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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
Activating lazy stormwater wetlands through real time monitoring & control. Constructed stormwater wetlands are the last line of defence preventing pollution of urban waterways, but wetlands often fail, with their passive operation unable to adapt to the highly variable climate and hydrology they experience. This project aims to use advances in real-time control technology to turn these lazy wetlands into active wetland systems, optimising their performance. It aims to deliver new-generation tec ....Activating lazy stormwater wetlands through real time monitoring & control. Constructed stormwater wetlands are the last line of defence preventing pollution of urban waterways, but wetlands often fail, with their passive operation unable to adapt to the highly variable climate and hydrology they experience. This project aims to use advances in real-time control technology to turn these lazy wetlands into active wetland systems, optimising their performance. It aims to deliver new-generation technologies to enhance water quality treatment, enhance urban water security and guarantee environmental flows to maintain healthy waterways. Working in partnership with waterway managers and water retailers, this project strives to deliver a nationally and globally relevant technology to change how we manage water in cities.Read moreRead less
Water availability and demand: better forecasts, better management. This project aims to improve Australia’s capability in the provision and use of water forecasts for managing water resources. The current water forecasts are not fully utilised by water agencies as they are not sufficiently comprehensive and advanced. This project expects to achieve a step change in the uptake and utility of hydro-climate forecasts through an extensive partnership of leading researchers and operational agencies ....Water availability and demand: better forecasts, better management. This project aims to improve Australia’s capability in the provision and use of water forecasts for managing water resources. The current water forecasts are not fully utilised by water agencies as they are not sufficiently comprehensive and advanced. This project expects to achieve a step change in the uptake and utility of hydro-climate forecasts through an extensive partnership of leading researchers and operational agencies of hydro-climate forecasting, with federal, state and regional water agencies.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
Portable and field-deployable analytical platforms for water monitoring. This project sets out to tackle one of the costliest and most challenging environmental problems, namely, nutrient pollution in water systems. At present, nutrient pollutant monitoring is predominantly carried out using an antiquated manual approach with numerous shortcomings, inadequate to achieve truly effective water quality management. The in-situ analyser developed and deployed within this project will provide continuo ....Portable and field-deployable analytical platforms for water monitoring. This project sets out to tackle one of the costliest and most challenging environmental problems, namely, nutrient pollution in water systems. At present, nutrient pollutant monitoring is predominantly carried out using an antiquated manual approach with numerous shortcomings, inadequate to achieve truly effective water quality management. The in-situ analyser developed and deployed within this project will provide continuous real-time observations and will allow users to remotely monitor water quality; alerting them to pollutant levels, enabling immediate action to be taken to prevent environmental damage. The system is low-cost, facilitating mass adoption, yet delivers an analytical performance comparable to leading laboratory analysers. Read moreRead less
Revolutionising water-quality monitoring in the information age. In today’s information age, automated low-cost sensors distributed in the environment have the potential to revolutionise the way we monitor and manage air, water and soil. This project aims to develop novel statistical methods to detect anomalies in the data generated from these in-situ sensors with computationally efficient modelling on river networks through space and time, with the applied goals of automating anomaly detection ....Revolutionising water-quality monitoring in the information age. In today’s information age, automated low-cost sensors distributed in the environment have the potential to revolutionise the way we monitor and manage air, water and soil. This project aims to develop novel statistical methods to detect anomalies in the data generated from these in-situ sensors with computationally efficient modelling on river networks through space and time, with the applied goals of automating anomaly detection in water-quality data and generating predictions of sediment and nutrient concentrations throughout river networks in near-real time. This will represent a fundamental increase in scientific knowledge, which will be immediately useful in the domains of aquatic science, environmental monitoring, and statistics.Read moreRead less
Untangling the mechanisms of nutrient export from agricultural catchments. This projects aims to better understand the factors controlling nutrient retention and removal within agricultural catchments and how climate and land use change will affect this. This project will combine novel approaches to investigate nutrient sources, removal and bioavailability with geochemical tracers to better understand nutrient flow and removal pathways. This new knowledge will be captured in state of the art m ....Untangling the mechanisms of nutrient export from agricultural catchments. This projects aims to better understand the factors controlling nutrient retention and removal within agricultural catchments and how climate and land use change will affect this. This project will combine novel approaches to investigate nutrient sources, removal and bioavailability with geochemical tracers to better understand nutrient flow and removal pathways. This new knowledge will be captured in state of the art modelling approaches that will help improve land management practices, leading to reduced nutrient loads and improved water quality in receiving waters such as the Gippsland Lakes.Read moreRead less
Improving airborne electromagnetic surveying for minerals and groundwater. Groundwater is vital in many parts of Australia due to low surface water availability while much of Australia’s mineral wealth is obscured by conductive cover. Airborne surveys are key to mapping minerals and water over large areas. This project aims to enhance the resolution of airborne electromagnetic surveying technology by developing advanced new aircraft transmitters and receivers. The project expects to enable compl ....Improving airborne electromagnetic surveying for minerals and groundwater. Groundwater is vital in many parts of Australia due to low surface water availability while much of Australia’s mineral wealth is obscured by conductive cover. Airborne surveys are key to mapping minerals and water over large areas. This project aims to enhance the resolution of airborne electromagnetic surveying technology by developing advanced new aircraft transmitters and receivers. The project expects to enable complex groundwater structures to be mapped more accurately and increase the depth to which conductive ore bodies can be detected. Expected outcomes include the discovery of new economic mineral and water resources. This should provide significant benefits to the mining and agricultural industries.Read moreRead less
Closing the Gap in Pipe Condition Assessment using Hydro-Acoustic Waves. Worldwide, the deterioration of water distribution pipeline infrastructure is driving an unsustainable explosion in maintenance and repair costs. In collaboration with industry leader Detection Services, this project will develop new methods to detect pipe condition faults at a scale and precision not currently possible. The outcome will be an advanced, yet practical, technology that provides critical information on pipe co ....Closing the Gap in Pipe Condition Assessment using Hydro-Acoustic Waves. Worldwide, the deterioration of water distribution pipeline infrastructure is driving an unsustainable explosion in maintenance and repair costs. In collaboration with industry leader Detection Services, this project will develop new methods to detect pipe condition faults at a scale and precision not currently possible. The outcome will be an advanced, yet practical, technology that provides critical information on pipe condition using new innovative active hydro-acoustic signal generators and sensors, combined with state-of-the-art signal analysis methods. The unprecedented cost-effectiveness of the technology will ensure a broad use in the water industry for targeted and efficient action, creating jobs and saving costs.Read moreRead less
Can real-time control deliver environmental flows to protect urban streams? Increased frequency and severity of both droughts and floods in a changing climate accentuate the already-severe global impacts on urban streams. This project aims to test a world-first approach to tackling this problem, using advances in real-time control technology. The approach facilitates a public-private co-management of water resources, offering simultaneous benefits in water supply, flood mitigation and provision ....Can real-time control deliver environmental flows to protect urban streams? Increased frequency and severity of both droughts and floods in a changing climate accentuate the already-severe global impacts on urban streams. This project aims to test a world-first approach to tackling this problem, using advances in real-time control technology. The approach facilitates a public-private co-management of water resources, offering simultaneous benefits in water supply, flood mitigation and provision of environmental flows to maintain healthy urban streams. It has the potential to revolutionise the way we manage water in cities, providing a model for the water industry around the world in adapting to a changing climate, turning excess and damaging urban runoff into a dual resource of water supply and environmental flows.Read moreRead less