Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE150100302
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$357,170.00
Summary
Predicting groundwater replenishment in arid catchments. Australia is the world's driest continent, and reliant on groundwater for survival and livelihood. A clear understanding of how our groundwater is replenished is therefore imperative. Groundwater recharge is difficult to quantify because it occurs as infiltration beneath streambeds in response to rain events. This project aims to combine field data from fibre optic temperature sensing, radio-isotopes, and remote sensing into streamflow and ....Predicting groundwater replenishment in arid catchments. Australia is the world's driest continent, and reliant on groundwater for survival and livelihood. A clear understanding of how our groundwater is replenished is therefore imperative. Groundwater recharge is difficult to quantify because it occurs as infiltration beneath streambeds in response to rain events. This project aims to combine field data from fibre optic temperature sensing, radio-isotopes, and remote sensing into streamflow and catchment scale models to characterise connections between infiltration and recharge in an Australian catchment. The project aims to produce easily applicable tools to predict aquifer replenishment after storm events and predictions of groundwater availability under future climate conditions.Read moreRead less
Resilience in biogeochemical pathways along a catchment-to-coast continuum. Aquatic systems have degraded more in the past 50 years than any other time in history. Global pressures are further threatening their sustainability, but their complexity makes it difficult to understand how they are responding. This project will combine numerous state-of-the-art approaches to unravel pathways that shape their response.
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
A new strategy for design flood estimation in a nonstationary climate. Evidence suggests that global warming will result in an increase in the frequency and/or magnitude of heavy rainfall, leading to flooding with potentially devastating consequences. This study provides a renewed focus on design flood estimation that takes into account a changing climate where assumptions of stationarity are no longer tenable.