Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE160100027
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$600,000.00
Summary
Australian National Facility for Noble-Gas Radio-Isotope Measurements. Australian national facility for noble-gas radio-isotope measurements:
This facility is designed to provide researchers with the ability to accurately date water and ice cores using the natural radio-isotopes in the sample. Radiocarbon dating has been a revolutionary tool in providing answers to a range of questions in anthropology, archaeology and the earth sciences. However, radiocarbon dating has a strong limitation in th ....Australian National Facility for Noble-Gas Radio-Isotope Measurements. Australian national facility for noble-gas radio-isotope measurements:
This facility is designed to provide researchers with the ability to accurately date water and ice cores using the natural radio-isotopes in the sample. Radiocarbon dating has been a revolutionary tool in providing answers to a range of questions in anthropology, archaeology and the earth sciences. However, radiocarbon dating has a strong limitation in that it can only date periods from 1000–50 000 years: the use of radioactive noble-gas isotopes can extend this range out to 1 year to 1 million years. This capability in the new facility is expected to support new understanding of processes in artesian reservoirs, ocean currents and geology that may affect questions of water availability, climate and environmental change.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0560828
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$363,288.00
Summary
Hydrodynamics and water quality field research facility. Understanding the fate of sediments and contaminants transported through catchments and the marine environment and their impacts on aquatic and marine ecosystems requires detailed hydrodynamic understanding at a range of scales. By establishing a state of the art research facility, JCU and GU together have a unique opportunity to provide hydrodynamic and water quality research which will support research priority areas of both institutions ....Hydrodynamics and water quality field research facility. Understanding the fate of sediments and contaminants transported through catchments and the marine environment and their impacts on aquatic and marine ecosystems requires detailed hydrodynamic understanding at a range of scales. By establishing a state of the art research facility, JCU and GU together have a unique opportunity to provide hydrodynamic and water quality research which will support research priority areas of both institutions, and advance the understanding of Australia's important tropical and subtropical ecosystems. Currently, excellent researchers and novel collaborations between and within James Cook University and Griffith University, are restricted by the lack of essential modern equipment.Read moreRead less
Quantifying the pathways and fluxes of iron to Moreton Bay. Recent investigations into the blooms of Lyngbya majuscula in Moreton Bay have identified dissolved iron, phosphorus and humic substances as important triggers of blooms. These chemicals are most likely sourced from land activities and transported by surface and ground water into the bay. Quantification of the groundwater discharge and associated chemical input to the bay has been identified by the Lyngbya Scientific Panel and the Lyng ....Quantifying the pathways and fluxes of iron to Moreton Bay. Recent investigations into the blooms of Lyngbya majuscula in Moreton Bay have identified dissolved iron, phosphorus and humic substances as important triggers of blooms. These chemicals are most likely sourced from land activities and transported by surface and ground water into the bay. Quantification of the groundwater discharge and associated chemical input to the bay has been identified by the Lyngbya Scientific Panel and the Lyngbya Management Steering Committee as a key issue for future Lyngbya scientific investigations. This project aims to investigate and quantify both surface and subsurface pathways and fluxes of iron to the bay.Read moreRead less
Water resource management of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme catchment and the Murray-Darling River system - a new perspective on system reliability from drought history reconstruction. The Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme assists in underwriting the production of $3 billion of agricultural products in the Murray-Darling Basin each year by providing a reliable source of water west of the Great Dividing Range, while Hydro-electric generation from the Scheme is worth annually severa ....Water resource management of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme catchment and the Murray-Darling River system - a new perspective on system reliability from drought history reconstruction. The Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme assists in underwriting the production of $3 billion of agricultural products in the Murray-Darling Basin each year by providing a reliable source of water west of the Great Dividing Range, while Hydro-electric generation from the Scheme is worth annually several hundred million dollars and provides 70% of the renewable energy supplied to the eastern mainland grid, thereby avoiding 5Mt of carbon dioxide emissions each year. This study will ensure the ongoing sustainable and efficient management of the Schemes water resources in response to predicted climate variability and most importantly, severe drought. Read moreRead less
Effectiveness of deep natural clay, compacted clay and geomembranes in limiting seepage from coal seam gas production water evaporation ponds. Australia's coal seam gas reserves exceed those of the Moomba and Bass Strait gas fields combined. Queensland's coal seam gas production already accounts for more than 50% of the state's natural gas supply, and continues to grow rapidly. The production of coal seam gas will escalate in coming years, particularly to provide a clean fuel for electricity g ....Effectiveness of deep natural clay, compacted clay and geomembranes in limiting seepage from coal seam gas production water evaporation ponds. Australia's coal seam gas reserves exceed those of the Moomba and Bass Strait gas fields combined. Queensland's coal seam gas production already accounts for more than 50% of the state's natural gas supply, and continues to grow rapidly. The production of coal seam gas will escalate in coming years, particularly to provide a clean fuel for electricity generation and feed stock for liquefied natural gas to supply rapidly growing markets in Asia. As gas production increases, so too does the generation of saline water. This research will ensure that the evaporation of the saline water does not impact the underlying Great Artesian Basin, so that coal seam gas production may continue and grow.Read moreRead less
A robust integrated streamflow forecasting framework for Australian water information and management agencies. This project aims to deliver an accurate and reliable seasonal streamflow forecasting system for Australian water users by developing a flexible rainfall-runoff modelling approach integrated into a Bayesian inference and prediction framework. These scientific developments aim to significantly advance the operational capabilities of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology to deliver robust ....A robust integrated streamflow forecasting framework for Australian water information and management agencies. This project aims to deliver an accurate and reliable seasonal streamflow forecasting system for Australian water users by developing a flexible rainfall-runoff modelling approach integrated into a Bayesian inference and prediction framework. These scientific developments aim to significantly advance the operational capabilities of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology to deliver robust streamflow forecasts to water agencies such as South East Queensland Water and others across Australia. Accurate predictions of future water flows are of tremendous value to urban and rural Australian communities whose economic prosperity, water security and social well-being depend on reliable estimates of water availability.Read moreRead less
Water sensitive mining. The project aims to provide tools that can identify how mining projects, including associated land use and infrastructure, can play a positive role in sustainable water management. This will be based on new knowledge about mine-land-water relationships, novel approaches to modelling mine site hydrology within regional models and greater emphasis on risk evaluation. This work is essential if resource-rich regions in Australia and beyond are to be developed with sustainabil ....Water sensitive mining. The project aims to provide tools that can identify how mining projects, including associated land use and infrastructure, can play a positive role in sustainable water management. This will be based on new knowledge about mine-land-water relationships, novel approaches to modelling mine site hydrology within regional models and greater emphasis on risk evaluation. This work is essential if resource-rich regions in Australia and beyond are to be developed with sustainability as a goal, and for mining to live comfortably alongside other strategically important water and land users. The main outcome aims to be the development of new tools for predicting and optimising the regional water management opportunities provided by mining.Read moreRead less
The big flood: will it happen again? If we could better predict the frequency of extreme flood events, would we be better prepared to safeguard human lives and settlements? This project provides a time-line of flood activity in the south east Queensland region extending back thousands of years using state-of-the-art dating techniques and seeks to identifiy those settlements most at risk.
Sustaining intensive agriculture through droughts and floods. This project aims to develop state-of-the-art conceptual and numerical models of river-soil-groundwater interactions to address complex and persistent questions on water sustainability in the Lower Burdekin Delta, Queensland, where groundwater pumping to irrigate sugarcane has been supplemented by artificial recharge for over 50 years. This project expects to deliver new knowledge of critical aquifer processes to inform the scheme ope ....Sustaining intensive agriculture through droughts and floods. This project aims to develop state-of-the-art conceptual and numerical models of river-soil-groundwater interactions to address complex and persistent questions on water sustainability in the Lower Burdekin Delta, Queensland, where groundwater pumping to irrigate sugarcane has been supplemented by artificial recharge for over 50 years. This project expects to deliver new knowledge of critical aquifer processes to inform the scheme operation, the largest in the country. Expected outcomes include ground-breaking management plans for the aquifer-replenishment scheme. Anticipated benefits involve balancing the needs of agriculture and the protection of pristine environments, including groundwater discharge to the Great Barrier Reef.
Read moreRead less
Hydrogeological drivers and fate of spring flow in a semi-arid setting. In arid and semi-arid climates, aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems often rely on groundwater springs. Spring hydrology depends on complex relationships between underlying aquifers and surface conditions, leading to high uncertainties in understanding aquifer-spring-wetland hydrology, which is critical for spring ecosystem protection and to inform management of relevant groundwater-affecting activities. This project will appl ....Hydrogeological drivers and fate of spring flow in a semi-arid setting. In arid and semi-arid climates, aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems often rely on groundwater springs. Spring hydrology depends on complex relationships between underlying aquifers and surface conditions, leading to high uncertainties in understanding aquifer-spring-wetland hydrology, which is critical for spring ecosystem protection and to inform management of relevant groundwater-affecting activities. This project will apply novel hydrogeophysical and hydrochemical methods, and computer modelling, to investigate the source aquifer of, and fate of discharge from the Doongmabulla Springs Complex (DSC), located in an area of future development. Project results will inform spring vulnerability to development pressures and climate effects.Read moreRead less