Special Research Initiatives - Grant ID: SR0354817
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$10,000.00
Summary
Groundwater and the Environment: Understanding the role of groundwater in the maintenance of sustainable ecosystems in Australia.
. 97% of freshwater on earth is groundwater. Despite this, it is undervalued, largely unexplored and poorly understood. In Australia, groundwater plays a critical role in our salinity problem and sustains our ecosystems. It will be a critical water supply in the future, especially in times of drought when surface water is scarce. Our nation's groundwater resources ....Groundwater and the Environment: Understanding the role of groundwater in the maintenance of sustainable ecosystems in Australia.
. 97% of freshwater on earth is groundwater. Despite this, it is undervalued, largely unexplored and poorly understood. In Australia, groundwater plays a critical role in our salinity problem and sustains our ecosystems. It will be a critical water supply in the future, especially in times of drought when surface water is scarce. Our nation's groundwater resources require the same unresounding commitment to preservation that we now see in the Murray-Darling basin. This network develops foundations for a desperately needed National Groundwater Centre to provide research to ensure win-win outcomes for this country's water resources and the users that rely on them.
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Integration of Surface Water and Ground Water Processes in Coastal Catchments. The hydrologic processes which describe surface water and groundwater movement often occur at completely different temporal and spatial scales. These two distinct flow regimes, however, are intrinsically coupled in coastal catchments in Australia. The superposition of local flow systems on a regional groundwater framework results in complex interactions which are difficult to accurately predict with existing numeric ....Integration of Surface Water and Ground Water Processes in Coastal Catchments. The hydrologic processes which describe surface water and groundwater movement often occur at completely different temporal and spatial scales. These two distinct flow regimes, however, are intrinsically coupled in coastal catchments in Australia. The superposition of local flow systems on a regional groundwater framework results in complex interactions which are difficult to accurately predict with existing numerical models, and are not truly understood even at the conceptual level. This work aims to study a single catchment at a very detailed level to allow for the production of a new integrated approach to the simulation of the complete hydrologic systemRead moreRead less
Monitoring and Modelling Hydrogeochemical Interactions with Groundwater : Implications for Mine Dewatering on Groundwater, River and Lake Chemistry. Alcoa operates a power station and brown coal mine at Anglesea in western Victoria. Following heavy rain in 2000 acidic water entered the Anglesea estuary causing precipitation of iron and aluminium flocs and fish kills. Estuary closure to tourism resulted. This project will identify the cause(s) of this phenomenon by modelling groundwater movement ....Monitoring and Modelling Hydrogeochemical Interactions with Groundwater : Implications for Mine Dewatering on Groundwater, River and Lake Chemistry. Alcoa operates a power station and brown coal mine at Anglesea in western Victoria. Following heavy rain in 2000 acidic water entered the Anglesea estuary causing precipitation of iron and aluminium flocs and fish kills. Estuary closure to tourism resulted. This project will identify the cause(s) of this phenomenon by modelling groundwater movement and studying geochemical processes. The resultant hydrogeochemical model will also be applied to simulating longer term water quality changes in the catchment arising from current mine dewatering operations and future rewatering following mine closure.
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Managing Fresh-Water Resources in Saline Environments. Australian industry and urban developments often rely on a secure supply of fresh water. In many situations, the fresh water occurs adjacent to large expanses of saline water. This poses special constraints on how the fresh water can be recovered. This project undertakes careful mathematical modelling of fresh water recovery from reservoirs and from within islands (where it may be the only practical source of drinking water). The injecti ....Managing Fresh-Water Resources in Saline Environments. Australian industry and urban developments often rely on a secure supply of fresh water. In many situations, the fresh water occurs adjacent to large expanses of saline water. This poses special constraints on how the fresh water can be recovered. This project undertakes careful mathematical modelling of fresh water recovery from reservoirs and from within islands (where it may be the only practical source of drinking water). The injection and extraction of ground water in novel "mineral leaching" mining technology will also be investigated.Read moreRead less
Remediation of Underground Contaminant Source Areas using Nano-scale, Zero Valent Iron and Potassium Permanganate. Land in parts of Australia valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars is currently contaminated by organic compounds to levels unsuitable for human health and safety . At many of these contaminated sites, the contamination is present as pure, separate phase oil that is trapped due to geology or other physical reasons. This remaining oil is a long term source of contamination, a ....Remediation of Underground Contaminant Source Areas using Nano-scale, Zero Valent Iron and Potassium Permanganate. Land in parts of Australia valued in the hundreds of millions of dollars is currently contaminated by organic compounds to levels unsuitable for human health and safety . At many of these contaminated sites, the contamination is present as pure, separate phase oil that is trapped due to geology or other physical reasons. This remaining oil is a long term source of contamination, and is exceptionally difficult to remediate. The proposed research will investigate a novel and highly effective approach to destroying this contamination in the ground, helping to restore the value and utility of the land.Read moreRead less
Mitigation of Impacts on Groundwater Dependent Vegetation Through Adaptive Abstraction Regimes. Apart from loss of habitat, biodiversity, ecological function and aesthetics, tree decline and death is a financial burden to land managers. Lost groundwater production from existing borefield infrastructure due to environmental risk also represents a significant economic loss to industry. By adapting borefield operation strategies to be more sympathetic to environmental demands for groundwater, susta ....Mitigation of Impacts on Groundwater Dependent Vegetation Through Adaptive Abstraction Regimes. Apart from loss of habitat, biodiversity, ecological function and aesthetics, tree decline and death is a financial burden to land managers. Lost groundwater production from existing borefield infrastructure due to environmental risk also represents a significant economic loss to industry. By adapting borefield operation strategies to be more sympathetic to environmental demands for groundwater, sustainable use of the resource can be maximized under otherwise 'high-risk' scenarios. This project will result in environmental benefits such as reduced impacts of borefields and economic benefits such as recovery of lost production from 'high-risk' borefields, increased viability of planned schemes and reduced customer cost of water services.Read moreRead less
The Influence of Fracture Network Topology on Fluid Flow in the Subsurface. This project focuses on developing methods for the simulation of fluid flow in fractured rock aquifers. Given the large computational requirements involved in modelling discretely fractured rock masses, scaling approaches are required to allow for simulation at field scales. The sensitivity of the scaling to the parameters describing the fracture network will be investigated. It is anticipated that the scaled function ....The Influence of Fracture Network Topology on Fluid Flow in the Subsurface. This project focuses on developing methods for the simulation of fluid flow in fractured rock aquifers. Given the large computational requirements involved in modelling discretely fractured rock masses, scaling approaches are required to allow for simulation at field scales. The sensitivity of the scaling to the parameters describing the fracture network will be investigated. It is anticipated that the scaled functional relationships will be quite network specific, and that the identification of the controls on the form of the scaling relationships will allow for the focussing of data acquisition to the most salient information, and will reduce the costs involved.Read moreRead less
Risk Assessment of Pesticide Contamination of Surface Water and Groundwater - Trigger Mechanisms for Fast Transport. Pesticide and herbicide transport to groundwater and surface water poses a risk to the environment and humans alike. A new event-based risk assessment approach of pesticide movement to surface water and groundwater will be developed. With the use of rainfall simulation partitioning between surface runoff and infiltration will be quantified in an agricultural catchment. Pesticide c ....Risk Assessment of Pesticide Contamination of Surface Water and Groundwater - Trigger Mechanisms for Fast Transport. Pesticide and herbicide transport to groundwater and surface water poses a risk to the environment and humans alike. A new event-based risk assessment approach of pesticide movement to surface water and groundwater will be developed. With the use of rainfall simulation partitioning between surface runoff and infiltration will be quantified in an agricultural catchment. Pesticide contamination events will be identified from climatic data such high intensity rainfalls and soil properties controlling runoff and preferential flow. Results will be used to develop management strategies to reduce offsite movement of pesticides.Read moreRead less
A Generalized Flood Frequency Framework for Prediction of the Effects of Multi-Scale Hydroclimatic Variability. The proposed project aims to investigate the effects of natural, multi-scale variability in climatic inputs, especially precipitation inputs -- intra-annual (seasonal), inter-annual and inter-decadal -- on the estimation of frequency of flooding. It will investigate the propagation of these natural variabilities through the catchment system, through simple models that can enable the e ....A Generalized Flood Frequency Framework for Prediction of the Effects of Multi-Scale Hydroclimatic Variability. The proposed project aims to investigate the effects of natural, multi-scale variability in climatic inputs, especially precipitation inputs -- intra-annual (seasonal), inter-annual and inter-decadal -- on the estimation of frequency of flooding. It will investigate the propagation of these natural variabilities through the catchment system, through simple models that can enable the estimation of probability distributions of soil moisture, runoff generation and flood peaks, and elucidate the underlying process controls. In this way, it will help develop a new framework for the incorporation of these multi-scale variabilities in flood estimation practice in Australia.Read moreRead less
More bang for your carbon buck: carbon, biodiversity and water balance consequences of whole-catchment carbon farming. Farming carbon via tree plantings on pasture land is becoming increasingly common to address the effects of climate change. This activity is likely to produce dramatic changes in Australia's rural landscapes, but we have little knowledge of likely effects on crucial ecosystem services and attributes such as stream water yields and biodiversity. This project will investigate the ....More bang for your carbon buck: carbon, biodiversity and water balance consequences of whole-catchment carbon farming. Farming carbon via tree plantings on pasture land is becoming increasingly common to address the effects of climate change. This activity is likely to produce dramatic changes in Australia's rural landscapes, but we have little knowledge of likely effects on crucial ecosystem services and attributes such as stream water yields and biodiversity. This project will investigate the relationship between tree cover, carbon uptake, water yield and biodiversity. The outcomes will allow government agencies, landowners and carbon farming groups to better evaluate the effects of different landscape planning options and contribute to effective long-term planning for multiple goals.Read moreRead less