Establishing advanced networks for air quality sensing and analyses. Establishing advanced networks for air quality sensing and analyses. This project aims to develop innovative, cost-effective, high resolution air quality networks. Recent developments in sensor technologies improve the ability to harvest atmospheric data. This project will develop, validate and implement methods for high sensitivity atmospheric sensing and apply cutting-edge statistical and analytic techniques to the data sets, ....Establishing advanced networks for air quality sensing and analyses. Establishing advanced networks for air quality sensing and analyses. This project aims to develop innovative, cost-effective, high resolution air quality networks. Recent developments in sensor technologies improve the ability to harvest atmospheric data. This project will develop, validate and implement methods for high sensitivity atmospheric sensing and apply cutting-edge statistical and analytic techniques to the data sets, unprecedented in scope and resolution. Outcomes include an open access database to quantify and visualise intra-urban air pollution and human exposure and develop air quality maps and smoke pollution management tools. It is expected to advance the evidence-based management of air as a resource, increasing economic prosperity and enhancing human health and quality of life.Read moreRead less
Innovative approaches to managing and understanding taste and odour in drinking water systems. Taste and odour (T/O) problems resulting from Cyanobacteria can change consumers' perception of product safety, resulting in many complaints, soaring management and treatment costs, and large financial losses, yet little is known about how they arise.
This project will provide the Australian Water Industry with cost-effective, sensitive, specific, rapid and practical tools for managing and understandi ....Innovative approaches to managing and understanding taste and odour in drinking water systems. Taste and odour (T/O) problems resulting from Cyanobacteria can change consumers' perception of product safety, resulting in many complaints, soaring management and treatment costs, and large financial losses, yet little is known about how they arise.
This project will provide the Australian Water Industry with cost-effective, sensitive, specific, rapid and practical tools for managing and understanding T/O episodes, and will also benefit the aquaculture and food sectors, and the research community. An improved ability to manage geosmin in drinking water, will also have positive repercussions on the Australian environment, by eliminating the need to use environmentally controversial control methods such as copper sulphate dosing.
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Airborne ultrafine particles in Australian cities. There is an acute deficiency of knowledge in Australia on urban airborne ultrafine particles, originating from transport and other anthropogenic sources, which pose significant health and environmental risks. The aim of this project is to address this deficiency by an extensive multi-city, cross-disciplinary study using state of the art instrumentation and data analytic techniques. The outcome will be an in depth, quantitative insight into the c ....Airborne ultrafine particles in Australian cities. There is an acute deficiency of knowledge in Australia on urban airborne ultrafine particles, originating from transport and other anthropogenic sources, which pose significant health and environmental risks. The aim of this project is to address this deficiency by an extensive multi-city, cross-disciplinary study using state of the art instrumentation and data analytic techniques. The outcome will be an in depth, quantitative insight into the characteristics of the particles, their sources and spatial and temporal variation across different urban areas and time scales. Further, the impacts of changing fuels, vehicle technologies, and climate on future trends of the particles will be elucidated.Read moreRead less
Taking eDNA underground: transforming assessment of subterranean ecosystems. This project aims to improve Environmental Impact Assessment and monitoring of subterranean ecosystems by developing a rigorous, credible and practicable environmental DNA assessment framework. Resource companies in Western Australia are mandated to assess groundwater biodiversity under Environmental Protection legislation. Current surveys are time-consuming (expensive) and biased toward common taxa. For regulators, sta ....Taking eDNA underground: transforming assessment of subterranean ecosystems. This project aims to improve Environmental Impact Assessment and monitoring of subterranean ecosystems by developing a rigorous, credible and practicable environmental DNA assessment framework. Resource companies in Western Australia are mandated to assess groundwater biodiversity under Environmental Protection legislation. Current surveys are time-consuming (expensive) and biased toward common taxa. For regulators, stakeholders and industry involved in this project we will provide real-world information and cost savings through innovation in understanding patterns in species boundaries and detection of subterranean fauna. The outcomes will be directly applicable to monitoring subterranean ecosystems across Australia and internationally.Read moreRead less
Sewer Monitoring and Management in the Digital Era. Overflow, flooding, corrosion, and odorous emissions are persistent issues for utilities managing sewers. Current sewer maintenance is reactive, and focuses on solving problems in local networks, despite that optimal solutions require a system-wide approach. Capitalising on recent development in IoT sensors, wireless transmission, and machine learning, this multidisciplinary project aims to develop digital-twin supported data analytics for proa ....Sewer Monitoring and Management in the Digital Era. Overflow, flooding, corrosion, and odorous emissions are persistent issues for utilities managing sewers. Current sewer maintenance is reactive, and focuses on solving problems in local networks, despite that optimal solutions require a system-wide approach. Capitalising on recent development in IoT sensors, wireless transmission, and machine learning, this multidisciplinary project aims to develop digital-twin supported data analytics for proactive sewer management including network-wide real-time control. The project aims to generate significant social, environmental and economic benefits by enabling utilities to better protect public and environmental health, reduce sewer odour and greenhouse gas emissions, and extend sewer asset life.Read moreRead less
Optimising seed sourcing for effective ecological restoration. This project aims to address the sourcing of native seed for ecological restoration under global change. The great demand for native seed to deliver ecological restoration provides a clear need and responsibility to use this seed as efficiently as possible. This project expects to develop detailed new knowledge that links plant and environmental genomics, plant physiology, seed and soil biology in embedded experiments at post-mining ....Optimising seed sourcing for effective ecological restoration. This project aims to address the sourcing of native seed for ecological restoration under global change. The great demand for native seed to deliver ecological restoration provides a clear need and responsibility to use this seed as efficiently as possible. This project expects to develop detailed new knowledge that links plant and environmental genomics, plant physiology, seed and soil biology in embedded experiments at post-mining rehabilitation sites. Expected outcomes include clear industry guidelines that refine seed sourcing strategies for ecological restoration for current and future climates. This should provide significant benefits for improved ecological restoration outcomes when using native seed today and into the future.Read moreRead less
Development of novel and effective strategies for soil microbial- and rhizo-remediation of onshore petrogenic hydrocarbon spills. The extensive use of petroleum products represents a constant threat of oil spills to onshore and offshore environments. Petroleum spillage seriously impacts environment and human health. This project is aimed at providing a suite of techniques for dealing with onshore oil spills and thereby building Australia’s environmental response capability.
The Macroderma initiative: conserving ghost bats and informing development. This project aims to improve methods for capturing biological information required for environmental assessments of highly mobile species and enable strategic environmental planning in Northern Australia. Using Australia’s iconic ghost bat as a focus, the project will test and apply emerging technologies to obtain key information on a species’ population status and its critical resources to inform assessments of ecologic ....The Macroderma initiative: conserving ghost bats and informing development. This project aims to improve methods for capturing biological information required for environmental assessments of highly mobile species and enable strategic environmental planning in Northern Australia. Using Australia’s iconic ghost bat as a focus, the project will test and apply emerging technologies to obtain key information on a species’ population status and its critical resources to inform assessments of ecological impacts of industry development. Important benefits of the project include information and tools for streamlining development approvals and accurately assessing risks to threatened species to improve outcomes for both our economy and our natural environment.Read moreRead less
Reducing direct greenhouse gas emissions from urban wastewater systems. This project aims to develop a systematic framework for water utilities to monitor and reduce direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from wastewater systems. A standardised monitoring protocol will be developed to conduct an unprecedented nationwide sampling campaign. The obtained data, with microbial characterisation and mechanism analysis, will be used to develop novel models for accurate prediction of GHG emissions. Expect ....Reducing direct greenhouse gas emissions from urban wastewater systems. This project aims to develop a systematic framework for water utilities to monitor and reduce direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from wastewater systems. A standardised monitoring protocol will be developed to conduct an unprecedented nationwide sampling campaign. The obtained data, with microbial characterisation and mechanism analysis, will be used to develop novel models for accurate prediction of GHG emissions. Expected outcomes include protocol to accurately monitor emissions, models to predict emission under various conditions, and mitigation guideline for typical plant configurations. The anticipated benefit is a significant reduction in GHG emissions from urban water industry and support it to meet net-zero-emission goal by 2050.Read moreRead less
Fertility Management of Koalas, Kangaroos and Wallabies. The aims of this work are to test a commercially available long-acting contraceptive on large populations of kangaroos and koalas, and to devise efficient, economic and practical ways of delivering these contraceptives to the animals. The outcome will be a system of controlling the number of these animals which is economically realistic and acceptable to national and international communities. The contraceptive is administered as a small, ....Fertility Management of Koalas, Kangaroos and Wallabies. The aims of this work are to test a commercially available long-acting contraceptive on large populations of kangaroos and koalas, and to devise efficient, economic and practical ways of delivering these contraceptives to the animals. The outcome will be a system of controlling the number of these animals which is economically realistic and acceptable to national and international communities. The contraceptive is administered as a small, subcutaneous implant in the back of the neck. It can be inserted very quickly and has no harmful side effects. A further outcome may be its adoption in other parts of the world, to the advantage of the company which manufactures it.Read moreRead less