List of Titles

Nitrate import-export dynamics in groundwater interacting with surface-water in a wet-tropical environment

- Rasiah, Velu, Armour, John, Cogle, A.L., Florentine, Singarayer

Authors: Rasiah, Velu , Armour, John , Cogle, A.L. , Florentine, Singarayer
Date: 2010
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Australian Journal of Soil Research Vol. 48, no. 4 (2010), p. 361-370
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Description: Solute import-export dynamics in groundwater (GW) systems interacting with surface-water are complex, particularly under farming systems receiving high fertiliser/pesticide inputs in high rainfall regions. We investigated whether any linkage existed between nitrate-N in: (i) leachate (LC) collected at similar to 1m depth under banana (Musa) and that in GW, and (ii) GW and drain-water (DW). We also assessed the hazard/risk of the concentrations against the trigger values proposed for the sustainable health of different aquatic ecosystems. The LC, GW, and DW samples were collected at short intervals during 3 consecutive rainy seasons (January-July) from a similar to 300-ha banana farm in the wet tropical Tully River Catchment in north-east Queensland, Australia. Water samples were analysed for nitrate-N, dissolved organic carbon, and electrical conductivity. The coefficients of variation, ranging from 13 to 132%, obtained for solute concentrations in LC, GW, and DW indicated large within-and between-season temporal variations. The mean nitrate-N concentrations in LC, GW, and DW were 5320, 4135, and 1976 mu g/L, respectively, and were orders of magnitude higher than the trigger values proposed for the sustainable health of most of the neighbouring aquatic ecosystems. Significant positive associations, with correlation coefficients ranging from 0.56 to 0.96, existed between rainfall received and LC volume collected, and between LC volume and solute concentration, including nitrate-N, in the LC. Similar associations existed between the solutes in (i) LC and GW and (ii) GW and DW. From these associations we conclude the unused/under-utilised nitrate that leached below the root-zone was imported into the GW by the percolating rainwater and was exported into the drain via GW base-flow discharge.
Description: 2003008225

Arsenic contamination in Bangladesh groundwater : A major environmental and social disaster

- Alam, M. G. M., Allinson, Graeme, Stagnitti, Frank, Tanaka, A., Westbrooke, Martin

Authors: Alam, M. G. M. , Allinson, Graeme , Stagnitti, Frank , Tanaka, A. , Westbrooke, Martin
Date: 2002
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: International Journal of Environmental Health Research Vol. 12, no. 3 (2002), p. 236-253
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Description: In attempting to eliminate disease caused by drinking polluted surface water, millions of shallow surface wells were drilled into the Ganges delta alluvium in Bangladesh. The latest statistics indicate that 80% of Bangladesh and an estimated 40 million people are at risk of arsenic poisoning-related diseases because the ground water in these wells is contaminated with arsenic. The clinical manifestations of arsenic poisoning are myriad, and the correct diagnosis depends largely on awareness of the problem. Patients with melanosis, leuco-melanosis, keratosis, hyperkeratosis, dorsum, non-petting edema, gangrene and skin cancer have been identified. The present article reviews the current arsenic contamination of ground water, hydrological systems, groundwater potential and utilization and environmental pollution in Bangladesh. This paper concludes by clarifying the main actions required to ensure the sustainable development of water resources in Bangladesh.
Description: 2003000124

Comparison of groundwater transit velocity estimates from flux theory and water table recession based approaches for solute transport

- Rasiah, Velu, Armour, John

Authors: Rasiah, Velu , Armour, John
Date: 2013
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Journal of Environmental Management Vol. 116, no. (February 2013 2013), p. 36-49
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Description: Reliable information in transit time (TT) derived from transit velocity (TV) for rain or irrigation water to mix with groundwater (GW) and the subsequent discharge to surface water bodies (SWB) is essential to address the issues associated with the transport of nutrients, particularly nitrate, from GW to SWB. The objectives of this study are to (i) compare the TV estimates obtained using flux theory-based (Fe) approach with the water table rise/recession (WT) rate approach and (ii) explore the impact of the differences on solute transport from GW to SWB. The results from a study conducted during two rainy seasons in the northeast humid tropics of Queensland, Australia, showed the TV varied in space and over time and the variations depended on the estimation procedures. The lateral TV computed using the WT approach ranged from 1.00 x 10(-3) to 2.82 x 10(-1) m/d with a mean of 6.18 x 10(-2) m/d compared with 2.90 x 10(-4) to 5.15 x 10(-2) m/d for Fr with a mean of 2.63 x 10(-2) m/d. The vertical TV ranged from 2.00 x 10(-3) to 6.02 x 10(-1) m/d with a mean of 1.28 x 10(-1) m/d for the WT compared with 6.76 x 10(-3)-1.78 m/d for the FT with a mean of 2.73 x 10(-1) m/d. These differences are attributed to the role played by different flow pathways. The bypass flow pathway played a role only in WT but not in FT. Approximately 86-95% of the variability in lateral solute transport was accounted for by the lateral TV and the total recession between two consecutive major rainfall events. A comparison of TT from FT and WT approaches indicated the laterally transported nitrate from the GW to the nearby creek was relatively 'new', implying the opportunity for accumulation and to undergo biochemical reactions in GW was low. The results indicated the WT approach produced more reliable TT estimates than FT in the presence of bypass flow pathways. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Description: C1

Selective oxidation of arsenite by peroxymonosulfate with high utilization efficiency of oxidant

- Wang, Zhaohui, Bush, Richard, Sullivan, Leigh, Chen, Chuncheng, Liu, Jianshe

Authors: Wang, Zhaohui , Bush, Richard , Sullivan, Leigh , Chen, Chuncheng , Liu, Jianshe
Date: 2014
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Environmental Science and Technology Vol. 48, no. 7 (2014), p. 3978-3985
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Description: Oxidation of arsenite (As(III)) is a critical yet often weak link in many current technologies for remediating contaminated groundwater. We report a novel, efficient oxidation reaction for As(III) conversion to As(V) using commercial available peroxymonosulfate (PMS). As(III) is rapidly oxidized by PMS with a utilization efficiency larger than 90%. Increasing PMS concentrations and pH accelerate oxidation of As(III), independent to the availability of dissolved oxygen the addition of PMS enables As(III) to oxidize completely to As(V) within 24 h, even in the presence of high concentrations of radical scavengers. On the basis of these observations and theoretical calculations, a two-electron transfer (i.e., oxygen atom transfer) reaction pathway is proposed. Direct oxidation of As(III) by PMS avoids the formation of nonselective reactive radicals, thus minimizing the adverse impact of coexisting organic matter and maximizing the utilization efficiency of PMS therefore, this simple approach is considered a cost-effective water treatment method for the oxidation of As(III) to As(V). © 2014 American Chemical Society.

An assessment of the monitoring methods and data limitations for inflow and infiltration in sewer networks

- Jayasooriya, Mahinda, Dahlhaus, Peter, Barton, Andrew, Gell, Peter

Authors: Jayasooriya, Mahinda , Dahlhaus, Peter , Barton, Andrew , Gell, Peter
Date: 2015
Type: Text , Conference proceedings
Relation: 36th Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium: The Art and Science of Water, HWRS 2015; Hobart, Tasmania; 7th-10th December 2016. p. 436-442
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Description: Inflow and infiltration into separate sewer systems is an ongoing challenge experienced by water utilities in managing sewer networks across the world. An accurate estimation of groundwater infiltration in terms of volume and flow rate is important for making decisions on sewer rehabilitation and for the effective operation of sewer networks. The fast response of surface inflow to sewers occurs during or immediately after a prolonged or intense precipitation event and can often be exacerbated by illegal stormwater connections into the sewer network. The slow response of inflow to sewers can be attributed to deep infiltration or the discharge of groundwater into the sewer network. A common practice for most Australian water utilities in combatting the problem of infiltration and inflow is to undertake short to medium term sewer network flow monitoring, while collecting contemporaneous rainfall data, to assess the various volumes and their origin in their sewer networks. This paper presents a review of the current data collection practices, using the City of Ballarat in south eastern Australia as a case study. Discussion is provided around gaps in data collection practices to properly understand the problem and recommendations are made on what additional monitoring works should be performed so that infiltration, in particular, can be assessed on a sound scientific basis. © 2015, Engineers Australia. All rights reserved.
Description: The Art and Science of Water - 36th Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium, HWRS 2015

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Making the invisible visible : The impact of federating groundwater data in Victoria, Australia

- Dahlhaus, Peter, Murphy, Angela, MacLeod, Andrew, Thompson, Helen, McKenna, Kirsten, Ollerenshaw, Alison

Authors: Dahlhaus, Peter , Murphy, Angela , MacLeod, Andrew , Thompson, Helen , McKenna, Kirsten , Ollerenshaw, Alison
Date: 2016
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Journal of Hydroinformatics Vol. 18, no. 2 (2016), p. 238-255
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Description: The Visualising Victoria's Groundwater (VVG) web portal federates groundwater data for the State of Victoria, Australia, thus making legacy data, government datasets, research data and community sourced data and observations visible to the public. The portal is innovative because it was developed outside of the government and offers real-time accessto remote authoritative databases by integrating the interoperable web services they each provide. It includes tools for data querying and 3D visualisations that were designed to meet end-user needs and educate the broader community about a normally invisible resource. The social impact of the web portal was measured using multidisciplinary research that employed survey instruments, expert reference groups, and internet analytics to explore the extent to which the web portal has supported decision making by governments, industry, researchers and the community. The research found that single access, multiple data set web portals enhance capacity by providing timely, informed and accurate responses to answer queries and increase productivity by saving time. The provision of multiple datasets from disparate sources within a single portal has changed practices in the Victorian groundwater industry. © 2016 The Authors.

Geoelectrical characterization of hydrological processes in a buried braided river system

- Guinea, Ander, Hollins, Suzanne, Meredith, Karina, Hankin, Stuart, Cendón, Dioni

Authors: Guinea, Ander , Hollins, Suzanne , Meredith, Karina , Hankin, Stuart , Cendón, Dioni
Date: 2016
Type: Text , Conference proceedings , Conference paper
Relation: 22nd European Meeting of Environmental and Engineering Geophysics, Near Surface Geoscience 2016; Barcelona, Spain; 4th-8th September 2016
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Description: The Macquarie Marshes (NSW, Australia) cover approximately 200 square km of the Macquarie River flood-plains. The marshes are one of the largest remaining inland semi-permanent wetlands in southeastern Australia. Diversity of fauna and flora has decreased in the wetlands while the flood-drought cycles controlling these ecosystems have been affected by recent human activity. An Electrical Resistivity Tomography survey has been carried out to provide insight into the surface water/ groundwater interactions occurring at the north-western part of the marshes and to identify potential recharge areas of the aquifer systems. In the resistivity sections three main units can be identified: 1. A top unit of low-resistivity (1 to 6 ohm.m) with about 5 meter thick on average. 2. A middle unit of higher electrical resistivity (6 to 20 ohm.m) that continues to a depth of approximately 20 metres and is discontinuous laterally. 3. A bottom unit below a depth of 20 to 25 metres with resistivity decreasing to values similar to those of the top unit. The resistivity results has allowed to identify clay dominated and sand dominated materials. The groundwater is recharged from surface water following sandy windows in the clay created by modern channels on the surface of the marshes.
Description: 22nd European Meeting of Environmental and Engineering Geophysics, Near Surface Geoscience 2016

Improving access to groundwater data using GroundWaterML2

- Simons, Bruce, Nation, Eloise, Dahlhaus, Peter

Authors: Simons, Bruce , Nation, Eloise , Dahlhaus, Peter
Date: 2015
Type: Text , Conference proceedings
Relation: 36th Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium: The Art and Science of Water, HWRS 2015; Hobart, Tasmania; 7th-10th December 2015 p. 609-616
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Description: This paper describes the preliminary development and use in the Australian context of a standard designed to exchange groundwater related data. The storage and management of groundwater data is distributed across many agencies and organisations, in disparate databases and formats. Discovering, accessing, interpreting, reformatting and using this data can present considerable challenges for the end-user. Groundwater data interoperability consideration of the use of communication protocols to achieve technical interoperability, the use of common data models to achieve syntactic interoperability and the use of controlled vocabularies to achieve semantic interoperability. GroundWaterML2 is a Geography Mark-up Language (GML) application developed by the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) Hydro Domain Working Group. It is intended as a standard for the transfer of groundwater feature data, including data about water wells, aquifers, and related entities. The OGC initiated an interoperability experiment to develop and test the model for commercial, technical, scientific, environmental and policy use cases. CSIRO, the Bureau of Meteorology and Federation University Australia contributed to the design of GroundWaterML2, and established separate OGC web services delivering data out of the National Groundwater Information System (NGIS) and Federation University Australia databases. These services delivered borehole location and construction details, downhole geology, hydrogeologic unit information, groundwater discharge properties, and groundwater fluid property observations. Bringing these services to production would allow users and clients, such as the 'Visualising Victoria's Groundwater' and 'Australian Groundwater Explorer' portals, to access data from multiple providers in a standard format. © 2015, Engineers Australia. All rights reserved.
Description: The Art and Science of Water - 36th Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium, HWRS 2015

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The impacts of water pricing and non-pricing policies on sustainable water resources management : A case of Ghorveh Plain at Kurdistan province, Iran

- Asaadi, Mohammad, Mortazavi, Seyed, Zamani, Omid, Najafi, Gholam, Yusaf, Talal, Hoseini, Seyed

Authors: Asaadi, Mohammad , Mortazavi, Seyed , Zamani, Omid , Najafi, Gholam , Yusaf, Talal , Hoseini, Seyed
Date: 2019
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Energies Vol. 12, no. 14 (2019), p. 1-16
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Description: As with other regions of Iran, due to excessive extraction of groundwater for intense agricultural activity, Ghorveh plain, a water-scarce irrigation district in the west of Iran, has faced a serious water crisis during the last decade. The present study investigates the impacts of two scenario policies, namely, non-price policy (as a supply-oriented policy) and water pricing policies (as a demand-oriented policy) on agricultural sector of Ghorveh Plain, using positive mathematical programming (PMP). The model was calibrated by using farm-level data for the crop years in 2016-2017. Our findings indicate that applying water supply constraint policy will change the land use and cropping pattern to the crops with higher water productivity. The increase of water resource constraints can lead to the increase of water economic return which indicates a rising value of water resources shortage, warning the producers of the agriculture sector to allocate water to the crops with higher economic value under the water resources shortage conditions. In addition, the findings underline that in a situation where the price of irrigation water is low due to the low elasticity of water demand in the agriculture sector, formulating the economic instruments such as rising water prices does not solely suffice to achieve sustainable water resource management. However, mixed scenarios emphasized that the water distribution policies should be aligned with the increases in water cost.

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Groundwater seeps facilitate exposure to Burkholderia pseudomallei

- Baker, Anthony, Tahani, Donald, Gardiner, Christopher, Bristow, Keith, Greenhill, Andrew, Warner, Jeffrey

Authors: Baker, Anthony , Tahani, Donald , Gardiner, Christopher , Bristow, Keith , Greenhill, Andrew , Warner, Jeffrey
Date: 2011
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Applied and Environmental Microbiology Vol. 77, no. 20 (2011), p. 7243-7246
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Description: Burkholderia pseudomallei is a saprophytic bacterium which is the causative agent of melioidosis, a common cause of fatal bacterial pneumonia and sepsis in the tropics. The incidence of melioidosis is clustered spatially and temporally and is heavily linked to rainfall and extreme weather events. Clinical case clustering has recently been reported in Townsville, Australia, and has implicated Castle Hill, a granite monolith in the city center, as a potential reservoir of infection. Topsoil and water from seasonal groundwater seeps were collected around the base of Castle Hill and analyzed by quantitative real-time PCR targeting the type III secretion system genes for the presence of B. pseudomallei. The organism was identified in 65% (95% confidence interval [CI], 49.5 to 80.4) of soil samples (n =40) and 92.5% (95% CI, 83.9 to 100) of seasonal groundwater samples (n =40). Further sampling of water collected from roads and gutters in nearby residential areas after an intense rainfall event found that 88.2% (95% CI, 72.9 to 100) of samples (n =16) contained viable B. pseudomallei at concentrations up to 113 CFU/ml. Comparison of isolates using multilocus sequence typing demonstrated clinical matches and close associations between environmental isolates and isolates derived from clinical samples from patients in Townsville. This study demonstrated that waterborne B. pseudomallei from groundwater seeps around Castle Hill may facilitate exposure to B. pseudomallei and contribute to the clinical clustering at this site. Access to this type of information will advise the development and implementation of public health measures to reduce the incidence of melioidosis. © 2011, American Society for Microbiology.

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The conceptual schema in geospatial data standard design with application to GroundWaterML2

- Brodaric, Boyan, Boisvert, Eric, Dahlhaus, Peter, Grellet, Sylvain, Kmoch, Alexander, Letourneau, Francois, Lucido, Jessica, Simons, Bruce, Wagner, Bernhard

Authors: Brodaric, Boyan , Boisvert, Eric , Dahlhaus, Peter , Grellet, Sylvain , Kmoch, Alexander , Letourneau, Francois , Lucido, Jessica , Simons, Bruce , Wagner, Bernhard
Date: 2018
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Open Geospatial Data, Software and Standards Vol. 3, no. 1 (2018), p. 1-15
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Description: The explosive growth of geospatial data has stimulated the development of many standards aimed at decreasing data heterogeneity and enhancing data use. Well-established design methods for geospatial data standards typically involve the creation of two schemas for data structure, designated here as logical and physical, but this can lead to conceptual inconsistencies and modelling inefficiencies. In this paper we describe a design method that overcomes these issues by incorporating an additional schema – the conceptual schema – and demonstrate its application to the design of GroundWaterML2 (GWML2), a new international standard for groundwater data. Results include not only a new data standard, robustly constructed and tested, but also an enhanced method for geospatial data standard design.

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Assessing nitrate contamination risks in groundwater : a machine learning approach

- Awais, Muhammad, Aslam, Bilal, Maqsoom, Ahsen, Khalil, Umer, Imran, Muhammad

Authors: Awais, Muhammad , Aslam, Bilal , Maqsoom, Ahsen , Khalil, Umer , Imran, Muhammad
Date: 2021
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Applied Sciences (Switzerland) Vol. 11, no. 21 (2021), p.
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Description: Groundwater is one of the primary sources for the daily water requirements of the masses, but it is subjected to contamination due to the pollutants, such as nitrate, percolating through the soil with water. Especially in built-up areas, groundwater vulnerability and contamination are of major concern, and require appropriate consideration. The present study develops a novel framework for assessing groundwater nitrate contamination risk for the area along the Karakoram Highway, which is a part of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) route in northern Pakistan. A groundwater vulnerability map was prepared using the DRASTIC model. The nitrate concentration data from a previous study were used to formulate the nitrate contamination map. Three machine learning (ML) models, i.e., Support Vector Machine (SVM), Multivariate Discriminant Analysis (MDA), and Boosted Regression Trees (BRT), were used to analyze the probability of groundwater contamination incidence. Furthermore, groundwater contamination probability maps were obtained utilizing the ensemble modeling approach. The models were calibrated and validated through calibration trials, using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve method (AUC), where a minimum AUC threshold value of 80% was achieved. Results indicated the accuracy of the models to be in the range of 0.82–0.87. The final groundwater contamination risk map highlights that 34% of the area is moderately vulnerable to groundwater contamination, and 13% of the area is exposed to high groundwater contamination risk. The findings of this study can facilitate decision-making regarding the location of future built-up areas properly in order to mitigate the nitrate contamination that can further reduce the associated health risks. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. **Please note that there are multiple authors for this article therefore only the name of the first 5 including Federation University Australia affiliate “Muhammad Imran” is provided in this record**

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