Microplastics in Landfills and Surrounding Environments. This project aims to build a risk-based framework for managing micro- and nano-plastic particles in landfills and surrounding environments. It expects to develop a new experimentally validated theory of micro/nano-plastic transport in soils, focussing on lining systems used in landfills worldwide to protect aquifers from contamination. The project will use state-of-the-art experimental, theoretical and computational approaches to generate ....Microplastics in Landfills and Surrounding Environments. This project aims to build a risk-based framework for managing micro- and nano-plastic particles in landfills and surrounding environments. It expects to develop a new experimentally validated theory of micro/nano-plastic transport in soils, focussing on lining systems used in landfills worldwide to protect aquifers from contamination. The project will use state-of-the-art experimental, theoretical and computational approaches to generate new knowledge on micro/nano-plastic fate in lining systems and their effects on the mobility of heavy metals and organic pollutants. This should provide significant benefits including safe plastic containment and groundwater protection from landfill waste, a major reservoir of plastic in the environment.Read moreRead less
Urban flood modelling at speed and scale. Frequent floods in urban areas cause damages comparable to extreme floods. This is likely to intensify with future urbanisation and climate change. Although Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) offers sustainable urban drainage solutions, there are no models that can select an optimal WSUD system to deliver on a set urban flood mitigation target. The project aims to develop a new generation of fast urban flood models and the-first-of-its-kind WSUD plannin ....Urban flood modelling at speed and scale. Frequent floods in urban areas cause damages comparable to extreme floods. This is likely to intensify with future urbanisation and climate change. Although Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) offers sustainable urban drainage solutions, there are no models that can select an optimal WSUD system to deliver on a set urban flood mitigation target. The project aims to develop a new generation of fast urban flood models and the-first-of-its-kind WSUD planning tool to support industry and governments to effectively reduce the urban flooding damages. The project outcomes are also applicable for advancing early warning systems and real-time control of floods.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE210101155
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$425,952.00
Summary
From stormwater to potable water via Water Sensitive Urban Design? The project aims to develop a framework that contains viable procedures to quantify, control and monitor the health risks associated with stormwater harvesting using Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) systems (i.e., natural-based solutions). It expects to address the concerns about the safety of stormwater harvesting via WSUD for all end-uses. It will generate new knowledge regarding the real time control and monitoring of WSUD, ....From stormwater to potable water via Water Sensitive Urban Design? The project aims to develop a framework that contains viable procedures to quantify, control and monitor the health risks associated with stormwater harvesting using Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) systems (i.e., natural-based solutions). It expects to address the concerns about the safety of stormwater harvesting via WSUD for all end-uses. It will generate new knowledge regarding the real time control and monitoring of WSUD, thus truly advancing the WUSD technology as emerging urban green infrastructure for reliable stormwater harvesting. Expected outcomes include next generation of WSUDs implemented with real time control techniques, as well as a suite of easy-to-measure surrogate parameters for real time water quality monitoring.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
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
Validation and monitoring of advanced oxidation for potable water reuse. This project aims to address an important limitation in the ability to monitor performance of advanced oxidation processes used to treat recycled water for drinking. The project will be conducted using a novel pilot system, designed to facilitate flexible operation and detailed monitoring. Through carefully designed experiments, observed operational parameters will be related to treatment performance for a range of contamin ....Validation and monitoring of advanced oxidation for potable water reuse. This project aims to address an important limitation in the ability to monitor performance of advanced oxidation processes used to treat recycled water for drinking. The project will be conducted using a novel pilot system, designed to facilitate flexible operation and detailed monitoring. Through carefully designed experiments, observed operational parameters will be related to treatment performance for a range of contaminants. An expected outcome is the development of a framework to provide validation of process performance relationships and ongoing performance monitoring for use by water utilities and regulatory agencies that oversee their operations. This highly practical framework for validation and performance monitoring of an advanced water treatment process should result in improved viability of water recycling projects, increased urban water supply security and enhanced protection of public health.Read moreRead less
Seismic analysis of cracking and deformations in concrete gravity dams. This project aims to establish a rational predictive capability for the responses of concrete gravity dams subject to extreme design earthquakes. This will include the development of innovative numerical methods for effective modelling of crack propagation and closure, large slips on crack faces and weak interfaces, dam-reservoir interaction, dam-foundation interaction and automatic mesh generation. The expected outcomes of ....Seismic analysis of cracking and deformations in concrete gravity dams. This project aims to establish a rational predictive capability for the responses of concrete gravity dams subject to extreme design earthquakes. This will include the development of innovative numerical methods for effective modelling of crack propagation and closure, large slips on crack faces and weak interfaces, dam-reservoir interaction, dam-foundation interaction and automatic mesh generation. The expected outcomes of the project will be a significantly improved prediction tool. It is also anticipated that the project will result in improvements in dam and public safety, and more efficient use of funds for dam safety upgrades and management.Read moreRead less
Assessing risk of oligomictic conditions in sub-tropical water supply lakes. Assessing risk of oligomictic conditions in sub-tropical water supply lakes. This project aims to assess the risk of low rates of mixing in sub-tropical drinking water supply reservoirs, using environmental monitoring and numerical modelling. Emerging evidence suggests sub-tropical drinking water supply reservoirs could transition to low mixing states with increasing age and projected changes in global climate. While th ....Assessing risk of oligomictic conditions in sub-tropical water supply lakes. Assessing risk of oligomictic conditions in sub-tropical water supply lakes. This project aims to assess the risk of low rates of mixing in sub-tropical drinking water supply reservoirs, using environmental monitoring and numerical modelling. Emerging evidence suggests sub-tropical drinking water supply reservoirs could transition to low mixing states with increasing age and projected changes in global climate. While this risk is poorly understood, it could significantly affect the long-term reliability of water supply and potable water treatment costs. Addressing this knowledge gap is expected to develop effective management responses to ensure the long term sustainable use of these water resources.Read moreRead less
Decarbonising built environments with hempcrete and green wall technology. This project aims to develop an integrated prefabricated building panel solution combining green wall and hempcrete technology to address environmental problems associated with the usage of carbon intensive construction materials, dense urbanisation, climate change and biodiversity. Innovation in hempcrete technology consist in using low carbon options including alkali-activated binders and biomineralization technology, g ....Decarbonising built environments with hempcrete and green wall technology. This project aims to develop an integrated prefabricated building panel solution combining green wall and hempcrete technology to address environmental problems associated with the usage of carbon intensive construction materials, dense urbanisation, climate change and biodiversity. Innovation in hempcrete technology consist in using low carbon options including alkali-activated binders and biomineralization technology, glass waste replacing natural sand. Hempcrete green wall panels will be design to be carbon positive, improve the thermal performance of buildings, provide better acoustic insolation, reduce the risk of mould proliferation, control indoor humidity and air quality and improve indoor thermal comfort.
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Linking microstructural evolutions across the scales of granular failure. This project expects to transform the understanding of granular materials and their behaviour by establishing explicit links between the macroscopic responses of the materials and their evolving microstructural properties. This should lead to revolutionary constitutive models for granular materials that possess true mechanisms of evolving grain-scale structures. The proliferation of these new models should allow developmen ....Linking microstructural evolutions across the scales of granular failure. This project expects to transform the understanding of granular materials and their behaviour by establishing explicit links between the macroscopic responses of the materials and their evolving microstructural properties. This should lead to revolutionary constitutive models for granular materials that possess true mechanisms of evolving grain-scale structures. The proliferation of these new models should allow development of reliable predictive computational tools for the modelling and assessment of field-scale failure involving granular materials, enhancing the capability to assess the integrity and stability of earth structures, and benefitting the Australian economy, environment and public safety.Read moreRead less