then predict ground moisture content. With proposed changes to transmitter hardware, we can also achieve improved shallow resolution of conductive structures, such as shallow saline groundwater layers. However, the new method will pioneer the remote detection of fresh waters.Read moreRead less
Understanding and modelling of interannual hydroclimatic variability in the context of historic streamflow. Recent persistently dry conditions in Australia have triggered water restrictions in major cities and re-emphasised the importance of water to this country. This project represents an integrated package of research that will enhance our understanding of interannual hydroclimatic variability, and its implications for land and water resources systems. The methodologies and model developed he ....Understanding and modelling of interannual hydroclimatic variability in the context of historic streamflow. Recent persistently dry conditions in Australia have triggered water restrictions in major cities and re-emphasised the importance of water to this country. This project represents an integrated package of research that will enhance our understanding of interannual hydroclimatic variability, and its implications for land and water resources systems. The methodologies and model developed here will directly lead to more informed decision making for sustainable use and management of Australia's increasingly scarce natural resources to cope with changing climate over a range of time scales. This is particularly important for Australia because of its higher interannual hydroclimate variability compared to elsewhere in the world.Read moreRead less