Fragmentation of rocks upon impact. The project aims to create a new understanding of how rocks fragment upon impact to allow more realistic predictions of rockfall hazards. Rockfall results in loss of human life, damage to infrastructure and economic loss; each year in Australia, millions of dollars are spent on rockfall protection. To mitigate rockfall risk, it is important to understand and predict how blocks break as they fall down a slope. Unfortunately, there is limited data and knowledge ....Fragmentation of rocks upon impact. The project aims to create a new understanding of how rocks fragment upon impact to allow more realistic predictions of rockfall hazards. Rockfall results in loss of human life, damage to infrastructure and economic loss; each year in Australia, millions of dollars are spent on rockfall protection. To mitigate rockfall risk, it is important to understand and predict how blocks break as they fall down a slope. Unfortunately, there is limited data and knowledge on this phenomenon. This project aims to produce a comprehensive, high-quality database of fragmentation events and develop an innovative fragmentation model that can be included in existing rockfall codes. This project is expected to lead to optimised and cost-effective rockfall barrier protection measures.Read moreRead less
Efficient geotechnical risk management of rock cliffs . Extreme events will significantly impact the severity of Australian rock cliff hazards in the coming years affecting infrastructure and public safety along major corridors and popular paths. Accurate prediction of their effect is crucial to analyse the associated rockfall risks and design mitigation measures. The project aims to provide a novel approach for the quantification of the rockfall risk by combining proximity remote sensing soluti ....Efficient geotechnical risk management of rock cliffs . Extreme events will significantly impact the severity of Australian rock cliff hazards in the coming years affecting infrastructure and public safety along major corridors and popular paths. Accurate prediction of their effect is crucial to analyse the associated rockfall risks and design mitigation measures. The project aims to provide a novel approach for the quantification of the rockfall risk by combining proximity remote sensing solutions, probabilistic models and quantitative risk analysis. The primary benefits lie in the ability to optimize protection reliability and costs and to deliver a rigorous method to support practitioners, government and emergency agencies to manage the risk, improve safety and properly allocate resources.Read moreRead less
Quantitative risk assessment of unsaturated soil slopes. This project aims to develop a novel quantitative risk assessment tool for slope failures or landslides by integrating cutting-edge methods in statistics, unsaturated soil mechanics and large deformation mechanics. The project will quantify various uncertainties in risk analysis of a landslide, rationally estimate its consequences, and improve understanding of its failure mechanisms. Expected outcomes include a reduction of societal and ec ....Quantitative risk assessment of unsaturated soil slopes. This project aims to develop a novel quantitative risk assessment tool for slope failures or landslides by integrating cutting-edge methods in statistics, unsaturated soil mechanics and large deformation mechanics. The project will quantify various uncertainties in risk analysis of a landslide, rationally estimate its consequences, and improve understanding of its failure mechanisms. Expected outcomes include a reduction of societal and economic costs due to landslides, achieved through better engineering guidelines and government regulations for landslide risk management.Read moreRead less
The characterisation of wastewater distribution patterns for the production of decision support systems for pathogenic risk analysis in water catchments. The project will aim to collate data and map base-level distribution patterns of molecular and microbial markers of human sewage and natural/agricultural contamination with reference to diurnal and seasonal fluctuations. These data will then be used to develop decision support systems that predict contaminant dispersion and identify high-risk c ....The characterisation of wastewater distribution patterns for the production of decision support systems for pathogenic risk analysis in water catchments. The project will aim to collate data and map base-level distribution patterns of molecular and microbial markers of human sewage and natural/agricultural contamination with reference to diurnal and seasonal fluctuations. These data will then be used to develop decision support systems that predict contaminant dispersion and identify high-risk contamination sources. The diurnal collection of data is expected to show significant variations in the measured parameters associated with time of day, light intensity and temperature. Mapping of the sewage and nutrient loads throughout the year will provide base line data for identifying potential hotspots for targeting system upgrades or improved management programs.Read moreRead less
Reducing flood loss - A data-assimilation framework for improving forecasting capability in sparsely gauged regions. Floods are the biggest and severest natural disaster we face year after year. Furthermore, there has been little improvement in our capability to prevent flood damage over past decades. This research proposes a paradigm shift in the way flood forecasting, warning and evacuation proceeds, using 21st century technologies for collecting and incorporating flood related data into exist ....Reducing flood loss - A data-assimilation framework for improving forecasting capability in sparsely gauged regions. Floods are the biggest and severest natural disaster we face year after year. Furthermore, there has been little improvement in our capability to prevent flood damage over past decades. This research proposes a paradigm shift in the way flood forecasting, warning and evacuation proceeds, using 21st century technologies for collecting and incorporating flood related data into existing modelling platforms. It is argued that assimilating real-time satellite soil moisture data into flood models can increase accuracy manifold, even if the images are uncertain. The understanding gained in course of the proposed project has the potential to significantly reduce the damage caused year after year, especially in the data poor regions of the world.Read moreRead less
Urban flood modelling at speed and scale. Frequent floods in urban areas cause damages comparable to extreme floods. This is likely to intensify with future urbanisation and climate change. Although Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) offers sustainable urban drainage solutions, there are no models that can select an optimal WSUD system to deliver on a set urban flood mitigation target. The project aims to develop a new generation of fast urban flood models and the-first-of-its-kind WSUD plannin ....Urban flood modelling at speed and scale. Frequent floods in urban areas cause damages comparable to extreme floods. This is likely to intensify with future urbanisation and climate change. Although Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) offers sustainable urban drainage solutions, there are no models that can select an optimal WSUD system to deliver on a set urban flood mitigation target. The project aims to develop a new generation of fast urban flood models and the-first-of-its-kind WSUD planning tool to support industry and governments to effectively reduce the urban flooding damages. The project outcomes are also applicable for advancing early warning systems and real-time control of floods.Read moreRead less
A spatial extremes framework for predicting subdaily rainfall intensity. Climate change is causing extreme rainfall intensity to increase globally. The greatest increases occur for short-duration storms lasting up to several hours, bringing a heightened risk of flash-floods that are often extremely hazardous due to their rapid onset. The project aims to develop a new spatial extreme value framework to predict extreme rainfall patterns, using insights on future changes to rainfall triggering mech ....A spatial extremes framework for predicting subdaily rainfall intensity. Climate change is causing extreme rainfall intensity to increase globally. The greatest increases occur for short-duration storms lasting up to several hours, bringing a heightened risk of flash-floods that are often extremely hazardous due to their rapid onset. The project aims to develop a new spatial extreme value framework to predict extreme rainfall patterns, using insights on future changes to rainfall triggering mechanisms (e.g. convective, frontal or orographic). The research aims to provide projections in the form of intensity-frequency-duration curves, areal reduction factors and antecedent rainfall depths. Engineers are expected to use this information to design infrastructure and urban planning policies to adapt to future flood risk.Read moreRead less
Assessing future drought risk for water resources system management. The project aims to develop a new method for understanding drought drivers in eastern Australia and how well these are portrayed by climate models. The intended outcome of the project is to provide a framework for evaluating climate models on their representation of drought drivers and then use this information to develop improved downscaling schemes. Traditional downscaling approaches do not capture changes in variability in r ....Assessing future drought risk for water resources system management. The project aims to develop a new method for understanding drought drivers in eastern Australia and how well these are portrayed by climate models. The intended outcome of the project is to provide a framework for evaluating climate models on their representation of drought drivers and then use this information to develop improved downscaling schemes. Traditional downscaling approaches do not capture changes in variability in rainfall and evaporation at interannual and interdecadal timescales. This project aims to address this problem by providing a comprehensive drought downscaling framework which will provide inputs to water sharing plans that can be used to assess the future risks of droughts in catchments across New South Wales.Read moreRead less
A new strategy for design flood estimation in a nonstationary climate. Evidence suggests that global warming will result in an increase in the frequency and/or magnitude of heavy rainfall, leading to flooding with potentially devastating consequences. This study provides a renewed focus on design flood estimation that takes into account a changing climate where assumptions of stationarity are no longer tenable.