Archived Industry News for Water Professionals
A new body, the Victorian Environmental Water Holder (VEWH), has been formed to manage Victoria’s environmental water entitlements.
Acting Minister for Environment and Climate Change Peter Walsh said the independent body would help ensure environmental water management in Victoria continued to become more efficient while achieving improved environmental benefits.
The VEWH is made up of three part-time commissioners, Denis Flett (chair), Geoff Hocking (deputy chair) and Ian Penrose, supported by a small operations team.
Refilling of Lake Mulwala begins
The Murray-Darling Basin Authority, in conjunction with Goulburn-Murray Water, has announced that the refilling of Lake Mulwala has begun as of July 8.
Additional $38 million announced for Reef Rescue
The Federal Government will invest an additional $38 million in initiatives designed to improve the quality of water entering the Great Barrier Reef lagoon.
SA stormwater management strategy released
The South Australian Government has released its Stormwater Strategy, developed by the Stormwater Taskforce which was established in September last year.
ACCC sets water infrastructure pricing principles for the Murray-Darling Basin
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has released pricing principles for price approvals and determinations made under the Water Charge (Infrastructure) Rules (WCIR).
Decreasing rainfall due to drop in storm intensity
Decreasing autumn and winter rainfall over southern Australia has been attributed to a 50-year decrease in the average intensity of storms in the region – a trend which is forecast to continue for another 50 years.
eWater CRC releases new Urban Developer tool
The eWater CRC has achieved a major breakthrough by allowing users to simulate the way human behaviour impacts household water use, with the release of Urban Developer, a new tool to support Integrated Urban Water Management (IUWM), after a successful beta testing period.
Traditional models of the urban water system require the user to specify demand as an input to the modelling system. Urban Developer offers a major step forward, with the incorporation of a demand estimation component – the Behavioural end-use stochastic simulator (BESS) – developed by Mark Thyer, a senior lecturer at the University of Adelaide, and colleagues.
The power of the BESS framework lies in its incorporation of algorithms which estimate an individual household’s use of common household water-using appliances. The framework provides probabilistic simulations of water consumption from individual end-uses such as shower, toilet and washing machine at the individual household scale at sub-daily time steps (hour or minute).
A further enhancement under development will model the way weather affects outdoor water use. The prototype model for outdoor water use, incorporating the behavioural impact of weather drivers on outdoor water use variability on the individual household, is currently being refined for inclusion in future releases.
“Urban water use is changing,” Thyer says. “Smart-metering and other detailed water use monitoring projects are continually improving our understanding of urban water use. With this in mind, BESS has been designed with a flexible and generic framework that enables it to be updated in the future. This provides Urban Developer users with the additional future benefit that, as knowledge of urban water use improves, the BESS framework can incorporate this new knowledge to provide improved estimates of urban water use and improved reliability of water savings from integrated urban water management design solutions.
“The benefit of the BESS framework is that it will enable users of Urban Developer to estimate the impact on demand at the household scale of changes in uptake of water efficient appliances and household occupancy,” Thyer says.
Research overturns conventional ideas of ocean circulation
Research at the University of Melbourne and the Bureau of Meterology has overturned conventional ideas of ocean circulation.
Seawater properties defined
An international science team led by Dr Trevor McDougall of the CSIRO Wealth from Ocean Flagship has developed a new thermodynamic definition of seawater properties which has been accepted by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission.
Call for stormwater harvesting and reuse projects
Applications have been called for the third round of the Federal Government’s stormwater harvesting and reuse grants under the National Urban Water and Desalination Plan.
Scientists express doubts about Murray-Darling Basin Plan
A letter signed by eight leading ecologists, all members of the Australian Academy of Science, has expressed concern that there is a lack of scientific input to the Murray-Darling Basin Authority’s (MDBA) water plan.
Adelaide Desal Project reaches milestone
Adelaide’s $1.83 billion Desalination Project has reached a milestone with seawater flooding the plant via the 1.4 km intake tunnel, connecting ocean and land for the first time.
Tracking groundwater pollution to its source
Computer algorithms might be useful in identifying sources of groundwater pollution, according to researchers in Australia and India.
New drought prediction tool developed
Knowing when to instigate water saving measures in dry times will be easier following a breakthrough in drought prediction by a Victoria University researcher.
Community groups call for strong MDBA plan
Community groups from across rural and metropolitan Australia have joined forces to petition the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) to deliver a strong, scientifically credible basin plan to save the country’s lifeblood.
Adelaide's southern suburbs tap into recycled water
High-quality recycled water has been made available to residents in Adelaide’s south following the completion of the $62.6 million Southern Urban Reuse Project.
Windsor Inquiry and CSIRO disagree on environmental flows
The Windsor Inquiry, the federal political committee charged with guiding the future of the Murray-Darling river complex, has arrived at an impasse with the CSIRO over the necessity of end-of-system-flows.
Hardly Inlet water quality improvement draft plan released
The Hardy Inlet water quality improvement plan, Stage one – the Scott river catchment draft plan has been released for public comment.
States push for more water control
State governments are set to win more control over multimillion-dollar water-saving infrastructure projects across the Murray-Darling under a new deal being discussed with the Commonwealth.
Unitywater releases new pricing for 2011/12
Unitywater has released its new pricing for 2011/12 to reflect changes announced by the Queensland Government in April.
New water R&D group launched
A new collaborative group is bringing together key players within the Australian water community who undertake the role of research and development knowledge brokers, with an aim of sharing information on R&D and promoting knowledge and adoption of research outcomes to the industry.