List of Titles

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Exploring a flow regime and its historical changes downstream of an urbanised catchment

- Ebbs, David, Dahlhaus, Peter, Barton, Andrew, Kandra, Harpreet

Authors: Ebbs, David , Dahlhaus, Peter , Barton, Andrew , Kandra, Harpreet
Date: 2018
Type: Text , Conference paper
Relation: 10th International Conference on Water Sensitive Urban Design: Creating water sensitive communities (WSUD 2018 & Hydropolis 2018), Perth, Western Australia p. 131-141
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Description: The rapid growth of Ballarat's urban area, an inland city of approximately 100,000 people in south-eastern Australia, suggests that it is suitable for stormwater capture and reuse. With a threefold increase in the number of dwellings in recent decades, along with a 90% increase in their average size, it should follow that there is evidence of more flow being generated from the urban areas. However, while additional runoff from the growth of impervious areas may be occurring, the overall flow in the receiving river has dramatically reduced with a 60% decrease in the rainfall-runoff relationship since 1997. This reduction in river flow seems disproportionate to any association with the Millennium Drought which occurred during 1997 to 2009. The evidence of river flow has been complicated by other changes in the catchment. A change in the rainfall-runoff relationship has been identified in other similar catchments, and may lead to significant impacts on water resource management over the long term. To better understand the impacts on river flow downstream of an urbanised catchment, the flow has been partitioned into various components over time using the daily stream flow data available from 1957. Base flow, calculated as the stream flow after periods of four or more days without rain, has decreased. Transfers, predominantly from other catchments for use as potable supply and entering the river via the waste water treatment plant, have remained steady, but now make up the vast majority of dry weather flow. While climatic variations have impacted the river significantly the actual streamflow reduction has been twice that predicted by data from the Australian Water Resources Assessment. A significant increase in the number of small farm dams due to the expansion of peri-urban living around Ballarat explains a further portion of the flow reduction. This paper highlights multiple factors which influence river flow and demonstrates how increases in urbanised area do not necessarily create additional river flow at larger aggregate scales. The investigation therefore provides a cautionary tale around assumptions of stormwater harvesting and any perceived benefit to river flow, and provides insights into the importance of collecting water information of the correct type and scale to help inform future integrated urban water management efforts.

Climate change and water management

- Kelly, Tim, Gehling, Jim, Westell, Kelly, Ingleton, Greg, Gell, Peter

Authors: Kelly, Tim , Gehling, Jim , Westell, Kelly , Ingleton, Greg , Gell, Peter
Date: 2010
Type: Text , Book chapter
Relation: Adelaide: Water of a city p. 267-287
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Description: To understand the risks of climate change and variability on Adelaide's water supply system, it is useful to consider the changes that have occured throughout the earth's history, and changes due to natural climate variability that occur across decades and centuries. In this we first take a look at climate change in earth's history that has helped shape the natural systems of the Murray-Darling (MDB) and the Mount Lofty Ranges (MLR), which provides Adelaide with its drinking water. We consider the forces that drive natural climate variability. In the second part, we introduce the new climate change force of increasing greenhouse gases, caused by human civilisations. The chapter explores future global scenarios of human behaviour and examines SA Water's role in managing its greenhouse gas emissions as it adapts to climate change, seeks to reduce its emissions, and supports necessary research. "From introduction"

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Developing a complementary framework for urban ecology

- Kattel, Giri, Elkadi, Hisham, Meikle, Helen

Authors: Kattel, Giri , Elkadi, Hisham , Meikle, Helen
Date: 2013
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Urban Forestry & Urban Greening Vol. 12, no. 4 (2013), p. 498-508
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Description: Cities are characterized by dynamic interactions between socio-economic and biophysical forces. Currently more than half of the global population reside in cities which influence the global biogeochemical cycles and climate change, substantially exacerbating pressures on urban pollution, water quality and food security, as well as operating costs for infrastructure development. Goods and services such as aesthetic values, water purification, nutrient recycling, and biological diversity, that urban ecosystems generate for the society, are critical to sustain. Urban planners are increasingly facing the considerable challenges of management issues for urban ecosystems. Poor understanding of the complementary roles of urban ecology in urban infrastructure, and the functioning of ecosystems and ecological resilience of a complex human-dominated landscape has impeded effective urban planning over time, resulting in social disharmony. Here a complementary framework for urban ecology is proposed, in which ecosystems interact with land use, architecture and urban design - "E-LAUD"-affecting ecosystem and human health, and building on the concept that land uses in urban green areas, road-strips, wetlands, 'habitat islands' and urban architecture could synergistically benefit when clustered together in different combinations of urban landscapes. It is proposed that incorporation of the E-LAUD framework in urban planning forms the context of a new interdisciplinary research programme on ecological resilience for urban ecosystems and helps promote ecosystem services. (C) 2013 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

The emergence of water markets in Australia and implications for rural social work

- Mason, Robyn, McDonald, John, Ollerenshaw, Alison

Authors: Mason, Robyn , McDonald, John , Ollerenshaw, Alison
Date: 2006
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Rural Social Work and Community Practice Vol. 11, no. (2006), p. 6- 17
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Description: The aim of this paper is to consider the implications for rural social work practice of the widespread and severe drought coupled with the emergence of water markets in Australia. The National Water Initiative was signed at the June 2004 Council of Australian Governments meeting with the aim of producing a nationally-compatible, market, regulatory and planning-based system of managing water resources to optimise economic, social and environmental outcomes. The National Water Commission and the National Competition Council have since assessed progress on the implementation of the initiative: none of their reports gives adequate consideration to the impact of water reform on rural communities. In this paper, we draw upon previous research and written submissions made to the Commission and the Council to examine the social and political consequences of the drought and the emergence of water markets. We discuss the implications for rural practice, and conclude by proposing seven recommendations to assert the role of rural social workers as change agents. This role could encompass community education and advocacy, piloting schemes such as community water banks, reinstating community development in social work curriculum, and facilitating collaborative rural partnerships.
Description: C1
Description: 2003001997

Distribution and migration of nitrobenzene in water following a simulated spill

- Li, Peijun, Yin, Wei, Li, Peng, Li, Xiaojun, Zhang, Chungui, Stagnitti, Frank, Xiong, Xianzhe

Authors: Li, Peijun , Yin, Wei , Li, Peng , Li, Xiaojun , Zhang, Chungui , Stagnitti, Frank , Xiong, Xianzhe
Date: 2010
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Journal of Hazardous Materials Vol. 182, no. 1-3 (2010), p. 787-791
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Description: Releases of nitrobenzene into the aquatic environment pose a threat to human health and aquatic resources, and have attracted much attention world-wide. In order to find out the distribution and migration patterns of pooled nitrobenzene underwater in different conditions, laboratory column experiments were designed to simulate stagnant water, flowing water and rainfall disturbance events. The results showed that in stagnant water there was a slow diffusion of the nitrobenzene from the pool leading to higher concentrations of the chemical deeper in the water column. In flowing water, the removal of the substance was rapid and water concentrations were much lower and more uniform throughout the column. The disturbance event brought a substantial quantity of nitrobenzene into the water column which then dissipated according to the flow regime. Analysis of the data showed that distribution pattern of nitrobenzene in the stagnant water column followed a logarithmic equation C_NB=aln(t)+b, and in disturbed flowing water, the distribution pattern of nitrobenzene followed a negative exponential regression equation C_NB=Ne^-Mt. These conclusions have practical significance in developing remediation technologies for water polluted by nitrobenzene. © 2010 Elsevier B.V.

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Henry Watts (1828-1889) : 'The pioneer of freshwater phycology in Victoria'

- Wallis, Robert, Mondon, Julie

Authors: Wallis, Robert , Mondon, Julie
Date: 2021
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Victorian Naturalist Vol. 138, no. 3 (2021), p. 93-96
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Description: Henry Watts was a microscopist, botanist, marine biologist and a manufacturer of perfumes made from distilling flowers. Before this latter occupation, he was a bootmaker. The first record we have of Watts was his setting up a bootmaking shop in Warrnambool in 1858 and, in the same year, giving a lecture to the Warrnambool Mechanics Institute on 'The Microscope'.

Regime shifts, thresholds and multiple stable states in freshwater ecosystems; a critical appraisal of the evidence

- Capon, Samantha, Lynch, Jasmyn, Bond, Nick, Chessman, Bruce, Davis, Jenny, Davidson, Nick, Finlayson, C. Max, Gell, Peter, Hohnberg, David, Humphrey, Chris, Kingsford, Richard, Nielsen, Daryl, Thomson, James, Ward, Keith, Mac Nally, Ralph

Authors: Capon, Samantha , Lynch, Jasmyn , Bond, Nick , Chessman, Bruce , Davis, Jenny , Davidson, Nick , Finlayson, C. Max , Gell, Peter , Hohnberg, David , Humphrey, Chris , Kingsford, Richard , Nielsen, Daryl , Thomson, James , Ward, Keith , Mac Nally, Ralph
Date: 2015
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Science of the Total Environment Vol. , no. (2015), p.
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Description: The concepts of ecosystem regime shifts, thresholds and alternative or multiple stable states are used extensively in the ecological and environmental management literature. When applied to aquatic ecosystems, these terms are used inconsistently reflecting differing levels of supporting evidence among ecosystem types. Although many aquatic ecosystems around the world have become degraded, the magnitude and causes of changes, relative to the range of historical variability, are poorly known. A working group supported by the Australian Centre for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (ACEAS) reviewed 135 papers on freshwater ecosystems to assess the evidence for pressure-induced non-linear changes in freshwater ecosystems; these papers used terms indicating sudden and non-linear change in their titles and key words, and so was a positively biased sample. We scrutinized papers for study context and methods, ecosystem characteristics and focus, types of pressures and ecological responses considered, and the type of change reported (i.e., gradual, non-linear, hysteretic or irreversible change). There was little empirical evidence for regime shifts and changes between multiple or alternative stable states in these studies although some shifts between turbid phytoplankton-dominated states and clear-water, macrophyte-dominated states were reported in shallow lakes in temperate climates. We found limited understanding of the subtleties of the relevant theoretical concepts and encountered few mechanistic studies that investigated or identified cause-and-effect relationships between ecological responses and nominal pressures. Our results mirror those of reviews for estuarine, nearshore and marine aquatic ecosystems, demonstrating that although the concepts of regime shifts and alternative stable states have become prominent in the scientific and management literature, their empirical underpinning is weak outside of a specific environmental setting. The application of these concepts in future research and management applications should include evidence on the mechanistic links between pressures and consequent ecological change. Explicit consideration should also be given to whether observed temporal dynamics represent variation along a continuum rather than categorically different states.

Influence of River Murray water on River Torrens' water quality

- Tibby, John, Cox, Asta, Gell, Peter

Authors: Tibby, John , Cox, Asta , Gell, Peter
Date: 2010
Type: Text , Book chapter
Relation: Adelaide: Water of a city p.
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Description: "Transfers of River Murray water to the River Torrens commenced in 1955. This box focuses on the water quality impacts of this transfer on River Torrens storages."

Multi-objective planning and operation of water supply systems subject to climate change

- Perera, Bimalka, Sachindra, Dhanapala, Godoy, Walter, Barton, Andrew, Huang, Fuchun

Authors: Perera, Bimalka , Sachindra, Dhanapala , Godoy, Walter , Barton, Andrew , Huang, Fuchun
Date: 2011
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: International Journal of Environmental, Earth Science and Engineering Vol. 5, no. 12 (2011), p. 174-182
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Description: Abstract—Many water supply systems in Australia are currently undergoing significant reconfiguration due to reductions in long term average rainfall and resulting low inflows to water supply reservoirs since the second half of the 20th century. When water supply systems undergo change, it is necessary to develop new operating rules, which should consider climate, because the climate change is likely to further reduce inflows. In addition, water resource systems are increasingly intended to be operated to meet complex and multiple objectives representing social, economic, environmental and sustainability criteria. This is further complicated by conflicting preferences on these objectives from diverse stakeholders. This paper describes a methodology to develop optimum operating rules for complex multi-reservoir systems undergoing significant change, considering all of the above issues. The methodology is demonstrated using the Grampians water supply system in northwest Victoria, Australia. Initial work conducted on the project is also presented in this paper.

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Distribution of arsenic and heavy metals in soils and surface waters in Central Victoria (Ballarat, Creswick and Maldon)

- Sultan, Khawar

Authors: Sultan, Khawar
Date: 2006
Type: Text , Thesis , PhD
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Description: "Three sampling campaigns were conducted in the Ballarat, Creswick and Maldon areas. The sampling area is part of the Golden Triangle region where significant gold-mining activities took place from the 1850s to the present day. [...] Locations were chosen to evaluate arsenic distribution in soils, surface waters and plants in different environments. Easy access to sampling locations allowed detailed scientific sampling, especially in the seasonality study. The different range of environments such as agricultural, state forest, mining, urban and rural provided an opportunity to compare the concentrations of arsenic and other elements in the study area. The study of the three selected areas combined provided further understanding of possible exposure and pathways through which arsenic can get into the food chain. "The objective of the study is to measure levels of heavy metals/metalloids in soils, water and plants in various environments, identify whether the heavy metals/metalloids are mobile and bioavailable and understand the importance of clays and oxide complexes in the fixation of metals."
Description: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Effects of emulsification of fat on the surface tension of protein solutions and surface properties of the resultant spray-dried particles

- Xu, Yun, Howes, Tony, Adhikari, Benu, Bhandari, Bhesh

Authors: Xu, Yun , Howes, Tony , Adhikari, Benu , Bhandari, Bhesh
Date: 2013
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Drying Technology Vol. 31, no. 16 (December 2013), p. 1939-1950
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Description: To examine the effect of protein adsorption on the fat-water interface on the surface composition of spray-dried particles, whey, hydrolyzed whey, and soy protein isolate emulsions were prepared at three different protein to fat ratios of 1:1, 1:5, and 1:10 and spray dried. Non-hydrolyzed whey protein isolate (WPI) and the more hydrolyzed whey protein solutions at 20.2% degree of hydrolysis (DH) had significantly lower surface tension values with fat than without fat. The correlation between the reduction of surface tension value of an emulsion and the increase in protein surface composition of powder particles was observed for WPI and HWP406 but was not observed for the other protein isolate types. It was clear that the spray-dried emulsions had fat as the dominant component on the surface of the powder particles and that the amount of protein on the surface became severely depressed at higher fat addition levels. In terms of its powder morphology, the unique powder structures such as the indentations and folds usually found on the surface of protein containing powders were not evident because they were compromised by the presence of high surface fat. The powder with higher surface fat had more crumpled particle structures and dimpled surfaces.
Description: C1

Development of a cylindrical polar coordinates shallow water storm surge model for the coast of Bangladesh

- Paul, Gour, Murshed, Manzur, Haque, Rabiul, Rahman, Mizanur, Hoque, Ashabul

Authors: Paul, Gour , Murshed, Manzur , Haque, Rabiul , Rahman, Mizanur , Hoque, Ashabul
Date: 2017
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Journal of coastal conservation Vol. 21, no. 6 (2017), p. 951-966
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Description: The coast of Bangladesh is funnel shaped. The narrowing of the Meghna estuary along with its peculiar topography creates a funneling effect that has a large impact on surge response. In order to have an accurate estimation of surge levels, the impacts of the estuary should be treated with due importance. To represent in detail the real complexities of the estuary, a very high resolution is required, which in turn necessitates more computational cost. Considering the facts into account, a location specific vertically integrated shallow water model in cylindrical polar coordinates is developed in this study to foresee water levels associated with a storm. A one-way nested grid technique is used to incorporate coastal complicities with minimum cost. In specific, a fine mesh scheme (FMS) capable of incorporating coastal complexities with acceptable accuracy is nested into a coarse mesh scheme (CMS) covering up to 15°N latitude in the Bay of Bengal. The coastal and island boundaries are approximated through appropriate stair step representation and the model equations are solved by a conditionally stable semi-implicit finite difference technique using a structured C-grid. Numerical experiments are performed using the model to estimate water levels due to surge associated with the April 1991 and AILA, 2009 cyclones, which struck the coast of Bangladesh. Time series of tidal level is generated from an available tide table through a cubic spline interpolation method. The computed surge response is superimposed linearly with the generated time series of tidal oscillation to obtain the time series of total water levels. The model results exhibit a good agreement with observation and reported data.

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Photosynthetic activity and water use efficiency of Salvia verbenaca L. under elevated CO2 and water‐deficit conditions

- Javaid, Muhammad, Florentine, Singarayer, Ashraf, Muhammad, Mahmood, Athar, Sattar, Abdul, Wasaya, Allah, Li, Feng‐Min

Authors: Javaid, Muhammad , Florentine, Singarayer , Ashraf, Muhammad , Mahmood, Athar , Sattar, Abdul , Wasaya, Allah , Li, Feng‐Min
Date: 2022
Type: Text , Journal article
Relation: Journal of agronomy and crop science Vol. 208, no. 4 (2022), p. 536-551
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Description: Investigating the combined effects of elevated CO2 concentration and water‐deficit on weed plants is crucial to gaining a thorough understanding of plant performance and modifying agricultural processes under changing climate conditions. This study examined the effect of elevated CO2 concentration and water‐deficit conditions on leaf gas exchange, water use efficiency, carboxylation efficiency and the photosystem II (PSII) activity of two Salvia verbenaca L., varieties. These varieties were grown under two CO2 concentrations (ambient conditions of 400 ppm and elevated conditions of 700 ppm) and two water regimes (well‐watered [100% field capacity] and water‐deficit conditions [60% field capacity]) in laboratory growth chambers. For 12 days, at 2‐day intervals, (i) leaf gas exchange parameters (photosynthesis rate, stomatal conductance, transpiration rate (E) and intercellular CO2 concentration (Ci)), (ii) water use efficiency (WUE), (iii) intrinsic water use efficiency (IWUE), (iv) instantaneous carboxylation efficiency and (v) PSII activity (fluorescence, quantum yield of PSII, photochemical efficiency of PSII, photochemical quenching and photosynthetic electron transport) were measured. Water‐deficit conditions had negative effects on studied parameters of both varieties, whereas elevated CO2 concentration had positive effects on the gas exchange, water use efficiency and PSII activity of both. Salvia verbenaca varieties grown under water‐deficit conditions from Day 0 to Day 5 showed a partial recovery in most of the parameters when the resumption of the well‐watered regime was reinstituted on Day 6. Salvia verbenaca varieties grown under water‐deficit conditions were re‐watered on day 6 and indicated a partial recovery in all the parameters. A comparison of the two varieties showed that var. vernalis recorded higher values of gas exchange, quantum yield of PSII and photochemical efficiency of PSII than var. verbenaca, but the water use efficiency of var. verbenaca was higher than that of var. vernalis. These differences serve to illustrate the complexity of such studies and suggest that a detailed understanding of the nature of weed infestations is essential if optimum management control is to be practiced. Elevated CO2 concentration mitigated the adverse effects of water‐deficit conditions and thereby enhanced the adaptive mechanism of this weed by improving its water use efficiency. It is thus likely that S. verbenaca has the potential to take advantage of climate change by increasing its relative competitiveness with other plants in drought‐prone areas, suggesting that it could significantly expand its invasive range under such conditions.

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