Optimisation of catchment management: stable isotope studies of water storage and yield. Focusing on the Cotter catchment, this project will establish how the water content of soils and tree stems regulates the amount of water used by trees in sub-catchments, and thus how much reaches streams and dams. Small areas supply most of the water yield and this project will help identify where managers should focus efforts to increase yield.
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
Sedimentary processes on sandy coasts in southern Australia. This project aims to reconstruct sedimentary processes and evolution of key coastal plains in southern Australia. These low-lying coasts, and the settlements and infrastructure on them, are vulnerable to inundation and shoreline erosion. Past behaviour of different types of coasts will be determined by combining innovative geospatial techniques to map morphology and past changes, geophysical imaging of stratigraphy and geochronology. T ....Sedimentary processes on sandy coasts in southern Australia. This project aims to reconstruct sedimentary processes and evolution of key coastal plains in southern Australia. These low-lying coasts, and the settlements and infrastructure on them, are vulnerable to inundation and shoreline erosion. Past behaviour of different types of coasts will be determined by combining innovative geospatial techniques to map morphology and past changes, geophysical imaging of stratigraphy and geochronology. The outcome will be models that explain responses to sediment availability, past storm history and sea-level changes. This will benefit sustainable coastal planning and management, providing geomorphological evidence to support erosion hazard assessments of these and adjacent coasts.Read moreRead less
Vulnerabilities for environmental water outcomes in a changing climate. This project aims to assess the vulnerability of freshwater ecosystems to extended droughts in a variable and changing climate. Governments around the world are investing in the restoration of regulated river systems with environmental water. However, the risks of climate change for environmental water management are seldom considered. This project will model the change in environmental and consumptive water use during exten ....Vulnerabilities for environmental water outcomes in a changing climate. This project aims to assess the vulnerability of freshwater ecosystems to extended droughts in a variable and changing climate. Governments around the world are investing in the restoration of regulated river systems with environmental water. However, the risks of climate change for environmental water management are seldom considered. This project will model the change in environmental and consumptive water use during extended dry periods, and couple this to models of ecological dynamics and failure thresholds. This will improve the success of Australia’s major environmental water programs in sustaining benefits through future multi-year droughts.Read moreRead less
Understanding the Origin and Development of Extreme and Mega Bushfires. Extreme and megafires result in significant damage to property and infrastructure and are associated with large suppression costs. These events form when separate fires Merge. Their increase occurrence in recent seasons highlights the importance of developing tools and technologies that better predict extreme events to aid fire response and inform strategies for greater resilience. This project combines fire field experiment ....Understanding the Origin and Development of Extreme and Mega Bushfires. Extreme and megafires result in significant damage to property and infrastructure and are associated with large suppression costs. These events form when separate fires Merge. Their increase occurrence in recent seasons highlights the importance of developing tools and technologies that better predict extreme events to aid fire response and inform strategies for greater resilience. This project combines fire field experiments with computer modelling to determine factors driving extreme fire development, and develop new knowledge and models. These enable better prediction of active fires, enhance the knowledge base of fire managers for critical decision making and to improve risk modelling and mitigation planning for fire-prone communities.Read moreRead less
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
Unlocking the environmental archives of the Kimberley’s past. This project aims to reconstruct the environmental history of Australia’s Kimberley region spanning the past 60,000 years. Through a multidisciplinary approach, the project will provide new understanding of the causes of environmental change and impacts on this region since the arrival of Australia’s earliest inhabitants. This will inform the development of conservation policy to ensure preservation of the region's globally significan ....Unlocking the environmental archives of the Kimberley’s past. This project aims to reconstruct the environmental history of Australia’s Kimberley region spanning the past 60,000 years. Through a multidisciplinary approach, the project will provide new understanding of the causes of environmental change and impacts on this region since the arrival of Australia’s earliest inhabitants. This will inform the development of conservation policy to ensure preservation of the region's globally significant rock art against environmental change and economic development.
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Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE100100141
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$420,000.00
Summary
High-resolution ITRAX XRF core scanning facility for global change research. This facility will enable researchers to obtain high-resolution geochemical profiles in the study of environmental change and climate variability. It will provide archive data on the variation of density and chemical element composition along sediment and soil cores, rock cores, wood samples, speleothems and corals. These archives contain important information such as human activity, climate variability, water quality c ....High-resolution ITRAX XRF core scanning facility for global change research. This facility will enable researchers to obtain high-resolution geochemical profiles in the study of environmental change and climate variability. It will provide archive data on the variation of density and chemical element composition along sediment and soil cores, rock cores, wood samples, speleothems and corals. These archives contain important information such as human activity, climate variability, water quality changes, pollution histories, recent geomorphological change, land-use change, introduction of invasive species and the occurrence of bushfires. A better understanding of the occurrence and timing of these major environmental issues is of national and regional importance.Read moreRead less
Discovery Indigenous Researchers Development - Grant ID: DI110100019
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$199,742.00
Summary
Tracking the response of the Australian climate to abrupt climate change. This project will use cutting-edge climate proxy analyses to reconstruct the response of the Australian climate system to global climate change over the last 2,000 years. The results will provide significant insight in to how future global climate change will impact on social, biological and physical systems in Australia.
Has it always burned so hot? Fuel and fire in southeast Australian forests. Indigenous cultural burning has been raised as a way of mitigating against climate-driven catastrophic bushfires in southeast Australian forests. It is argued that returning an Indigenous style fire regime will keep landscape fuel loads low, thus reducing the frequency and intensity of bushfires and mitigating against large catastrophic bushfires. While based on enormous reservoirs of traditional fire knowledge in Indige ....Has it always burned so hot? Fuel and fire in southeast Australian forests. Indigenous cultural burning has been raised as a way of mitigating against climate-driven catastrophic bushfires in southeast Australian forests. It is argued that returning an Indigenous style fire regime will keep landscape fuel loads low, thus reducing the frequency and intensity of bushfires and mitigating against large catastrophic bushfires. While based on enormous reservoirs of traditional fire knowledge in Indigenous communities, this assertion needs empirical testing within these highly flammable forests. This project aims to empirically test how fuel loads, fuel type, fire frequency and fire intensity have changed over the past 500 years in southeast Australian forests, spanning the period of indigenous to British management.Read moreRead less