Mitigating the risk of cyanobacterial blooms in wastewater ponds. Cyanobacterial blooms in wastewater treatment plants impact on effluent quality and the utility of recycled water, posing a significant risk to the economy, the environment and public health. To understand the causes of cyanobacterial blooms in pond-based wastewater treatment plants and the risk they pose, this project will use the latest molecular techniques to examine how the microbial communities within these systems interact w ....Mitigating the risk of cyanobacterial blooms in wastewater ponds. Cyanobacterial blooms in wastewater treatment plants impact on effluent quality and the utility of recycled water, posing a significant risk to the economy, the environment and public health. To understand the causes of cyanobacterial blooms in pond-based wastewater treatment plants and the risk they pose, this project will use the latest molecular techniques to examine how the microbial communities within these systems interact with each other and their surrounding environment to form blooms and produce toxins and other harmful metabolites. Such knowledge will inform risk assessment and provide strategies for the mitigation of future bloom events, improving the security of our increasingly valuable recycled water resources.Read moreRead less
Ecological regime shifts for re-engineering water pollution management. This project aims to validate a framework for the management of water pollution. As the world population increases, maintaining robust, cost-effective and environmentally safe water resources is important. This project will investigate environmental controls of toxin occurrence in urban and wastewater systems. The project is expected to mitigate deadly cyanotoxins, which threaten the safety of water resources, while a numeri ....Ecological regime shifts for re-engineering water pollution management. This project aims to validate a framework for the management of water pollution. As the world population increases, maintaining robust, cost-effective and environmentally safe water resources is important. This project will investigate environmental controls of toxin occurrence in urban and wastewater systems. The project is expected to mitigate deadly cyanotoxins, which threaten the safety of water resources, while a numerical ecological model will tackle water pollution issues in natural and engineered water systems.Read moreRead less
Monitoring Desalination Membrane Fouling using Sodium Magnetic Resonance. Seawater desalination using membrane modules is critical technology for potable water access, however it faces significant challenges due to fouling. Sodium magnetic resonance techniques will be developed to non-invasively detect and image salt accumulation in these opaque membrane modules due to fouling. These data will first be used to improve our understanding of the unexplored interplay between fouling and detrimental ....Monitoring Desalination Membrane Fouling using Sodium Magnetic Resonance. Seawater desalination using membrane modules is critical technology for potable water access, however it faces significant challenges due to fouling. Sodium magnetic resonance techniques will be developed to non-invasively detect and image salt accumulation in these opaque membrane modules due to fouling. These data will first be used to improve our understanding of the unexplored interplay between fouling and detrimental salt accumulation in the modules (known as cake-enhanced concentration polarisation) and thus validate 3D simulations of this phenomenon. The ability to unambiguously detect salt accumulation in membrane modules will then be extrapolated to a non-invasive monitoring tool for membrane fouling in desalination facilities.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
On-line monitoring of cyanobacteria to predict coagulant doses and powdered activated carbon application in water treatment. Cyanobacteria, more commonly known as blue-green algae, can impact water quality by releasing toxins that can be harmful to human health and imparting unpleasant taste and odours to the water. This project will support the water industry in managing these risks by providing a rapid, on-line tool to assist in their removal during water treatment.
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
Prediction of Sea Level Change around Australia and its Calibration and Validation by Satellite-Geodetic Measurements. The redistribution of mass and loading due to deglaciation will change the gravity field, spin axis and centre of mass of the Earth. As such, global sea level will not rise by the same amount in all places, and will even fall in some. This project will extend our realistic Earth model, constructed from a previous ARC grant, to simulate such changes in sea level. These simulat ....Prediction of Sea Level Change around Australia and its Calibration and Validation by Satellite-Geodetic Measurements. The redistribution of mass and loading due to deglaciation will change the gravity field, spin axis and centre of mass of the Earth. As such, global sea level will not rise by the same amount in all places, and will even fall in some. This project will extend our realistic Earth model, constructed from a previous ARC grant, to simulate such changes in sea level. These simulated values will be compared with contemporary estimates of ice mass balance and temporal gravity changes measured by satellite geodesy. Ultimately, this will allow for more informed management of sea level change in Australasia.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0668452
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$290,000.00
Summary
A research grade liquid chromatograph - mass spectrometer for quantitative analysis of trace organic analytes in complex matrices. The ARC has provided matching funding of $300K to a consortium of Australian universities, CSIRO, CRCs, water utilities and other research centres for an investment in a modern system for measurement of organic species in complex mixtures. The system, called a liquid chromatograph-mass spectrometer, has application in environmental studies of soils, sediments and nat ....A research grade liquid chromatograph - mass spectrometer for quantitative analysis of trace organic analytes in complex matrices. The ARC has provided matching funding of $300K to a consortium of Australian universities, CSIRO, CRCs, water utilities and other research centres for an investment in a modern system for measurement of organic species in complex mixtures. The system, called a liquid chromatograph-mass spectrometer, has application in environmental studies of soils, sediments and natural waters; in control of quality of potable water supplies; studies of natural products and plant extracts; and in studies related to petroleum exploration, production, and environmental issues. Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0561166
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$193,876.00
Summary
Facility for analysis of organic micropollutants in natural, recreational, and potable water systems. Certain organic components of natural and potable waters are a major concern for water utilities and public health authorities. Investment in the analytical technology proposed here will enable the full range of target compounds to be addressed in a holistic manner to support research students and projects at three WA universities. As well as the usual modes of international transfer of research ....Facility for analysis of organic micropollutants in natural, recreational, and potable water systems. Certain organic components of natural and potable waters are a major concern for water utilities and public health authorities. Investment in the analytical technology proposed here will enable the full range of target compounds to be addressed in a holistic manner to support research students and projects at three WA universities. As well as the usual modes of international transfer of research outcomes, the links between the State Centre of Excellence for Applied Organic Geochemistry (CAOG), the three Universities, the Water Corporation of WA, the Measurement Program of the CRCWQT and CSIRO will facilitate technology transfer to relevant practitioners around Australia.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