A balancing act: Resolving coastal wetland water, carbon and solute fluxes. Coastal wetlands offer an impressive capacity to regulate the Earth’s climate by altering the way carbon dioxide is extracted from the atmosphere and stored while simultaneously influencing the water cycle, thus providing ecosystem services such as carbon storage, abating flood waters, improving water quality and protecting the coastline from sea level rise. This project aims to address the current gaps in understanding .... A balancing act: Resolving coastal wetland water, carbon and solute fluxes. Coastal wetlands offer an impressive capacity to regulate the Earth’s climate by altering the way carbon dioxide is extracted from the atmosphere and stored while simultaneously influencing the water cycle, thus providing ecosystem services such as carbon storage, abating flood waters, improving water quality and protecting the coastline from sea level rise. This project aims to address the current gaps in understanding the critical exchanges of water and greenhouse gases (GHGs) combining field methodologies and hydrological models, under different climatic conditions. The intended outcomes will benefit management of GHG emissions, coastal flooding and vulnerable groundwater dependent habitats.Read moreRead less
Tracking formation-flying of nanosatellites using inter-satellite links. This project aims to realise real-time kinematic precise orbit and attitude determination of nano satellites. Formation flying, based on distributed miniaturised satellites such as Cubesats, is envisioned to revolutionise the way the space-science community conducts autonomous missions. The project will develop a purely kinematic concept exploiting the full capabilities of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) carrier- ....Tracking formation-flying of nanosatellites using inter-satellite links. This project aims to realise real-time kinematic precise orbit and attitude determination of nano satellites. Formation flying, based on distributed miniaturised satellites such as Cubesats, is envisioned to revolutionise the way the space-science community conducts autonomous missions. The project will develop a purely kinematic concept exploiting the full capabilities of Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) carrier-phase measurements for instantaneous precise orbit and attitude determination of the Cubesats. The project will also pioneer the use of the satellite based augmentation systems (SBAS), supporting the future Australian SBAS program, and the development of integrated algorithms for space-based, Precise Point Positioning with fixed ambiguities supported by SBAS.Read moreRead less
Acoustics for Large Scale Biodiversity Assessment. Aims: This project will investigate using automated acoustic recording to efficiently census biodiversity assessment at a continental scale.
Significance: To generate new techniques for analysing environmental acoustic data and assessing Australian biodiversity, verified empirical estimates of biodiversity, an understanding of causes of variation in biodiversity.
Expected outcomes: methods for large-scale and accurate assessment of biodiversity ....Acoustics for Large Scale Biodiversity Assessment. Aims: This project will investigate using automated acoustic recording to efficiently census biodiversity assessment at a continental scale.
Significance: To generate new techniques for analysing environmental acoustic data and assessing Australian biodiversity, verified empirical estimates of biodiversity, an understanding of causes of variation in biodiversity.
Expected outcomes: methods for large-scale and accurate assessment of biodiversity, enhanced capacity to detect causes of variation in biodiversity, open-source software tools for analysing environmental audio data, biodiversity datasets.
Benefits: measuring and understanding biodiversity change, allowing enhanced management, conservation, and use of Australian natural resources.
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Advanced techniques for imaging radar interferometry. The Earth's surface is changing all the time, both slowly and dramatically, due to activities such as groundwater extraction, underground mining and earthquakes. This project will develop advanced, cost-effective and accurate imaging radar techniques that can measure subtle surface changes frequently, in order to safeguard significant infrastructure.
Modern statistical methods for clustering community ecology data. This project will develop statistical methods and software for clustering community ecology data, and use them to analyse systematic survey and citizen science program data collected along the Great Barrier Reef. By doing so, the project will address the dearth of statistical classification techniques for high-dimensional, multi-response data with complex relationships. When the resultant clustering methods are used to construct b ....Modern statistical methods for clustering community ecology data. This project will develop statistical methods and software for clustering community ecology data, and use them to analyse systematic survey and citizen science program data collected along the Great Barrier Reef. By doing so, the project will address the dearth of statistical classification techniques for high-dimensional, multi-response data with complex relationships. When the resultant clustering methods are used to construct bioregions and characterise species’ environmental responses, they should significantly enhance evaluations of the impact of human activity and environmental change on coral diversity. Ultimately, these evaluations can underpin future decisions in the conservation and management of the Great Barrier Reef.Read moreRead less
Climate impacts on grass phenology, diversity and pollen exposure. This project investigates how climate change is altering the phenology, plant diversity, and airborne pollen exposure in Australia's highly productive dry grasslands. The project is expected to answer key questions on shifting grasslands and grass pollen relationships with grass phenology and diversity by merging satellite analysis of phenology with seasonal airborne pollen measures of grass concentrations and diversity. Expect ....Climate impacts on grass phenology, diversity and pollen exposure. This project investigates how climate change is altering the phenology, plant diversity, and airborne pollen exposure in Australia's highly productive dry grasslands. The project is expected to answer key questions on shifting grasslands and grass pollen relationships with grass phenology and diversity by merging satellite analysis of phenology with seasonal airborne pollen measures of grass concentrations and diversity. Expected outcomes of this project will be better management options to safeguard allergy sufferers and improved ecological and pollen forecasts under climate change and extreme events. This project should provide important public health benefits and disease mitigation strategies to Australia's urban and remote areas.
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Digitally-Integrated Smart Sensing of Diverse Airborne Grass Pollen Sources. Grass pollen is the main outdoor allergen source globally, triggering hayfever and asthma in up to 500 million people. With over 10,000 species, the influence of grass type, location and climate on pollen in the air is not yet known. This is a key issue since subtropical and temperate grasses differ in response to environmental factors. The project aims to use artificial intelligence on digital camera images to learn to ....Digitally-Integrated Smart Sensing of Diverse Airborne Grass Pollen Sources. Grass pollen is the main outdoor allergen source globally, triggering hayfever and asthma in up to 500 million people. With over 10,000 species, the influence of grass type, location and climate on pollen in the air is not yet known. This is a key issue since subtropical and temperate grasses differ in response to environmental factors. The project aims to use artificial intelligence on digital camera images to learn to see local grass flowers and integrate this with air sensors trained to detect grass pollen types. The expected outcomes are new capacities to track airborne grass pollen types. These outcomes can transform how pollen can be monitored to reduce the burden of allergies, and provide evidence of changing airborne pollen loads.
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A Photometric Imaging Model for Mobile Underwater Camera Design. This project aims to develop the first photometric model of computational image formation from a mobile underwater platform, allowing the prediction of performance for conventional and computational cameras in physically grounded scenarios. The model is expected to include sufficient detail to predict key performance metrics relevant to targeted underwater imaging applications, including three-dimensional structure recovery, surfac ....A Photometric Imaging Model for Mobile Underwater Camera Design. This project aims to develop the first photometric model of computational image formation from a mobile underwater platform, allowing the prediction of performance for conventional and computational cameras in physically grounded scenarios. The model is expected to include sufficient detail to predict key performance metrics relevant to targeted underwater imaging applications, including three-dimensional structure recovery, surface reflectance characterisation, and discrimination for automated and human-driven classification of benthic habitats. Novel imaging systems optimised for the requirements of specific marine imaging tasks are intended to be designed and constructed, exploiting the imaging model to rapidly explore the camera design space.Read moreRead less
Endocrine Disrupting Compounds: Novel tests for Analysis and Field Validation. This project will give community benefits from new analytical technology and research data to help minimise the threat of environmental contamination with endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDCs). Both urban and rural communities may feel the impacts of EDCs, with potential contamination occurring globally, affecting both wildlife and humans. The main means of transport of EDCs is as contaminants in water and it is ess ....Endocrine Disrupting Compounds: Novel tests for Analysis and Field Validation. This project will give community benefits from new analytical technology and research data to help minimise the threat of environmental contamination with endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDCs). Both urban and rural communities may feel the impacts of EDCs, with potential contamination occurring globally, affecting both wildlife and humans. The main means of transport of EDCs is as contaminants in water and it is essential to learn the extent of contamination occurring in urban and rural water supplies to decide its significance. The research will involve a multi-disciplinary approach, with benefits falling into all four National Research Priorities of sustainability, good health, frontier analytical technology and national safety.Read moreRead less
Thermal isolation: a novel pathway to transforming complex waste. This project aims to establish a novel pathway for transforming complex waste otherwise destined for landfill into valuable products and resources. By leveraging high temperature reactions, the team plans to thermally isolate useful carbons and silica from within automotive shredder residue (ASR) in situ, to produce activated carbon products and silica layers, and so completely recycle this bulk toxic waste for the first time. Suc ....Thermal isolation: a novel pathway to transforming complex waste. This project aims to establish a novel pathway for transforming complex waste otherwise destined for landfill into valuable products and resources. By leveraging high temperature reactions, the team plans to thermally isolate useful carbons and silica from within automotive shredder residue (ASR) in situ, to produce activated carbon products and silica layers, and so completely recycle this bulk toxic waste for the first time. Such innovative new pathways for separating out valuable materials from complex and toxic wastes offer industries an alternative low-cost and sustainable source of raw materials, while reducing pressures on landfills and finite natural resources.Read moreRead less