Erosion of embankment dams and dam spillways. In excess of $250M is spent annually to maintain, upgrade, improve safety and monitor performance of Australian dams. Improved methods for assessing both spillway and internal erosion, the cause of 50 per cent of embankment dam failures and incidents requiring repairs, will be developed, maximising dam safety and minimising maintenance expenditure.
Data-driven water quality treatment management decision support system. Data-driven water quality treatment management decision support system. This project aims to develop a robust decision support system to predict manganese and the character and concentration of dissolved organic matter in drinking water reservoirs, using intelligent algorithms and data collected through remote autonomous instrumentation. These predicted water quality parameters could be used as model input variables to provi ....Data-driven water quality treatment management decision support system. Data-driven water quality treatment management decision support system. This project aims to develop a robust decision support system to predict manganese and the character and concentration of dissolved organic matter in drinking water reservoirs, using intelligent algorithms and data collected through remote autonomous instrumentation. These predicted water quality parameters could be used as model input variables to provide real-time decisions for plant operators on the required treatment regime for incoming raw water, and advise them on the optimal reservoir offtake depth. This will potentially minimise treatment costs and health risks for consumers. The ultimate goal is to significantly enhance current water supply management practices.Read moreRead less
Megadrought likelihood and its water resource impacts in Australia. This interdisciplinary project plans to assemble a world-class team of hydrologists, climate scientists and water managers to investigate the history and future risk of decadal to multidecadal droughts (megadroughts). Despite Australia’s vulnerability to water scarcity, the likelihood of persistent megadroughts has not been assessed in Australia. This has resulted in inadequate capacity to prepare for and adapt to megadrought un ....Megadrought likelihood and its water resource impacts in Australia. This interdisciplinary project plans to assemble a world-class team of hydrologists, climate scientists and water managers to investigate the history and future risk of decadal to multidecadal droughts (megadroughts). Despite Australia’s vulnerability to water scarcity, the likelihood of persistent megadroughts has not been assessed in Australia. This has resulted in inadequate capacity to prepare for and adapt to megadrought under future climate change. For the first time, palaeoclimate reconstructions and climate change projections will be used to constrain future hydroclimatic variability, advancing the decision-making capacity of Australian water resource managers.Read moreRead less
Forecasting drought impacts months ahead using satellite data. Skillful seasonal water and crop forecasts could do much to help cope with drought and water-related food crises. Recent advances in hydrological modelling and satellite remote sensing of surface soil moisture, landscape water storage and vegetation biomass have created a great opportunity to produce such forecasts over large areas. This project will exploit that opportunity by assimilating the satellite observations into a global wa ....Forecasting drought impacts months ahead using satellite data. Skillful seasonal water and crop forecasts could do much to help cope with drought and water-related food crises. Recent advances in hydrological modelling and satellite remote sensing of surface soil moisture, landscape water storage and vegetation biomass have created a great opportunity to produce such forecasts over large areas. This project will exploit that opportunity by assimilating the satellite observations into a global water and vegetation forecasting model. The resulting improvement in seasonal forecasts of stream flow, soil moisture and crop production will be quantified and compared to the limited forecasts that are currently available.Read moreRead less
A decadal to inter-decadal streamflow prediction system. This project will develop the first ever decadal streamflow prediction system for Australia, leading to predictions of streamflow for the next 10 years and beyond that take into account both natural climatic variability (driven by factors such as the El Nino Southern Oscillation) and changing greenhouse gas concentrations due to a warming planet.
MoistureMonitor: A multi-mission soil moisture monitoring system for a water limited future. A long-term soil moisture record for Australia is critical to understanding climate change feedback mechanisms and their impacts on water management. This project will validate, downscale and harmonise soil moisture retrievals from three satellite missions across this decade, each using a new and different low resolution antenna technology and interpretation approach. Moisture Monitor, the framework to d ....MoistureMonitor: A multi-mission soil moisture monitoring system for a water limited future. A long-term soil moisture record for Australia is critical to understanding climate change feedback mechanisms and their impacts on water management. This project will validate, downscale and harmonise soil moisture retrievals from three satellite missions across this decade, each using a new and different low resolution antenna technology and interpretation approach. Moisture Monitor, the framework to deliver this soil moisture record, will be verified using airborne campaigns and hydrological monitoring infrastructure in the Murrumbidgee catchment. Important outcomes will be validation of a new soil moisture satellite and development of a high resolution soil moisture product for improved land and water management and policy for Australia.Read moreRead less
SCANEM : A Scanning and Inspection Method for Urban Pipeline Systems. Water and sewage utilities are crucial factors limiting economic growth and urban amenity. However many of these facilities are subject to corrosion, fracture and collapse and new strategies are now required to provide a sound basis for systematic remediation and replacement. Suitable strategies involving a structural audit and statistical analysis have been proposed by CSIRO and Tyco Water. However new geophysical inspection ....SCANEM : A Scanning and Inspection Method for Urban Pipeline Systems. Water and sewage utilities are crucial factors limiting economic growth and urban amenity. However many of these facilities are subject to corrosion, fracture and collapse and new strategies are now required to provide a sound basis for systematic remediation and replacement. Suitable strategies involving a structural audit and statistical analysis have been proposed by CSIRO and Tyco Water. However new geophysical inspection methods are now required to provide the key physical parameters relating to pipeline condition. Hopefully the EM inspection tool resulting from this project will provide the industrial partners with a unique capacity to satisfy a major global market.Read moreRead less
Smart management of disinfectant in chloraminated water-supply systems. Smart management of disinfectant in chloraminated water-supply systems. This project aims to develop an adaptive, real-time control system for managing disinfectant residuals in chloraminated water supply systems. While chloramine delivers microbiologically safe drinking water in warmer climates and in long distribution systems, it is largely unpredictable, costs water utilities millions of dollars annually, and has uncertai ....Smart management of disinfectant in chloraminated water-supply systems. Smart management of disinfectant in chloraminated water-supply systems. This project aims to develop an adaptive, real-time control system for managing disinfectant residuals in chloraminated water supply systems. While chloramine delivers microbiologically safe drinking water in warmer climates and in long distribution systems, it is largely unpredictable, costs water utilities millions of dollars annually, and has uncertain benefits. This project’s control system will be guided by quantitative models formulated from multi-pronged, fundamental experiments. The project will quantify microbial chloramine decay and determine mechanisms to increase predictability. The project will develop and demonstrate a real-time control technology which delivered microbiologically safe, cost-efficient drinking water to people in warmer climates, despite warming climate and increasing population.Read moreRead less
Our rural wealth: using functional responses of native fauna to predict conservation values of agricultural landscapes. The aim of this project is to develop and test a new approach for assessing the conservation value of agricultural landscapes in Australia. It is based on identifying the functional responses of the fauna to the extent and pattern of native vegetation and types and intensity of agricultural land-uses in whole landscapes. Different response types will be interpreted in relatio ....Our rural wealth: using functional responses of native fauna to predict conservation values of agricultural landscapes. The aim of this project is to develop and test a new approach for assessing the conservation value of agricultural landscapes in Australia. It is based on identifying the functional responses of the fauna to the extent and pattern of native vegetation and types and intensity of agricultural land-uses in whole landscapes. Different response types will be interpreted in relation to ecological characteristics of species. We will use this knowledge to predict the status of birds and mammals in novel landscapes in three bioregions, and test the predictions by field studies. This new landscape-level approach will help land managers assess present agricultural environments as well as evaluate scenarios for future changes in land-use.Read moreRead less