Hot topics in water on the agenda at workshop

The focus was on quantifying storage and flow processes in groundwater and surface water at an event co-hosted by Deakin University’s School of Engineering and Engineers Australia.

Wendy Timms, Professor of Environmental Engineering at Deakin, convened and facilitated the all-day workshop in Melbourne in July. Professor Timms says more than 80 attendees participated in the event, from industry, research, and government agencies such as water utilities.

Guest speakers included international water expert Dr Bridget Scanlon, who leads the Sustainable Water Resources Program at the University of Texas at Austin; Dr Elisabetta Carrara, Groundwater Manager at the at the Bureau of Meteorology; Dr Tim Peterson from the University of Melbourne and Michael Blackam, Senior Principal, Hydrogeology and Hydrology, Coffey. Speakers from Deakin included Dr Timms and Associate Professor Lloyd Chua together with other colleagues from Deakin Engineering and Deakin’s Centre for Regional and Rural Futures (CeRRF).

‘A range of hot topics in water were discussed, as well as new know-how from Deakin, the University of Melbourne, the Bureau of Meteorology and Coffey,’ Professor Timms says.

‘Surprises that occur in water were discussed, including lack of ‘return’ flows from irrigation to rivers, drying of landscapes beyond ‘normal’, wetlands drying or releasing acidic water, electricity generation effects on fresh waters, and groundwater storage values that aren’t physically possible.’

Professor Timms says key questions discussed in the workshop included:

• Why do surprises lurk in measuring and predicting storage and flow of water?
• What modelling approaches are useful, and how do we recognise those that are wrong for water security and flows?
• How do gas and energy generation impact on fresh water?
• What new methods are available for measuring and modelling surface water and groundwater storage?

Interactive polls were used during the workshop to generate a word cloud of solutions to water surprises, with the standout options including: more monitoring, data, modelling, thinking and uncertainty analysis.