Dr William Glamore, Duncan Rayner and Jamie Ruprecht of WRL are to be warmly congratulated on securing the prestigious 2013 National Trust of Australia’s Award for Conservation (Natural Heritage). The award was presented to the Tomago Wetland Restoration Project’s team, including the staff and scientists of WRL, NSW Parks and Wildlife Division and NSW Fisheries for their ongoing work at the site.

From left: Dr William Glamore, Doug Beckers, Jo Erskine, Duncan Rayner and Jamie Ruprecht

At the Tomago Wetland site, the aim was to create a saltmarsh ecosystem to attract migratory wading birds and improve water quality. This was achieved by reinstating tidal flows to encourage saltmarsh growth and discourage mangroves. A range of innovative modelling, on-ground engineering and monitoring techniques were developed and implemented for the project. The end result is a careful balance that requires coordinated surveillance and management involving researchers, park rangers and community members.

The collaboration between WRL and National Parks and Wildlife Division is particularly important to this project. In addition to those nominated on the award, Dr Glamore wishes to recognise the role of the Catchment Management Authority and the Hunter Birds Observers Club.

The third stage of the restoration plan is now underway. Recognition by the National Trust of Australia is welcome support to the long running project.

Dr William Glamore, UNSW Water Research Lab, 0404 822 080

Three-dimensional breaking in the coastal zone

Three-dimensional wave breaking in the coastal ocean has significant consequences for weather forecasting, marine safety, defence and renewable energy under severe weather conditions. No robust conceptual or computing approach exists for this fundamental process although recent theoretical developments provide a framework to approach this challenging problem. (e.g. see Banner and Peirson, 2007, An observational study of wave breaking onset and strength for two-dimensional deep water wave groups, J. Fluid Mech.)

The Australian Research Council has funded a team of UNSW and European investigators to extend our recent advances in predicting wave breaking onset and strength in directional wave groups as they transition from deep to shallow water. This project will provide the basis for including reliable breaking wave information in forecast models, and will improve their accuracy.

Ph.D. scholarships are available within this research project to undertake novel, large-scale laboratory basin measurements of three-dimensional wave breaking in transitional water depths.  For more information, please download the following pdf.

• Ph.D. programme: Three-dimensional breaking in the coastal zone

While continuing our efforts within Australia, 2012 will be remembered as a great year for international collaboration and interaction at WRL.

International Conferences

A large contingent of WRL staff and students, past and present, contributed to ICCE2012 (the International Conference on Coastal Engineering) in Santander, Spain in early July 2012. The conference brought together over 500 worldwide representatives from universities, industry and coastal administrations to showcase the latest advances in coastal engineering.

The rapid expansion of groundwater research at WRL in recent years, primarily through the Connected Waters Initiative, enabled 6 past and present staff/students to attend the 39th International Association of Hydrogeologists Congress at Niagara Falls in September. Nine hundred delegates from 62 countries around the world gathered to consider the theme “Confronting Global Change”. Amongst the attendees was Doug Anderson a previous WRL staff member, who will be returning to WRL in February 2013.

Internationally, WRL staff and students also presented at:

• 8^th PIANC International Conference on Coastal and Port Engineering in Developing Countries (Chennai, February)
• 12^th International Coastal Symposium (Plymouth, April)
• 9^th International Symposium on Environmental Geochemistry (Portugal, July)
• 6^th International Conference on Scour and Erosion (Paris, August)
• Association of Pacific Rim Universities (San Diego, September)
• American Geophyiscal Union Fall Meeting (San Francisco, December)

International Visitors

In 2012 WRL welcomed many international visitors including:

• Professor Herbert Huppert, Professor of Theoretical Geophysics and Director of the Institute of Theoretical Geophysics, University of Cambridge
• Dr Kate White, senior lead for global and climate change, US Army Corps of Engineers, Institute for Water Resources
• The U.S. National Ground Water Association 2012 Darcy Lecturer, Professor Seyed Majid Hassanizadeh of Utrecht University
• John Headland, Commissioner to PIANC USA and a Board Director for the American Society of Civil Engineer’s Coasts, Oceans, Ports, and Rivers Institute
• Professor Mark Donelan of the Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science, University of Miami

Many of our visitors, including those from overseas, continue to contribute to our Seminar Series, in our recently renovated Lecture Room.

Developing International Collaborations

During 2012 Associate Professor Ian Turner, Dr Chris Blenkinsopp, Dr Martin Andersen, Dr Gabriel Rau and Daniel Howe were all involved in a major European Union funded coastal engineering experiment at the Delta Flume in the Netherlands. The project, BARDEX2 (standing for BARrier Dynamics EXperiment), is a follow-up to a previous successful experiment and is a collaboration between leading coastal researchers from the Universities of Plymouth, Southampton, Delaware, UNSW, Utrecht, Algarve Bordeaux and New England. The experiment involved the construction of a sandy barrier-beach at prototype-scale in the Delta Flume facility with WRL providing specialist expertise on wave tracking and ground/surface water interactions.

Alessio Mariani is WRL’s third Churchill Fellowship recipient. The focus of Alessio’s 2012 fellowship was the mitigation of beach erosion. His fellowship included collaborative visits to the Port and Airport Research Institute (located at the entrance of Tokyo Bay, Japan); the Hazaki Oceanographic Research Station (on the Japanese east coast); the commercial beach drainage installation (Les Sables-d’Olonne, French Atlantic coast) and Deltares (Delft, the Netherlands).

In June, WRL Director Bill Peirson visited the North China Electric Power University in Beijing to discuss the future of wave power in China and Australia with senior staff within their School of Renewable Energy and Research Institute of Water Resources and Hydro-Electric Engineering. After presenting at ICCE in early July, Bill met in New York with representatives of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. National Oceans and Atmospheric Administration to discuss on-going collaborative projects. Bill then visited the University of Valpariaso in Chile to discuss possible future collaborations in coastal engineering. Subsequently, Dr Chris Blenkinsopp was invited to participate in field experiments along the coast of Chile.

WRL Projects Manager Grantley Smith was invited to deliver a keynote address at the DHI Modelling forum. He subsequently visited hydraulic laboratories at HR Wallingford, DHI in Copenhagen as well as those of NUS and NTU in Singapore. During these visits he discussed possible collaborations with these organisations and presented recent WRL work on people and vehicle stability as well as 2D Numerical modelling approaches to floodplain management and evacuation planning.

During 2012, WRL was commissioned to assess the coastal adaptation needs for extreme events and climate change of the Cook Islands. The focus of this investigation is Avarua in Rarotonga - the administrative, economic and tourism hub of the Cook Islands. Late in 2012, Project Engineers Matt Blacka and Duncan Rayner travelled to the Cook Islands to undertake a detailed topographic survey of the Avarua area, with a specific focus on the coast and the fringing lagoon system - regions that are difficult to capture using conventional or airborne techniques.

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­­Stage 2 of the project “Coastal Adaptation Needs for Extreme Events and Climate Change” in Avarua, Rarotonga is nearing completion. WRL Project Engineers Matt Blacka and Duncan Rayner travelled to the Cook Islands earlier this month to undertake a detailed topographic survey of the Avarua area and neighbouring villages, with the assistance of local engineer Ben Parakoti. In a seven day surveying campaign, RTK-GPS surveying equipment was used to survey land levels throughout the study area, as well as measuring bathymetric levels throughout the fringing lagoon. An area of approximately 3 km² was covered by the survey, with 25,000 topographical points measured over a linear distance of 85 km.

(Left) RTK-GPS rover and mobile cart used for land topographic surveying; (Right) Project Engineer Duncan Rayner setting up GPS base station.

The data from the surveying campaign is vital in order to undertake physical and numerical wave process modelling for the area, as well as for mapping hazards to houses and infrastructure from wave impact and inundation during extreme cyclone events. This analysis is being undertaken in Stage 3 of the project, which is presently underway. Later stages of the project will see future adaptation strategies canvassed in conjunction with relevant stakeholders, with conceptual designs for the most suitable strategies developed.

(Left) WRL Project Engineer Duncan Rayner surveying the crest of a seawall; (Right) WRL Senior Coastal Engineer Matt Blacka undertaking survey of lagoon bathymetry.

WRL are undertaking this project for Climate Change Cook Islands, with funding provided by the Australian Government Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, under the Pacific Adaptation Strategy Assistance Program (PASAP).

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WRL engineers have been trialling a new technology for measuring and mapping armour unit movement in model coastal protection structures. A Faro Focus 3D laser scanner is being trialled with very promising results to date. The laser scanner is capable of measuring very high resolution and accurate 3D surface maps of armour layers, including analysis of pre-test and post‑test scans to identify locations where armour has been displaced or moved. The Focus 3D scanner is typically used for archaeological or forensic mapping and is well suited to the fine detail measurements required in laboratory breakwater analysis.

Laser scan of Hanbar armoured breakwater, with displaced unit showing as white in colour.

Laser scan of Xbloc® armoured breakwater, with shifted units showing as white in colour. 

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The 39th International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH) Congress has just concluded in Niagara Falls, Canada. Held from 16th-21st September, the sold-out conference brought together over 900 delegates from 62 countries around the world to consider the theme Confronting Global Change. The conference was a wonderful opportunity to hear presentations from the most distinguished hydrogeologists from around the world, update on the latest innovations and research pertaining to hydrogeology, and be inspired to excellence in future projects.

Presentations were given within the Aquitards session by Dr Wendy Timms on the latest results from the NCGRT centrifuge permeameter based at WRL, and the use of biomarkers in aquitard research. Professor Ian Acworth presented results from the Namoi GEIF site demonstrating the effect of tree water use on surface waters, and demonstrated how cross-hole seismicity could be used to derive aquifer storage parameters. Alexandra Badenhop presented her findings from several projects in the Namoi Catchment regarding variable salinity changes.

The CWI/NCGRT team was further represented by Professor Andy Baker, Monika Markowska (completing honours within CWI) and Helen Rutlidge (NCGRT postdoc).

Wendy Timms, Doug Anderson, Ian Acworth and Alexandra Badenhop

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WRL are now able to undertake short term wave, tide, and water temperature gauging deployments using the latest submersible RBRDuo T.D.Wave data logging instruments from RBR.

The data loggers can be mounted on the sea or harbour floor, existing structures, or attached to a mooring line. Up to 30 million data samples can be internally logged, and with recent upgrades to battery life, these instruments can now be deployed to measure wave data for several months or tide data for over a year.

Analysis of data is undertaken with RBR’s Ruskin software which provides post processing estimates of:

• Mean water level
• Tide time series
• Wave time series
• Significant wave height (Hs)
• Min and max elevation from mean
• Mean wave period
• Mean zero crossing period
• Peak period
• Significant wave period
• Total energy

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During June and July, a team of research staff and students from WRL including Associate Professor Ian Turner, Dr Chris Blenkinsopp and Dr Martin Andersen were involved in a major European Union funded Coastal Engineering experiment at the Delta Flume in the Netherlands.

The project, BARDEX2 - standing for BARrier Dynamics EXperiment - is a follow up to a previous successful experiment and is a collaboration between leading coastal researchers from the Universities of Plymouth, Southampton, Delaware, UNSW, Utrecht, Algarve Bordeaux and New England. The experiment involved the construction of a sandy barrier-beach at prototype-scale in the unique Delta Flume facility.

The Delta Flume is owned and operated by Deltares and is the 2^nd largest wave flume of its kind in the world measuring 240 m in length, 5 m in width and 9.5 m in depth. The flume is equipped with a wave paddle capable of generating wave heights of up to 2.5 m, allowing researchers to simulate full-scale coastal processes in controlled laboratory conditions.

The experiment was completed to provide detailed new information about the response of a sand barrier-beach to changing wave and water level conditions. The beach itself measured 100 m in cross-shore extent, was 4.5 m high and was constructed from almost 3,000 tonnes of sand.  During the experimental runs, in excess of 100 different instruments were deployed in the flume to measure a comprehensive range of parameters including wave height, flow velocities in the surf and swash zone, suspended and bed load sediment concentrations, bed and swash surface elevation and through barrier groundwater flows. 

The data obtained from the project will be analysed over the next two years by six subgroups from within the BARDEX2 team who will focus on the following areas: barrier hydrology, swash and berm dynamics, barrier overwash, swash-surf zone exchange and bar dynamics, sediment re-suspension and bed morphology and numerical modelling. Initial results will be presented at a specific session of the International Coastal Symposium in Plymouth, England in 2013.

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Last month WRL started an eight month project titled “Coastal Adaptation Needs for Extreme Events and Climate Change” for the main town of Avarua, on the island of Rarotonga. This project is being undertaken for the Climate Change Cook Islands division within the Office of the Prime Minister, and is funded under the Pacific Adaptation Strategy Assistance Program (PASAP).

Avarua lies on the cyclone prone north coast of Rarotonga, and is the administrative, economic and tourism hub of the Cook Islands. Within the study area are most government offices, the international airport, the main fuel stores, and the Avatiu harbour which processes all incoming freight to Rarotonga and the other Cook Islands. Previous cyclones impacting the study area, including the unprecedented five cyclones early in 2005, have caused significant damage to buildings and threatened infrastructure. 

Last week WRL Senior Coastal Engineer Matt Blacka travelled to Rarotonga for an initial scoping and stakeholder consultation visit. Over the study period WRL will undertake a range of activities for the project including topographic and bathymetric data collection, analysis of previous cyclone events and damage, analysis and predictions of wave processes and inundation during extreme events, including consideration of the effects of climate change on risk.

The last stage of the project will be to work with various groups within the Cook Islands Government and other stakeholders to establish an adaptation strategy for the area. WRL are looking forward to undertaking the wide ranging parts of the project and the complex nature of the coastal processes that impact the site.

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The European part of Alessio’s fellowship has started with the first stop in Spain to attend the International Conference on Coastal Engineering. The next stop was France, where several innovative coastal stabilisation techniques have been implemented in the last decade. Alessio visited the commercial beach drainage installation located in Les Sables-d’Olonne on the French Atlantic coast where a dewatering system to lower the beach groundwater has been operating since 1999.

Alessio visiting Ecoplage® beach drainage system in Sables-d’Olonne on the French Atlantic coast with Ecoplage CEO Jean-Yves Audrain. Several hundred metres of drain pipes are buried in the sand and connected to a pumping station.

After France, Alessio headed to the Dutch research institute Deltares in Delft. The Netherlands, with only about 450 kilometres of coastline, is world-leading in the fields of coastal engineering and coastal management. This is due to the ongoing fight Dutch people have been conducting against rising sea levels on subsiding land. Presently in the Netherlands, 9 million people are living below mean sea level and 70% of the gross domestic product is being earned from these areas (Mulder et al., 2011).

Alessio presented WRL activities to Deltares researchers and discussed the Dutch experience in coastal protection and management with Dr Jan Mulder and Dr Leo Van Rijn of the Morphology and Sediment Dynamics Department. Alessio also visited several stretches along the Holland coast where storm surge barriers, dune reconstruction and mega-nourishment are implemented.

 
Alessio standing on the 20 Million cubic metre sand renourishment of the Sand Motor on the Zuid-Holland coast. The Sand Motor is an innovative way of coastal protection and expansion.  

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Mulder, J.P.M., Hommesa, S. and Horstman, E.M. (2011) “Implementation of Coastal Erosion Management in the Netherlands”, Ocean & Coastal Management 54, 888-897

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This year’s International Conference on Coastal Engineering has been held in the Cantabrian coastal city of Santander, Spain from 29 June to 6 July 2012.

The conference brought together over 500 worldwide representatives from universities, industry and coastal administrations to showcase the latest advances in coastal engineering including innovative practices to manage beach erosion, with over 25 attendees travelling from Australia.

At the conference, Dr Peirson (on behalf of the National Committee on Coastal and Ocean Engineering, Engineers Australia) also proposed to the conference organisers that ICCE2020 be held in Sydney.

Past and present WRL staff and students presenting at ICCE2012

Back row left to right:

Melissa Mole: Former WRL Projects Engineer, now a WRL PhD student studying beach dynamics

Professor Rodger Tomlinson: Professor of Coastal Management, Griffith University

A/Professor Bill Peirson: Director of WRL

Dan Howe: Former WRL honours student and now PhD student studying the stability of coastal sediment slopes

Dr Jens Figlus: Former WRL Practicum student, now appointed to Texas A&M University, Galveston

José Beyà: Former masters student (2009-2010) now appointed to the University of Valparaiso, Chile

Front row, left to right:

Dr Mitchell Harley: Former WRL honours and PhD student (2004 to 2008) presently at the University of Ferrara

Dr Bob You: Former PhD student (1988-1992), now with NSW Office of Environment and Heritage

Alessio Mariani: WRL Projects Engineer, presently travelling internationally undertaking a Churchill Scholarship

(Not pictured above: Dr Laurent Tarrade: Former WRL Projects Engineer, presently working at the Institute for Hydraulics of Calabria in Santander).

 
José, Alessio, Laurent, Bill, Mitch, Melissa and Jens

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WRL Director Bill Peirson visited the North China Electric Power University in Beijing to discuss the future of wave power in China and Australia. Bill was invited to visit by Dr Youliang Cheng who has been a recent visitor at WRL and the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

After a tour of the research laboratories of the School of Renewable Energy, Dr Peirson met with Professor Meicheng Li (the Vice-Dean of the School of Renewable Energy) and Professor Changming Ji (Director of the Research Institute of Water Resources and Hydro-Electric Engineering) as well as staff and students within the School of Renewable Energy.

Dr Peirson presented the 53 year history of WRL in turbomachine hydraulic efficiency, practical implementation of pump and turbine systems and wave energy device efficiency. In a spirited discussion, Dr Peirson described present Australian strategies for the implementation of wave and tidal energy in Australia and answered questions regarding the strategic design of such systems.

Bill was kindly hosted for dinner in the evening by Professor Yougqian Liu, NCEPU’s Executive Dean of International Education with whom he discussed possible future collaborations between NCEPU and UNSW.

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Alessio Mariani’s Churchill Fellowship has commenced with the first stop in Japan, where he visited the Port and Airport Research Institute (PARI), located at the entrance of Tokyo Bay; and the Hazaki Oceanographic Research Station (HORS), on the Japanese east coast.

“The 430 metre pier is quite an impressive facility, with beach profiles and wave data collected weekly for more than two decades, it significantly contributes to the advancement of knowledge in coastal engineering research” Alessio said after visiting HORS facility.

PARI researchers Mr Satoshi Nakamura (left) and Mr Shin-ichi Yanagishima (right) with Alessio Mariani (middle) at Hazaki Oceanographic Research Station pier, Japan.

During his visit, Alessio discussed beach erosion issues in Japan and related protection works with Dr Kuriyama, director of the Marine Environment and Engineering Department at PARI.

“It is interesting to observe that, with a land surface area over 20 times smaller than Australia, Japan has nevertheless a coastline of very similar length:  35,000 kilometres!” Alessio stated after the meetings at PARI.

Alessio in front of a T-type groin on the Japanese east coast. Debris from the March 2011 tsunamis are still being collected (as can be seen in the background) from the beaches along the coast.

Beach erosion is a major problem in Japan mainly due to the decrease in sediment supply from rivers and the enormous development on the coast, including the construction of port and coastal structures interrupting the natural sediment movement. It has only been since the late 70s and early 80s that coastal preservation started to play an important role, and sandy beaches were recognised as having a crucial function in disaster prevention (through wave energy dissipation) as well as for recreational use.   

“There is a lot that Australia can learn from the Japanese coastal engineering history and from their experience with both traditional and innovative physical interventions to mitigate beach erosion” Alessio concluded.

Alessio’s next stop on his Churchill Fellowship journey will be Mississippi, USA.

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WRL Projects Team is now offering the following three professional training courses: Introduction to Coastal Management; Floodplain Flow Behaviour - Fundamentals; and Wetland Hydrology - Restoring the Basics. To register your interest in any of these courses, submit your details below. You will be contacted with information updates regarding course schedule, content and registration details as they come available. These courses are run by practitioners, for practitioners.

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Introduction to Coastal Management

Tentative Date: September 2012

Understanding the science of the coastal environment is becoming increasingly important for not only engineers and scientists, but also environmental officers, planners, policy makers, and managers working in a wide range of fields. This course is designed to introduce participants to the fundamental concepts of coastal management and the coastal environment. The course is a good introduction for people starting an engineering or science career in coastal management, or to allow members of other industries to communicate with coastal practitioners.

The course will provide background information on the key aspects of coastal management, provide direction on available guidelines and literature, and introduce the technical concepts of coastal processes and management.

Register Your Interest

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Floodplain Flow Behaviour - Fundamentals

Tentative Date: September 2012

Recent flood events in Newcastle in June 2007 and more recently in South East Queensland’s Lockyer Valley in January 2011 have highlighted the importance of having robust planning guidelines and building stability criteria for floodplains. These floods have also highlighted a requirement for accurate representation of flood behaviour to support land use planning and flood evacuation planning documentation.

A sound understanding of the fundamentals of floodplain flow behaviour is a basic requirement for anyone seeking to work in floodplain management or in flood insurance. The course is designed for practitioners and managers who have an interest in understanding the basis of floodplain flow behaviour.

The course is technical in nature and will equip the participants with a practical understanding of floodplain flow fundamentals. This fundamental knowledge is paramount for anyone seeking to develop or assess numerical floodplain models and to understand the basic floodplain flow information used to underpin floodplain planning and management or similarly, to assess floodplain risk and likely damages important to natural hazards analysts in the insurance industry.

Register Your Interest

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Wetland Hydrology Course - Restoring the Basics

Date: September 10-12, 2012

• Download Course Outline

Wetland construction, restoration, preservation and monitoring projects are underway throughout Australia. The primary component that links these projects is water management. This course will decipher the engineering language, detail the link between the ecological and the hydrological and explain the fundamentals of wetland hydrodynamics, water quality, restoration and hydrology for both surface and groundwater.

This 2.5 day training course will focus on wetland surface and groundwater hydrology, with modules on wetland hydrology, hydrodynamics, soils and groundwater, chemistry, design, hydraulics, modelling, and restoration techniques. The final day of the course is spent at the Ramsar listed Tomago Wetland reviewing on-ground restoration works, learning field techniques and undertaking sample analysis.

The course is designed for wetland practitioners with a background in management, ecology or planning; but who require further information on wetland hydrology. The course outcomes can assist in undertaking field campaigns, designing management plans, reviewing technical reports, planning wetland remediation projects and related wetland studies.

Note that course attendance is limited to 25 attendees and is allocated on a first come basis. Please contact Dr William Glamore at w.glamore@wrl.unsw.edu.au or 02 8071 9868 for further details.

Register Your Interest

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WRL has long been regarded as a unique place to work and visit. The combination of academic staff, a commercial project team and unique facilities attracts visitors from around the world. To assist in sharing information, WRL hosts a lunchtime seminar every Thursday in our recently renovated Lecture Room.

The Lunchtime Seminar Series was kick-started with a week-long workshop presented by Dr Steven Hughes. Dr Hughes was formerly a Senior Research Hydraulic Engineer at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Coastal and Hydraulics Laboratory for 30 years, and has authored a comprehensive textbook about physical modelling and laboratory techniques as applied to coastal engineering. The workshop was highly valuable and ensured our physical modelling techniques are equal to world standards.

WRL has also attracted a range of key international speakers including the 2012 Darcy Lecturer, Professor Hassanizadeh of Utrecht University, who discussed capillarity in porous media, on micro- and macro scales; and Herbert Huppert of the University of Cambridge - a leading academic in fluid mechanics of dense currents. Both presentations were directly related to projects undertaken recently at WRL.

Recently WRL hosted a presentation by John Headland, one of five appointed Commissioners to PIANC USA and a Board Director for the American Society of Civil Engineer’s Coasts, Oceans, Ports, and Rivers Institute. Over 80 guests visited WRL for this interesting and highly political talk on adaptive management approaches to sea level rise for coastal and port structures. The seminar was supported the Australian Climate Change Adaptation Research Network for Settlements and Infrastructure (ACCARNSI), PIANC Australia, and Engineers Australia’s NSW Coastal, Ocean and Port Engineering Panel (COPEP).

Finally, last week WRL hosted Professor James Goff from the Australia-Pacific Tsunami Research Centre and Natural Hazards Research Laboratory at the University of New South Wales. Professor Goff provided an interesting seminar on tsunami behaviour and history across the Pacific Ocean over the past 700 years. 

If you are interested in attending a Lunchtime Seminar Series event please contact Jamie Ruprecht at: j.ruprecht@wrl.unsw.edu.au

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WRL Project staff, Dr William Glamore, Duncan Rayner and Jamie Ruprecht, recently teamed up to undertake a range of exciting new research projects in wetland hydraulics and reflooding. The first of three projects currently underway aims to develop hydraulic relationships for predicting depth, top width and cross-sectional area of tidal channels as functions of tidal prism and marsh area, rather than discharge. By knowing the tidal prism of the wetland, it will be possible to design and predict the evolution trajectory of a given channel for wetland restoration projects throughout NSW.

These empirical hydraulic geometry relationships will provide a practical geomorphic based design tool to plan tidal wetland restoration projects (Williams et. al., 2002) and assess tidal channel stability, which is of key interest to a wide range of stakeholders. The relationships will be based on data obtained from field investigations for up to eight sites (of varying size) in the lower Hunter region of NSW. At least one control site within the Tomago wetland will be considered, and the remaining sites will be investigated for size and comparison purposes. Numerical modelling of these sites will be undertaken using a calibrated hydrodynamic model of the Tomago wetland.

Additional wetland research is currently underway examining: (i) Large scale overbank reflooding dynamics of tidal wetlands; (ii) transport dynamics of organic bed material; and (iii) predicting salt marsh distribution extents under changing climate pressures.

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In the last 10 years, WRL has drawn on its long standing experience in marine and coastal engineering to provide expert advice to the Australian wave energy conversion industry. In parallel to its commercial engineering activities, WRL has also been pursuing high-level academic research in the field of wave energy conversion, with a focus on both physical and numerical modelling of wave-wave energy converter (WEC) interactions.

This physical modelling research project aimed to increase the understanding of the power output performance of the Salter’s Duck and the transfer of energy from monochromatic waves to a single duck.

Research was conducted by performing a 3D mapping of the duck surface pressure distribution; as well as shaft torque, shaft rotational speed, surge force and heave force responses, for a wide range of wave conditions. The 3D mapping of the duck surface pressure was used to accurately derive values for torque surge force and heave force in order to develop a optimisation algorithm.

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Brett Miller and staff of the Water Research Laboratory have been involved with both Sydney’s Desalination Plant and environmental flows in the Hawkesbury-Nepean. Recent overtopping of the Warragamba Dam has raised many questions about rainfall patterns, water supply and demand management. Brett gives some personal, expert views below.

Where desalination fits in the water supply system

Sydney’s Desalination Plant was built to further secure Sydney’s water supply. When producing 250ML/day it can supply almost 20% of the city’s daily needs. There is no doubt though that when the Sydney Water supply catchments are receiving average or above average rainfall, the dams will be able to supply far more than Sydney’s needs. 

In conditions like the past six months, Sydney doesn’t need a desalination plant to help with supply. I firmly believe though that it is a valid insurance policy for extended droughts such as the one that could have been still happening. Under extreme conditions its capacity could be doubled and it can supply almost 50% of the city’s needs. I do not believe it was a waste to build it when Sydney did.  

The day the bushfire is bearing down on your home, you probably won’t find someone to sell you insurance (at least at not at a highly inflated price). You arrange insurance when you have determined that you are at risk and when you can buy insurance at a suitable price. You don’t jump for joy the day you have to claim on your insurance, nor do you begrudge having to make payments against it.

Water spilling from Warragamba

Warragamba is a ver large Australian water supply dam with a very large catchment. The size of the dam was determined on a probability basis of maintaining a water supply for Sydney based on population predictions when it was designed after the Second World War. It is expected to gradually go down in level and then be replenished during event based rainfall. As such, it was designed to spill via the spillway when larger events come through (or smaller events when the dam is already full). In essence we have captured all we need. The spillway is engineered for such discharges while maintaining the safety of the dam.

What goes down the river is not wasted. The Hawkesbury-Nepean River needs environmental flows and these discharges from the dam, while causing some flooding, also provide flushing and environmental health to the river. Now that the dam is full again, the NSW Government can consider implementing the environmental flow rules that were determined in the early 2000’s.

For further information, please contact Brett Miller at: b.miller@unsw.edu.au

Related

Projects

• Coastal Oceanographic Processes and Numerical Modelling for the Kurnell Desalination Plant
• Hydraulic Testing of Sydney Desalination Riser Cap

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“Getting the Measure of Floods” is a documentary put together by UNSWTV on WRL’s Australian Rainfall and Runoff Flood Model.

The suburb of Merewether in Newcastle is providing engineers with critical data that will inform emergency personnel on how to plan better for the floods which have wreaked havoc across Australia in the past few years. A model of the suburb has been created at the Water Research Laboratory.

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Did you know that WRL is equipped with a vast range of state-of-the-art electronics to investigate coastal and marine structures? Not only can these instruments be used in scale physical model studies, but also for analysis of full scale infrastructure. The instrumentation list includes:

• Force transducers with capacities ranging from 25 kg to 10,000 kg
• Pressure transducers
• Ultrasonic distance and water level sensors
• Acoustic Doppler Velocity (ADV) meters
• 3D laser (LiDAR) scanners
• High speed video cameras

WRL’s 10,000 kg force transducer can be deployed to measure the mass of armouring materials during the construction of seawalls, breakwaters, and revetments. This can be an important step in the quarrying process for armour stone, and also for quality control on site. The transducer can also be deployed post storm to assess the mass of armour units that have been shifted around by wave impacts.

Measuring the mass of 2.5m³ geocontainers during the construction of a groyne at Clifton Springs, VIC

The range of laboratory instrumentation for measuring wave loading using scale physical models is a vast improvement on the tools that were available a decade ago. Force and pressure transducers have significantly decreased in size, while also increasing in accuracy and resolution. This allows for extremely detailed analysis of wave loading on marine structures such as floating breakwaters and pontoons, ship berth infrastructure, seawalls, caissons, piles, wharf decks, etc.

Analysis of wave load phasing on a marine structure

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Internal Erosion of Embankment Dams

Two PhD scholarships are available at the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UNSW to study the following topics:

(1) Backward erosion piping in cohesionless soils in dams, levees and their foundations.
(2) Numerical modelling of cracking and hydraulic fracture in embankment dams and the implications for concentrated leak erosion.

The research is being funded by 12 Australian Dam Industry Sponsors, an overseas sponsor, and the Australian Research Council through a Linkage Project. Research for the first topic will be carried out at the UNSW Water Research Laboratory in Manly Vale. The second will be based at the UNSW Kensington campus. The research is to begin as early as practicable in 2012.

For more information on these scholarships, please download the following pdf:

•   Internal Erosion of Embankment Dams PhD Scholarships

A recent study led by WRL based Connected Waters Initiative researcher Adam Hartland has shown how analysis of the trace metals in cave deposits can provide important clues about climatic conditions in the past.

Deposits found in caves, such as stalagmites, are typically formed by groundwater originating at the surface - a process influenced by climatic conditions. Because of this relationship, researchers focus on these deposits in order to reveal information about past climate.

Stalagmites can be important archives of previous climatic conditions

The new findings show the extent to which the abundance of certain trace metals in groundwater entering a cave is determined by interactions with colloidal organic particles - particles with dimensions between 1 billionth of a metre and 1 millionth of a metre.

By demonstrating this association between colloidal organic matter and trace metals in the cave waters, the study has concluded it may be possible to derive information about the movement of organic materials between soils and groundwater by measuring the trace metal contents of stalagmites formed from them.

The organic colloids and trace metals, which occur naturally in soil at the surface, are transported into cave environments as water percolates through the soil into cave systems below.

Since this process is mediated largely by climate, the abundance of trace metals in stalagmites can therefore be used to infer climatic conditions (e.g. dry/wet episodes) prevailing during the period when the stalagmites were formed.

This is significant, because until now, researchers have generally treated the organic and inorganic constituents of cave waters in isolation, and interactions between these components had not previously been identified in waters that form stalagmites in caves.

Trace metals may be chemically bound in “complexes” with organics that can act to stabilise them in solution and enable their migration over long distances in groundwater systems. This process is known as “colloid-facilitated transport”.

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image of organic colloids (nm= nanometre) showing extensive surface area to which trace metals can bind.

The study focused on stalagmite-forming waters from a very high pH, or “hyperalkaline” cave system in which the process of metal-binding and transport is probably enhanced.

It found binding of metals such as copper, nickel and cobalt, occurred with both truly dissolved and colloidal organic species below 0.1 millionths of a metre in size. Organic colloids have very large specific surface areas (area/volume) to which comparatively large amounts of metals can be bound.

Because they are typically present in natural waters in much greater numbers than particulates, organic colloids can therefore play a significant role in the transport of trace elements from the surface into caves.

Further work is needed to understand this process in less-alkaline waters found in the majority of caves. Because it is likely this process would be fairly ubiquitous in the karst (limestone) systems where caves occur, the findings of this study may have broad relevance for the study of cave deposits such as stalagmites to obtain information about past climates and their hydrology.

The paper by appears in the 75th volume of the geochemistry journal Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta.

• Access the paper online (Hartland et al., 2011)

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WRL Projects has had another outstanding year in 2011 providing more than $2.8 million of specialist water services and expert advice to industry and government. This expertise has been across coastal, environmental, estuarine, hydraulic, water resources, flooding and groundwater engineering.

After 10 years of development and consolidation as a leading provider of applied research and industry solutions, the evolution of WRL Projects will continue in 2012 with the leadership of Mr Grantley Smith as WRL Projects Principal Engineer and Manager. Grantley is one of Australia’s eminent water engineers with more than 22 years of specialist experience. He has been a senior member of WRL’s management team for the past three years and WRL will now benefit from his technical and managerial leadership. 

Mr Brett Miller, who has led WRL Projects for the past 10 successful years, will move into an exciting new role as WRL Principal Engineer - Hydraulics and Modelling. This technically focused role will ensure WRL continues to provide innovative solutions to real world problems and expands the collaboration between WRL and other groups. 

On behalf of all of WRL, I would like to thank Brett for his successful term leading WRL Projects. He has maintained and grown an expert team along with whom he has achieved one of the most productive periods of WRL’s history.

This significant change to WRL Projects’ leadership will ensure WRL never stands still in its ongoing aim of expanding the reputation of UNSW through provision of innovative expert solutions to the evolving water challenges of industry and government.

A/Prof Bill Peirson

WRL Director
Bill Peirson is the Director of WRL and is responsible for all research and project activities. He is an international expert in civil and environmental engineering fluid mechanics. He undertakes specialist research and provides professional engineering advice in the fields of coastal engineering, air-sea interaction, fluvial hydraulics, estuarine processes, hydrology and climate change adaptation of water supply systems, and the hydraulics and mechanical behaviour of turbomachines.

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For more details, please contact:

• A/Prof Bill Peirson - WRL Director: +61 2 8071 9822, W.Peirson@unsw.edu.au
• Mr Grantley Smith - WRL Manager: +61 2 8071 9862, Grantley.Smith@wrl.unsw.edu.au
• Mr Brett Miller - Principal Engineer - Hydraulics & Modelling: +61 2 8071 9846, B.Miller@unsw.edu.au

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WRL staff recently undertook site inspections of the coastline around Batemans Bay for Eurobodalla Shire Council. During this time, coastal engineers James Carley and Ian Coghlan observed the “break out” of Short Beach Creek at Caseys Beach (Batehaven). These three photos were taken on 31st October 2011 at 5, 20 and 60 minutes after the initial “break out”, respectively.

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Coastal Australia was once a land with teeming wildlife and abundant native species. Over the past 150+ years the rivers and tidal estuaries of Australia have been cleared, drained, leveed, and floodgated to promote agriculture and development. While this has helped to create modern Australia, in many locations this legacy has resulted in degraded land lacking biodiversity and environmental values. At these locations, research is coalescing around how to re-create or rehabilitate the natural environment.

The UNSW Water Research Laboratory is a leading group in on-ground tidal wetland restoration and wetland hydrology. Over the past 10 years, WRL staff (lead by Dr William Glamore) have been conducting large-scale tidal restoration projects to restore degraded wetlands throughout Australia. To share the lessons learnt from these experiences and to encourage links between physical and biological sciences, WRL has provided several wetland hydrology training courses in 2011. 

Conducted over a 3-day workshop, the primary aim of these training courses has been to provide the necessary analytical and technical skills to understand wetland hydrology, hydrodynamics, rehabilitation techniques, hydraulic design and surface water-groundwater interactions. At the end of each course participants are given the skills to design, develop, implement and monitor wetland projects focused on hydrologic rehabilitation. These skills are designed to complement the existing site management, ecological and policy skills of the course attendees.            

In 2011, the course “Wetland Hydrology: Restoring the Basics” was run in February, May and October. While the May course was tailored for Queensland departmental staff in Brisbane, the February and October courses were hosted at the Hunter Wetlands Centre in the lower Hunter River estuary. This region has become a major research ground for investigating tidal wetland rehabilitation and creation. One important component of this research is a large tidal wetland restoration study being conducted at the Tomago Wetlands within the Hunter Estuary Wetland Ramsar site. Researchers at WRL have been working to restore this site for the past 7 years with staff from NSW’s Office of Environment and Heritage (Parks and Wildlife Division), the local Catchment Management Authority and NSW’s Department of Industry and Investment. As part of the course, participants spend the final day in the field examining on-ground solutions implemented at the restored Tomago field site.

 
Attendees at the October Wetland Training Course

Additional training courses on Wetland Hydrology, Floodplain Hydraulics and Coastal Zone Management are planned for 2012.

Dr William Glamore can be contacted directly at: w.glamore@wrl.unsw.edu.au

Downloads

•   Wetland Restoration Solutions

Related

Projects

• Tidal Restoration and Wetland Creation at the Kooragang Nature Reserve (Tomago, NSW)
• Tidal Restoration: Design and Installation of SwingGates for Tomago Wetland
• Tomago Wetland Remote Monitoring 

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A 14-person strong WRL contingent attended the 2011 Coasts & Ports Conference held at the Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre from 27 - 30 September, 2011. This conference was an amalgamation of the 20th Australasian Coastal and Ocean Engineering Conference and the 13th Australasian Port and Harbour Conference. The conference is hosted by Engineers Australia’s NCCOE and PIANC Australia and supported by the institute of Professional Engineers New Zealand and the New Zealand Coastal Society.

(Left to right) Dr Chris Blenkinsopp, Erica Davey, Ian Coghlan, James Carley, Dr William Glamore, Dr Tom Shand, Dr Xavier Barthelmey, Dr Kristen Splinter, A/Prof Ron Cox, Melissa Mole, Jamie Ruprecht, Ed Kearney and Duncan Rayner. (At front) A/Prof Bill Peirson and Matt Blacka.

The Coasts & Ports Conference series is the pre-eminent forum in the Australasian region for engineers, planners, scientists and researchers to meet and discuss issues extending across all disciplines related to oceans, coasts and ports. The conference covers a broad range of themes, including: coastal processes, coastal structures and facilities, port and ocean engineering, dredging, coastal policy, planning and management and environmental effects.

The welcome reception was sponsored by WRL and Director Bill Peirson welcomed and thanked all conference delegates for ongoing support for industry and government support for WRL. The evening provided the perfect opportunity for delegates to catch up with colleagues, renew past acquaintances and make new contacts leading into the conference program.

The WRL exhibition booth was used to showcase work undertaken at the lab as well as the new 0.2 m mini-flume model. The mini-flume model is a scaled version of WRLs 1 m wave flume used for physical modelling of breakwaters.

WRL’s mini-flume as part of the WRL booth display.

The following papers were presented at the conference:

Matt Blacka: An Overview of the Use of Physical Models to Assess Wave Loading on Marine Structures

Dr Kristen Splinter: Can We Reliably Estimate Dune Erosion Without Knowing Pre-Storm Bathymetry

Duncan Rayner: Assessing the Health Impacts of Ocean Outfalls

Melissa Mole: Modelling Seasonal to Multi-Year Shoreline Change at Sandy Embayment on the Australian East Coast

Edward Kearney: An Energy Based Model of Storm Induced Shoreline Erosion - Gold Coast, Australia

Dr William Glamore: The Myth of Wakeboarding Vessels and Riverbank Erosion

Jamie Ruprecht: Stability of the Manning River Entrance

Ian Coghlan: High Resolution Wave Modelling (Hi-WAM) for Batesmans Bay Detailed Wave Study

A/Prof Ian Turner (presented by Dr Kristen Splinter): Planning for an Australian National Coastal Observatory: Monitoring and Forecasting Coastal Erosion in Changing Climate

A/Prof Ron Cox: Coastal Storm Data Analysis: Provision of Extreme Wave Data for Adaptation Planning

Dr Tom Shand: Evaluation of Empirical Predictors of Extreme Run-Up Using Field Data

James Carley: Performance of Sand Filled Geotextile Container (Geocontainer) Structures in North Queensland During Tropical Cyclone Yasi

Dr Chris Blenkinsopp: Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) for Measurements of Coastal Processes

A/Prof Bill Peirson: Boussinesq Modelling of Shoaling Wave Groups

Dr Xavier Barthelemy: Numerical Study of a Breaking Wave Threshold Parameter

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Since its opening in 1959, the Water Research Laboratory has played host to a large variety of research equipment and facilities, but it now boasts its own time machine!

On September 7^th, WRL celebrated the launch of its newest facility, the Groundwater Education Investment Fund (GEIF) headquarters and its star attraction, an $800,000 geotechnical centrifuge which is one of only two of its kind in the world.

Professor Ian Acworth, A/Professor Bill Peirson, Professor Graham Davies and Professor Andy Baker with the new centrifuge.

Funded by the Australian Research Council and the National Water Commission, the centrifuge has been described as a time machine, since it allows researchers to preview the long-term effects of groundwater abstraction on aquifers and aquitards. In particular, the impacts on aquitards that result from coal seam gas extraction and longwall mining can be investigated.

This is achieved by spinning rock samples taken from the aquitards that typically occur above coal seams at speeds up to 300 x gravity to test their permeability. A single day’s testing can equal 100 days of flow in “real” time and, according to Professor Ian Acworth, director of the UNSW Connected Waters Initiative based at WRL, “experiments that would previously take 30 years to complete can now be achieved in a number of days or weeks.”

The official launch of the centrifuge and the GEIF headquarters was attended by a large number of guests from academia and industry, including Ms Clare McLaughlin (General Manager of the Department of Innovation Industry  Science and Research); Professor Craig Simmons from the National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training; Professor Graham Davies, Dean of the UNSW Faculty of Engineering, and other affiliated guests from the National Water Commission, NSW Office of Water and the NSW Department of Trade and Investment.

The official opening of the new GEIF headquarters at WRL.

Also in attendance were a large number of guests who had attended the International Association of Hydrologists Symposium held in Sydney earlier in the week.

The launch attracted a Sydney Morning Herald feature article, and the centrifuge’s research potential is continuing to attract media interest throughout Australia.

For further information regarding centrifuge permeameter testing and aquitard research please contact Dr Wendy Timms: w.timms@wrl.unsw.edu.au or visit: http://www.connectedwaters.unsw.edu.au/technical/research/projects/projects_aquitards.html

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Predicting the speed of movement of the surface of open waters is fundamental to many important environmental engineering problems - oil spill prediction, for example.

In a collaboration between the Institute of Environmental Physics, University of Heidelberg and the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University and WRL, University of Heidelberg Diploma Thesis student Jana Schnieders visited WRL from July to September 2011.

Jana has been benchmarking remotely-sensed measurements of surface velocity against detailed microphysical measurements previously completed at WRL by Dr James Walker (now Sogreah Gulf - Artelia Group).

Associate Professor Bill Peirson, Ed Kearney, Mike Allis, Dr Xavier Barthelemy, Jana Schnieders and Xia Yan - all interested in the impact of waves in the environment.

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The Connected Waters Initiative (CWI) Team was a finalist in the recent 2011 Australian Museum Eureka Prizes for Science.

The nomination was for the Professor Peter Cullen Eureka Prize for Water Research and Innovation that recognises outstanding contribution to water resource management.

The CWI Team (6 of the 7 nominees being based at WRL) includes Professor Ian Acworth, Associate Professor Bryce Kelly, Dr Martin Andersen, Dr Anna Greve, Andrew McCallum, Gabriel Rau and Dr Wendy Timms.

Professor Ian Acworth, Dr Wendy Timms, Andrew McCallum, Dr Anna Greve, Associate Professor Bryce Kelly and Gabriel Rau enjoying the gala celebration of Australian science.

Together they have undertaken research demonstrating the extent of the connectivity between surface water and groundwater resources. This research demonstrates that a collaborative effort focusing on obtaining information from in-stream point measurements and small scale field measurements and deep borehole observations through to observations on the catchment-scale, is required to advance rural water management.

The CWI Team developed a multidisciplinary tool kit for the investigation of surface water and groundwater interconnectivity. The research reflects how detailed climate, river flow, recharge, irrigation usage, water chemistry, geological, and geophysical data sets can be combined to improve our understanding of the processes surrounding the movement of water through a catchment.

State government agencies have integrated CWI research results into their decision-making process. The Namoi Catchment Management Authority has requested the CWI map zones where groundwater extractions are highly connected to the streams and river, and other zones where there is no long term viable recharge and current groundwater extractions are not viable. The CWI groundwater research has also informed aspects of the Namoi Catchment Action Plan. The recent Upper Namoi Catchment Groundwater Status report by the NSW Office of Water referenced the CWI team cites and research papers numerous times.

Most importantly, presentations by the CWI team have been a major source of independent information for groundwater stakeholders. A primary goal has been to provide high quality information that can help inform the debates on water management in the Murray-Darling Basin. Final, one of the team members, Dr Wendy Timms was invited to review the draft Murray-Darling Basin Plan before it was released.

Presented annually by the Australian Museum, the Eureka Prizes are a unique partnership between government organisations, institutions, companies and individuals committed to celebrating the vitality, originality and excellence of Australian science.

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Dr Chris Blenkinsopp of WRL is to be congratulated on accepting a hydraulics academic position within the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, UNSW.

Chris will be undertaking seminars at both the University campus and at WRL, while continuing to do great work on aerated flow behaviour, particularly in the coastal zone.

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The rain that is currently drenching Sydney has caused overtopping of the Manly Dam. The dam wall is located approximately 700 metres from WRL’s laboratories, allowing us to take these spectacular photos around 2 pm on Friday 22nd July, 2011.

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WRL Project Engineer Alessio Mariani is to be warmly congratulated on securing a prestigious 2011 Churchill Fellowship under the topic of Investigation of International Innovative Coastal Engineering Solutions to Manage Beach Erosion. 

Since 1965 the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust has been awarding Australians who excel in their chosen field allowing them to travel the world to further expand their knowledge before returning to Australia to further their contribution to Australian society.

The award will enable Alessio to travel overseas to investigate and prepare a report with an international perspective on his research area. Alessio’s specific intention is to visit selected key major international coastal hydraulic research institutions and laboratories where innovative engineering approaches to combat beach erosion are being developed and tested. It will also allow him to inspect the sites where alternative coastal protection methods have been implemented and to document their performance.

This international review of innovative coastal engineering approaches to preserve our coast will allow their implementation in the Australian coastal engineering practice and provide coastal planners and policy makers with alternative coastal management strategies.

Alessio is now the 3rd staff member from WRL to be awarded a Churchill Fellowship:

2002 - Ian Turner: To undertake a study of state-of-the-art developments in the practical applications of ‘coastal imaging’ technology for coastal management.

2005 - William Glamore: To investigate international coastal wetland restoration practices.

 (Left) Alessio receiving his award with the Honourable NSW Governor Marie Bashir at Government House.

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Ed Kearney a 1^st Year PhD student at WRL, has been awarded a prestigious Bicentennial Scholarship to conduct research at the University of Plymouth in the United Kingdom. Under the supervision of Associate Professor Ian Turner, Ed is researching how beaches erode due to storm events.

The Bicentennial Scholarship is administered by the Menzies Centre at King’s College London. It is awarded annually with the objective of promoting scholarship and intellectual links between the United Kingdom and Australia. It allows a graduate student to undertake research at leading Universities within the United Kingdom.

Ed will be travelling to the University of Plymouth in mid-2012, and will bring with him an extensive set of data recently collected at Australian beaches as part of the National Coastal Observatory ARC linkage project. Using this data he will investigate and develop a storm erosion model, with the aim of providing coastal engineers and managers a way to better predict and mitigate damaging storm erosion.

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The week-long conference held from 26^th of June - 1^st of July, 2011, themed Balance and Uncertainty: Water in a Changing World brought together not only the 34^th World Congress of the International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research, but also the 33^rd National Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium and the 10^th National Conference on Hydraulic in Water Engineering. The conference was held at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre and presented a unique opportunity for delegates from all around the world to share ideas and research activities. A total of 590 papers were accepted for publication in the conference proceedings.

WRL was well represented with four presentations being given by WRL staff members canvasing a broad range of topics from groundwater hydraulics and hydrology, to floods, to ecohydraulics. Grantley Smith’s presentation of Development of Appropriate Criteria for the Safety and Stability of Persons and Vehicles in Floods created substantial interest as the results presented form part of the Australian Rainfall & Runoff Revision Project.

This conference included technical tours, in which delegates were shown prominent water infrastructure in the Brisbane area; and a conference dinner was held, which included the hydrologic games. State battled state in the games to see who could build the tallest sand castle with the most innovative water feature. Queensland took out the title, with Conrad Wasko contributing to New South Wales relinquishing the mantle of hydrologic games champions. The highlight of the conference social calendar was a Students and Young Professionals Night sponsored by NCCARF and organised by Associate Professor Ron Cox. This night presented the younger conference delegates with an opportunity to meet their fellow peers in a friendly social environment and establish networks with fellow engineers who will no doubt be future leaders in the engineering field.

List of Papers:

Busuttil, D., Peirson, W.L., Lee, G.A., Waite, C. and Onesemo, P. (2011) Laboratory Assessment of the Performance of Porous Coverings in Evaporation Mitigation

Mariani, A. and Glamore, W.C. (2011) Fate and Transport of Suspended Particulate Discharged into Marine Environments via Ocean Outfalls

Rahman, P., Sharma, A. and Smith, G.P. (2011) Estimating Design Floods for Gauged Urban Catchments under Climate Change Conditions-Case Study: Cooks River, Sydney

Shand, T.D., Smith, G.P., Cox, R.J. and Blacka, M.J. (2011) Development of Appropriate Criteria for the Safety and Stability of Persons and Vehicles in Floods

Wasko, C.D., Timms, W.A. and Miller, B.M. (2011) Groundwater Modelling in a Highly Seasonal, Fractured Rock Environment using FEFLOW 

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WRL staff have undertaken research on the safety of people and vehicles during wave overtopping and flood flows. Coastal engineers James Carley and Dr Tom Shand from WRL regularly visit the promenade at the end of Bower Lane, Manly, to monitor wave overtopping of the seawall. According to James, this overtopping occurs predominantly at high tide in east to north-east swells above 3 m.

Large spring tides occur at night during winter, making monitoring and photographing more difficult. This last month has seen a lot of overtopping events for this seawall.

Photo taken 2nd May, 2011 

Photo taken 2nd May, 2011

Photo taken 27th June, 2003

Related

Projects

• Predicting Hazardous Conditions for Rock Fishing

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The recent floods in Queensland and Victoria in 2011 have been a timely reminder of how destructive and dangerous these types of natural disasters can be. While State and Local government authorities are busy with the important task of restoring infrastructure for communities in these flood affected areas, researchers at the University of New South Wales Water Research Laboratory (WRL) are working to assist planners and emergency managers to more effectively deal with future floods. Read more…

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WRL Industry Advisory Board member Doug Rhodes visited the NCGRT training centre at the UNSW Research Station, in Wellington. He is pictured here with WRL Field Engineer Sam McCulloch undertaking geophysical profiling of a fractured-rock borehole, as funded by the Groundwater Super Science Education Infrastructure Fund (EIF).

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New offices for the Connected Waters Initiative have been completed at the Water Research Laboratory and the first postdoctoral researchers have moved in. Construction will commence on Stage 2 of these offices and landscaping in early 2011.

The new laboratory for the centrifuge permeameter is also nearing completion, alongside the offices at the Water Research Laboratory. The $0.8 million facility was funded by the ARC and NWC through the National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training as part of Program 1B - Innovative Characterisation of Aquitards. The purpose designed laboratory includes a 3 tonne gantry crane, climate control and a re-enforced slab keyed into the underlying sandstone. The centrifuge was delivered to WRL in January 2011, shipped from the Broadbent factory in Yorkshire, UK. This facility will accelerate testing of low permeability sediments and rock and make long term contaminant transport and retardation studies possible under in-situ conditions.

(Left) Crane moving various centrifuge parts into the new lab; (Right) Postdoctoral Fellow Gyanendra Regmi and Centrifuge Engineer Mark Whelan with the new permeameter and strong box chambers during installation of the new equipment.

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Dr Brad Morris who completed his PhD studies while at WRL, has graduated at a ceremony held at UNSW. Brad’s thesis is titled: “Infilling and sedimentation mechanisms at intermittently open-closed coastal lagoons“.

Brad is pictured here (left) with his supervisor Associate Professor Ian Turner (right).

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While major floods can cause terrible damage and losses, they can also recharge groundwater supplies in aquifers. Recharge of groundwater helps ensure sustainability of water resources for town water supplies, agriculture and industry. Topping up aquifers during floods is also important for driving groundwater seepage into rivers, which sustains surface water flow during dry periods.

Dr Wendy Timms and her team based at WRL are currently measuring leakage and aquifer mixing to a depth of 40 m at the Breeza agricultural station with the NSW Department of Investment and Industry. Their studies are focused on how much water leaks through clay-rich sediments called aquitards that contain the groundwater. They have recently found that recharge might be more episodic than previously thought, and depends greatly on the spatial variability of soil permeability.

Recent work by WRL researchers Dr Martin Andersen, Andrew McCallum and the CWI team, has found that major flow events can temporarily increase the permeability of the river bed. This can occur during flood when flow becomes strong enough to erode the stream bed, stripping out fine particles of clay, silt and organic material that reduce permeability. Consequently, the streambed becomes more permeable, allowing river water to leak into the underlying aquifer at a higher rate. When the flood is over fine material will settle into the stream bed over time, reducing permeability, although this may take many months. These findings were presented recently at a forum in Tamworth and at the 2010 Congress of the International Association of Hydrogeologists.

Dr Wendy Timms was recently interviewed by the Sydney Morning Herald for an article responding to the recent flooding entitled “Aquifers Lap Up Water Gratefully“.

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Course Dates: February 16-18, 2011

Presented by a range of wetland experts, this 2½ day course hosted at the Hunter Wetlands Centre will provide fundamental skills to understand wetland hydrology, hydraulics & hydrodynamics.

$980 (plus GST) per person. Book early as a limited number of places are available.

Please contact Dr William Glamore at: w.glamore@wrl.unsw.edu.au or on (02) 8071 9868.

For further information, click here 

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Held at the newly opened UNSW Wellington Research Station in central western NSW, the recent inaugural National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training (NCGRT) Surface Water - Groundwater Field Methods Course, was well represented with WRL based Connected Waters Initiative (CWI) team members. Led by Professor Andy Baker and Professor Ian Acworth, the course offered experience in a variety of the latest scientific methods for understanding and examining the connectivity between rivers, rainfall infiltration and groundwater.

Also from WRL were Dr Martin Andersen, teaching groundwater sampling and hydrochemical analysis, with Dr Anna Greve introducing geophysical survey methods. PhD Student and Research Assistant Andrew McCallum provided expertise in aquifer testing bore design and drilling methods; while Drilling Technician Hamish Studholme and Field Engineer Sam McCulloch established the aquifer testing and down hole geophysical equipment.

The 4 day course included a field trip to the Baldry agricultural site, where collaborative research is coordinated by the NSW Department of Industry and Innovation. The field trip included a visit to Wellington Caves where Professor Baker and the CWI team are studying the relationship between groundwater and the geological formations in the caves, and where a new cave was recently discovered by the team.

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WRL based Postdoctoral Research Fellow Dr Cath Jex of the Connected Waters Initiative (CWI) team, recently gave a guest lecture to students at Turramurra High School in Sydney as part of National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training’s (NCGRT) commitment to provide training in all aspects of groundwater research.

In the first year of their HSC studies, the students were provided a rare opportunity to hear first-hand from a scientist working in the fields of groundwater and palaeoclimate research.

Cath discussed how stalagmites can be used to reconstruct the history of changes to groundwater systems over long periods of time, including her recent work in Ethiopia.

The students learned about some of the analytical techniques used in this research, including radiometric dating methods and stable isotope analysis of speleothem calcium carbonate.

Stalagmites, some of which are up to 130,000 years old, were made available for the students to handle and examine.

Researchers at the CWI and colleagues at institutions in the UK are currently collaborating in an ongoing project to use stalagmites to reconstruct past changes in hydrological conditions in Ethiopia, specifically during time periods that cover early modern human migration out of East Africa.

There are plans for similar research to be conducted in Australia led by WRL researchers Professor Andy Baker and Dr Cath Jex, involving the use of stalagmites to date and characterise periods of past hydrological variability and groundwater recharge in NSW during the Quaternary.

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Dr Tom Shand recently attended the New Zealand Coastal Society Conference, presenting a paper reviewing the use of physical and numerical models for coastal applications. The conference, held from November 17 - 19 at Whitianga, New Zealand brought together representatives from industry, academic and governmental backgrounds to present and discuss topics of coastal science, engineering and management.

•   The use of physical and numerical models for coastal applications

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The New South Wales Coastal Conference was held from the 10 - 12 November 2010 at Batemans Bay, on the NSW south coast. The conference theme was Coastal Management - all aboard, making it work! and drew consultants, academics and state, federal and local government representatives from around Australia.

WRL was represented by Dr Tom Shand presenting NSW Coastal Storms and Extreme Waves, James Carley presenting Beach Scraping as a Coastal Management Option and Alessio Mariani presenting Infilling and Sand Bypassing of Coastal Structures and Headlands by Littoral Drift. Louise Gates of UNSW received the student award for outstanding research on climate change adaptation. Conference sessions were well attended with surf on the south coast remaining small throughout the week.

Burrill Lake - Natural infilling and closure of the Burrill Lake entrance has resulted in extremely high water levels around the lake shore.

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WRL staff enjoyed great success in the latest round of grant funding announced by the Australian Research Council on the 26th October. Congratulations to Andy, Chris, Ian and Bill.

The three new projects to commence in January 2011 are:

Discovery

DP110102124: Source - receptor analysis of lignin and lipid macromolecules in karst to quantify stalagmite biomarker proxies of vegetation and temperature change
Andy Baker, Stuart Khan and Alison Blyth have been awarded an ARC Discovery Grant to investigate the climate record contained in the organic molecules preserved in cave stalagmites. Stalagmites provide well dated archives from which proxies of past environmental and climate change can be extracted. Recent technological advances have allowed us to extract lipid and lignin biomarkers from stalagmites. In this proposal we will determine, for the first time, the modern conditions under which bacterial membrane lipids and lignin best preserve signals of temperature change and surface vegetation respectively. Modern vegetation, soil, groundwater, cave surface and stalagmite samples from contrasting cave systems will be analysed to calibrate and validate our biomarkers. Our long term objective is to use Australian stalagmites as archives both of past groundwater variability and past climate variability.
Prof Andrew Baker, Dr Stuart J Khan, Dr Alison Blyth
2011: $120,000
2012: $100,000
2013: $100,000

DP110101176: Bed shear stress on beach sediment and coastal structures under wave run-up
The aim of this work is to obtain critical new information about the way waves interact with the coast and the damage they can cause to beaches and coastal protection structures. This new data will provide the basis for improved predictions of coastal erosion and better coastal engineering design in the face of sea-level rise and climate change.
Dr Chris Blenkinsopp, A/Prof Ian L Turner, A/Prof Tom E Baldock, Prof Hocine Oumeraci
2011: $70,000
2012: $70,000
2013: $70,000

Linkage

LP110100389: Erosion of embankment dams and dam spillways
In excess of $250M is spent annually to maintain, upgrade, improve safety and monitor performance of Australian dams. Improved methods for assessing both spillway and internal erosion, the cause of 50 per cent of embankment dam failures and incidents requiring repairs, will be developed, maximising dam safety and minimising maintenance expenditure.
Prof Robin Fell, A/Prof Chongmin Song, Dr William L Peirson, Dr Kurt J Douglas
2011: $245,000
2012: $125,000
2013: $110,000

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WRL Senior staff member, Dr William Glamore, has recently given four invited presentations on coastal wetlands and the science behind wetland restoration and creation. The first presentation given in June was at Engineers Australia’s Sydney Headquarters in Chatswood. The well-attended seminar addressed the worldwide issues facing coastal wetlands and Australia’s current state of science. The second presentation was in late July at the Federal Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts. This presentation focused on the issues of biobanking, developing a prioritised estuary atlas of wetlands and the recent projects Dr Glamore has undertaken for the department.

The third presentation and field tour formed part of the Hunter Floodplain Network meeting in September. This meeting highlighted the research and on-ground projects currently underway in the Hunter River Estuary including the exciting Tomago restoration project. Finally, Dr Glamore presented a paper and chaired several sessions at a conference in Cairn’s - “Challenges in Environmental Science and Engineering” in October. This presentation highlighted the lessons learnt from previous projects; and how these lessons should be adapted to improve future on-ground works. With >300 participants and a dedicated wetland stream, the Cairn’s conference was an excellent opportunity to discuss coastal wetland issues with other leading experts.

Hunter Floodplain Network meeting field tour. Photo credit: Jenny Fredrickson

For further information on any presentation, or to discuss coastal wetland issues contact Dr William Glamore at w.glamore@wrl.unsw.edu.au

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UNSW experts hold a range of views and expertise on water issues in the Murray-Darling Basin. WRL will continue to provide specialist analysis of basin water resources including both groundwater and surface water to industry groups and government agencies. WRL water specialists are engaged in review of best practice for connectivity flows of surface water and groundwater in the Basin, identifying data gaps, and targeting research that will help reduce uncertainty in sustainable diversion limits.

For more information on the ups and downs of groundwater in the Basin click here 

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Professor Rupert Vallentine was a quietly spoken giant of Australian water engineering who died on 29th September 2010.

In the late 1950’s he supervised the establishment of the UNSW Water Research Laboratory at Manly Vale which continues today as Australia’s leading national centre of Civil and Environmental fluid mechanics, coastal engineering and groundwater engineering.

Professor Vallentine (left) being interviewed
at WRL in 1962 for the Sydney Morning Herald

The continued success of WRL today is a reflection of its ongoing commitment to Professor Vallentine’s inaugural vision of rigorous academic research working hand-in-hand with the solution of practical Australian water problems.

Professor Vallentine’s enormous personal breadth of vision for water research is demonstrated by his authorship of the monographs “Applied Hydrodynamics” (a mathematically rigorous treatment of fluid mechanics) and “Water in the Service of Man” (a synoptic view of the key concerns of water engineering).

His academic career subsequent to his time at WRL is testimony to his personal and leadership qualities that have been documented by others.

It is Professor Vallentine’s vision that continues to guide the practice of water engineering and the education of future generations of water engineers at the University of New South Wales.

Bill Peirson
Director - Water Research Laboratory

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Groundwater researchers from WRL participated in the International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH) 38th Congress, held in Krakow, Poland, from 12-17th September 2010. The WRL researchers are part of the Connected Waters Initiative (CWI) team working on programs of the National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training (NCGRT).

The UNSW team was among over 300 hydrologists and hydrogeologists from around the world who heard how groundwater science is helping to preserve aquifer water quality.

The congress program included sessions on groundwater quality sustainability, groundwater and dependent ecosystems, surface-water groundwater interactions, mineral and thermal waters.

During the week long congress, Dr Martin Andersen presented a paper that investigates recharge pathways and recharge rates using environmental isotopes (2H, 18O, 14C and 3H) in the Maules Creek Catchment, Australia. Andrew McCallum was amongst the speakers provoking much discussion. His presentation focused on surface-water groundwater interactions and presented field evidence of temporal change in the Namoi riverbed hydraulic conductivity linked to flood events. Research pointing out the advantages of using natural heat as a tracer to quantify streambed vertical water flow, as well as possible artefacts due to realistic field conditions was presented by Gabriel Rau.

The WRL team much enjoyed the effusive Polish hospitality during the well organised event in beautiful Krakow. On the agenda was a visit in the world’s famous Wieliczka Salt Mine, a Gala Dinner as well as two big concerts that were especially organised for the congress participants.

Abstracts and papers will be available soon.

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The School of Civil and Environmental Engineering at UNSW is presently seeking to appoint an academic in the discipline of water engineering.

The successful candidate will be expected to develop an internationally recognised research program and to participate in the teaching and service missions of the School and Faculty.

Candidates with evidence of exceptional research strength in hydraulics and environmental fluid mechanics, coastal engineering, surface and groundwater hydrology, water quality and water and wastewater treatment or related areas are encouraged to apply.

Previous teaching experience, particularly in the areas of hydraulics and environmental fluid mechanics  will be considered an asset.

Experience in the practice of water engineering will be considered an asset.

This is a fixed term, full time appointment for three years with a provision for conversion to a continuing position after three years, subject to satisfactory performance and an ongoing need by the University.

For more information, please see:
http://www.hr.unsw.edu.au/services/recruitment/jobs/10091002.html

Applications close : 19 October 2010

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On Thursday September 2nd, WRL was visited by Year 5 and Year 6 classes from local Bilgola Primary School, who are currently studying coastal erosion. During their brief visit Associate Professor Ian Turner introduced them to the natural processes occurring in the coastal zone, the impacts of coastal erosion on infrastructure and the roles that coastal engineers play.

Issues the students are aware of in their own local area were discussed along with potential solutions, management strategies and what impacts may be expected with climate change.

During a tour of WRL, the students observed a civil hydraulic structure in action with project engineer Jamie Ruprecht; checked out a range of field instruments - including GPS buoys and a quad bike - and finished by viewing and discussing a current physical model with project engineer Melissa Mole.

Bilgola Primary School in the wave basin with WRL project engineer Melissa Mole

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The 32nd International Conference on Coastal Engineering (ICCE) was held at Shanghai, China from 1st - 5th July, 2010. The conference brought together 650 delegates, from over 40 countries with over 440 papers presented on applied, experimental and theoretical aspects of coastal engineering.

(From left) Associate Professor Ron Cox, Dr Tom Shand, Jose Beya and Dr Bill Peirson

The conference, sponsored by WRL, was attended by Dr Bill Peirson, Associate Professor Ron Cox, Dr Tom Shand, and Masters Student Jose Beya; with both Tom and Jose presenting papers.

Jose gave a presentation on Attenuation of Waves by Surface Turbulence, and Tom presented Engineering Design in the Presence of Wave Groups.

Following the conference, Ron and Tom visited the largest hydropower station in the world - 3 Gorges Hydropower Dam on the Yangtze River.

3 Gorges Hydropower Dam

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The 2010 International Conference on Physical Modelling in Geotechnics (ICPMG) was held in Zurich, Switzerland, from 28^th June to 1^st July. Dr Wendy Timms and Mark Whelan from WRL participated in the conference as part of their work for the National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training (NCGRT).

(Left) Mark Whelan and Wendy Timms at ICPMG; (Right) Mark Whelan and Neil Baker (Broadbent) discuss plans for the NCGRT centrifuge permeameter

Held once every 4 years, the ICPMG conference is an important gathering of experts from several centrifuge modelling facilities around the world. A poster was displayed titled Introducing the NCGRT centrifuge permeameter facility, Sydney, Australia. There was also very useful exchange as part of the technician’s program and design meetings with the centrifuge supplier. Dinner and drinks were a time for discussions with research collaborators and potential recruits to the NCGRT-UNSW team. 

Studying groundwater flow through clay aquitards is an innovative application of a geotechnical centrifuge with many benefits for measuring permeability, recharge and migration of contaminants. The centrifuge permeameter uses accelerated gravity to drive fluid flow through samples of porous media such as drill core.

Wendy and Mark reported that the ICPMG conference was a very well run event, with the added benefit of experiencing the beautiful city of Zurich, and alpine summits.

Wendy Timms enjoying the Swiss Alps

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In April 2010, WRL staff (Mr Brett Miller, Dr William Glamore, Dr Tom Shand and Mr Jamie Ruprecht) undertook field investigations on the Christchurch Ocean Outfall. Dilution tests were undertaken to measure the rates of mixing of effluent into seawater by injecting Rhodamine WT fluorescent dye into the effluent and measuring the concentrations in the field using a fluorometer. Dive inspections were also carried out.

The measurements demonstrated that the outfall is operating as designed and achieving excellent dilutions with the ocean. These measurements also provide one of the most extensive datasets on an actual outfall performance gathered anywhere in the world. Field measurements of the Rhodamine WT concentrations were made using a Chelsea Mini-tracker fluorometer attached to an SBE 19plus SEACAT Profiler (Seabird). The Seabird was towed behind or lowered from the vessel using the available winch arm. The data from the Seabird included pH, salinity, depth and fluorescence and was logged on a laptop onboard the vessel allowing for visualisation in real time.

WRL has been involved with this project since 1999 providing URS Pty Ltd and Christchurch City Council with extensive data collection, numerical modelling and diffuser design to optimise the location and performance of the outfall. It has been very rewarding to provide our expertise at all stages from concept to commissioning.

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On Monday, May 17, four project staff from WRL were awarded with a range of degrees from UNSW. Professor Ian Acworth and Associate Professor Ron Cox (also WRL staff) were a part of the official party presiding over the ceremony. Degrees in the category of Bachelor, Masters and PhD were presented to Mr Jamie Ruprecht, Ms Melissa Mole, Mr Ian Coghlan and Dr Tom Shand. An associate of WRL, Dr Chin Cheah, was also awarded his PhD during the ceremony.

 
(Left to right): Mr Ian Coghlan, Associate Professor Ron Cox, Dr Tom Shand, Ms Melissa Mole, Dr Chin Cheah, Mr Jamie Ruprecht

List of Degrees Awarded:

Jamie Ruprecht - BE (Hons 1) (Civil Engineering)
Melissa Mole - BE (Hons 1) (Civil Engineering)
Ian Coghlan - MEngSc (Coastal Engineering and Management)
Tom Shand - PhD (Thesis Title: The Effect of Wave Grouping on Shoaling and Breaking Processes)
Chin Cheah - PhD (Thesis Title: Kinematic Wave Modelling of Surface Runoff Quantity and Quality for Small Urban Catchments in Sydney)

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Associate Professor Ian Turner (center row, 3rd from left) and Mr Ian Coghlan (front row, 1st on right) of WRL have been invited to present research papers at a wind-waves symposium on the Gold Coast this week. The Australian Wind-Waves Research Science Symposium (a joint initiative of CSIRO and BoM) will be held on Wednesday-Thursday, May 19-20, 2010. More than 30 presentations are to be given at the symposium from invited national and international leaders in wind-wave research.

The focus of the symposium spans modelling, analysis and observations of wind-generated waves. The symposium aims to increase communication and collaboration within this field in the Australian research community, drawing together the wave related research that is being performed in Australian research organisations. 

List of Papers:
Coghlan, I.R., Peirson, W.L. and Greenslade, D.J.M. (2010) Modelled Wave Climatology around Australia: Engineering Design and Vessel Operations

Turner, I.L. and Harley, M.D. (2010) Wave Climate Variability and Coastal Change - The Value of Sustained Coastal Monitoring around the Australian Coastline

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From the 4^th of the 6^th of May 2010 Dr Wendy Timms, Dr Beatrice Giambastiani, Andrew McCallum and Conrad Wasko from WRL attended the 1^st Australia & New Zealand FEFLOW Users Workshop.

The workshop brought together FEFLOW modellers, hydrogeologists, engineers, and policy makers from industry, government and university alike. Presentations were given by Peter Schätzl, and Hans Diersch from DHI-WASY, Berlin, Germany which gave insights into the latest capabilities and functionality of the FEFLOW groundwater modelling software. Further, the presentations provided a platform for discussion of additional capabilities for future versions FEFLOW.

WRL was well represented with Dr Timms presenting a keynote entitled “Reality Bytes: An Evolution of Numerical Groundwater in Research and Consulting” and Dr Giambastiani presenting on “Using Groundwater Modelling to Enhance the Understanding of the Maules Creek Alluvial Aquifer, Upper Namoi, NSW”. Both talks were warmly received by the participants and promoted further discussion of the applications of groundwater modelling with the DHI-WASY representatives from Germany.

Following two days of presentations and discussion forums on the applications and functionality of FEFLOW, a workshop was held to train participants in the latest version of FEFLOW. FEFLOW 6 represents a complete upgrade on the interaction of the user with the model through an updated graphical user interface, similar to that of mainstream GIS software. The use of FEFLOW 6 at WRL is eagerly anticipated with improved visualisation and ease of processing results from groundwater simulations.

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Dr. William Glamore and Alessio Mariani have successfully completed the specialist investigation on the effluent of Veracel Pulp Mill, in Eunapolis, state of Bahia, Brazil. The study was undertaken for Gunns Limited as part of an extensive environmental assessment in relation to the proposed construction of a Tasmanian pulp mill.

Arrival at Veracel, world-leading in pulp mill technology and sustainability

WRL’s investigation focused on the physical properties of the fine particulate (floc) within the pulp mill effluent. Once discharged the particulate may disperse or settle to the bed and accumulate as a dense floc mat with significant environmental impacts. WRL’s study assessed the fate and transport of the particulate matter through a range of physical model studies determining the:

• Floc size evolution under different rates
• Settling rates of flocculated material
• Critical shear velocity for floc mat and re-suspension rates
• Partitioning rates of flocs mixed with seawater

The studies made use of jar testing, settling column and recirculating flume tests designed and constructed onsite in Brazil. The equipment used in this investigation comprised:

• Particle size analysers: Malvern Mastersizer 2000, Sequoia Lisst-25X, Pola Particle Counter 2000
• Jar test apparatus Milan JT102
• Particle Image Tracking (PIT) techniques
• Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter Sontek/YSI 16-MHz MicroADV
• A custom built re-circulating flume designed specifically for this study

The successful undertaking of this complex experimental study in Brazil, would not have been possible without the collaboration of the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro as well as the environmental team of Veracel Pty Ltd.

Drive through the 78,000 hectares of Veracel eucalyptus plantations

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On Monday 1st February 2010, WRL hosted Professor Michael Stiassnie from the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the Technion in Israel (and former Director of the Coastal and Marine Engineering Research Institute).

Professor Stiassnie is an international authority on wind waves and wave models and presented some of his recent insights into wave modelling. Discussions were held between Professor Stiassnie and coastal and ocean engineering research staff at WRL.

(Left to right) Dr Russel Morison, Professor Michael Banner, Professor Michael Stiassnie, Dr Xavier Barthelemy, Dr Bill Peirson, Jose Beya, Xia Yan and Fang Yuan

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Andy Baker is a Professor within the Schools of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Biology, Earth and Environmental Sciences at UNSW; and is part of the Connected Waters Initiative team based at WRL.

Andy’s research interests include karst hydrology and geochemistry; the paleoclimate reconstructions from cave stalagmites; isotope geochemistry;  the characterisation of organic matter in rivers, groundwaters and engineered systems, including potable and recycled water; and surface and groundwater quality monitoring.

He has worked previously in karst environments in Europe, Africa and Australia; and is an Associate Editor of Water Research, and a scientific steering committee member for the UK Royal Society and Natural Environment Research Council.

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Dr Martin Andersen and Dr Wendy Timms of UNSW Connected Waters Initiative and the National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training (NCGRT) recently presented research papers at a research conference in Perth. The 10^th Australasian Environmental Isotope Conference & 3^rd Australasian Hydrogeology Research Conference was held from 1^st-3^rd December, 2009. Over 120 delegates attended the conference held in the new chemistry and resources precinct of Curtin University.

Martin’s presentation was titled “Investigation of surface water-groundwater interactions using environmental isotopes (²H, ¹⁸O, ¹⁴C and ³H) in the Maules Creek Catchment, NSW, Australia”.  This research is a key part of the Cotton Catchment Communities CRC work, while the area is also of great interest for NCGRT research programs. Hydrochemical and isotope field methods are being combined with advanced 3D geological modeling, groundwater flow modeling and heat tracing work.

Recently published research in the journal Environmental Science and Technology by Dr Wendy Timms and Professor Jim Hendry’s team at the University of Saskatchewan was presented at the conference. The presentation “Retardation of rare earth metals in clay barriers - innovative application of centrifuge modelling and laser ablation ICP‐MS” also included an outline of new aquitard studies and geotechnical centrifuge to be commissioned at UNSW as part of the NCGRT program.

The conference concluded on a high note with the announcement of a new hydrogeology professorship jointly hosted by Curtin University and the University of Western Australia. Conference co-chair and outgoing Australian president of the International Association of Hydrogeologists, Phil Commander indicated that the new professorship would focus on mining related research.

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The Water Research Laboratory will be closed for the Christmas Break from Monday 21st December 2009, and will re-open on Monday 4th January 2010.

Please note the new main phone number for WRL from January 2010 will be:

(02) 8071 9800

•   Download WRL’s Direct Phone Listing

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The dust storm that caused a red haze over Sydney on the morning of the 23 September 2009 has been captured by the Collaroy-Narrabeen coastal monitoring cameras. These cameras are operated by WRL and record hourly images of the beach, which are used to observe beach change.

A typical image from the Collaroy-Narrabeen coastal monitoring cameras

The same location on the morning of 23 September 2009, when a dust storm arrived in Sydney

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14 WRL staff and researchers attended the Australasian Coasts and Ports Conference in Wellington, New Zealand, from the 16^th to 18^th September. Approximately 120 papers were presented in total at the biennial conference, with WRL staff presenting 10 papers. Associate Professor Ron Cox delivered the keynote presentation on the second day of the conference, regarding climate change impacts, vulnerability, and adaptation options. Undergraduate research students Melissa Mole and Jamie Ruprecht received the D N Foster Award, for encouragement with careers in coastal and/or ocean engineering.

(Back) Tom Shand, Melissa Mole, Ron Cox, Chris Blenkinsopp, Ian Turner, Jamie Ruprecht, Brad Morris, Will Glamore
(Front) Alessio Mariani, Duncan Rayner, Matt Blacka, Mitch Harley, Ian Coghlan
(Absent from photo are Bill Peirson and James Carley)

List of Papers

Blacka, M., Carley, J., Corbett, B. and Jackson, A. (2009) Wave Transmission over Low Crested Geotextile Breakwater Structures

Blenkinsopp, C.E., Turner, I.L., Masselink, G. and Russell, P.E. (2009) Measurements of Net Cross-Shore Sediment Flux at the Timescale of Individual Swashes

Carley, J.T., Blacka, M., Mariani, A., Cox, R.J., Attwater, C. and Watson, P. (2009) Integrated Assessment of Coastal Hazards and Climate Change for Clarence City, Tasmania

Coghlan, I., Carley, J., Cox, R., Blacka, M., Mariani, A., Restall, S., Hornsey, W. and Sheldrick, S. (2009) Two-Dimensional Physical Modelling of Sand Filled Geocontainers for Coastal Protection

Glamore, W. (2009) Restoring Coastal Wetlands: Engineering Nature and Managing Expectations

Glamore, W., Rayner, D. and Miller, B. (2009) Design of an Ebb Tide Release

Harley, M.D., Turner, I.L., Short, A.D. and Ranasinghe, R. (2009) An Empirical Model of Beach Response to Storms - SE Australia

Mariani, A., Blacka, M. and Carley, J. (2009) Extreme Wave Overtopping of a Vertical Breakwater. A Physical Model and Desktop Investigation

Morris, B. and Turner, I. (2009) Intermittently Open-Closed Lagoon Entrance Morphodynamics: Infilling, Stability and Climate Change Impacts

Rayner, D. and Glamore, W. (2009) Understanding the Transport and Buffering Dynamics of Acid Plumes in Estuaries

Shand, T.D., Peirson, W.L., Cox, R.J. and Banner, M.L. (2009) Predicting Hazardous Conditions on Coastal Rock Platforms

Turner, I.L., Masselink, G. and Williams, J.J. (2009) Proto-type Scale Laboratory Study of Groundwater Manipulation within a Gravel Barrier

Webb, T. and Glamore, W. (2009) Sediment Fallout from Dense Outfall Plumes

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WRL groundwater researchers participated in the International Association of Hydrogeologists (IAH) 37th Congress, held in Hyderabad, India, from 6-12th September 2009. Professor Ian Acworth, who is IAH Vice President International (Asia-Pacific), led a team of six from the Water Research Laboratory to the congress. The WRL team was among over 500 hydrologists and hydrogeologists from around the world who heard how groundwater science is helping aquifers under stress. The congress program included sessions on transboundary water issues, surface-water groundwater interactions and groundwater in hard rock areas.

(L-r) Gabriel Rau, Anna Greve, Dr Wendy Timms, Dr Martin Andersen, Andrew McCallum and Professor Ian Acworth

During the week long congress, Dr Martin Andersen presented a paper linking hyporheic zone water chemistry and stream bed ecology to groundwater discharge and recharge in Maules Creek, Australia.  Another paper on hydraulic investigations of surface and groundwater interactions in a sub-catchment of the Namoi River was given by Andrew McCallum. The latest research on using natural heat as a tracer to quantify surface and groundwater connectivity in the Namoi catchment was presented by Gabriel Rau. Anna Greve gave a presentation on the use of electrical resistivity tomography to detect crack depth and preferential flow in irrigated clay soils. Finally, Dr Wendy Timms spoke on groundwater and salt fluxes in a weathered and fractured granite terrain in the Macquarie catchment of NSW, Australia.  Several similarities and differences in groundwater fluxes in the weathered granite around Hyderabad and the Baldry catchment were noted.

After the conference, the WRL team enjoyed several days exploring incredible India and very much enjoyed the fascinating history and excellent flavour of the local food.

Dr Martin Andersen (right), with his poster ‘Linking Hyporheic Zone Water Chemistry and Streambed Ecology to Groundwater Discharge and Recharge, Maules Creek, NSW, Australia’

Gabriel Rau, Anna Greve and Dr Martin Andersen

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The Society for Ecological Restoration International (SERI) hosted its first Australian conference in Perth from 23^rd to 27^th August 2009. The 2009 conference brought together delegates from 36 countries and was themed Making Change in a Changing World.

Dr William Glamore of the WRL Project team presented a paper titled Ecological Restoration of Coastal Wetlands: Global Lessons Implemented Locally.

The presentation discussed the lessons gained from William’s Churchill Fellowship (International Coastal Wetland Restoration Practices), which involved a 3 month tour of 26 coastal wetland restoration sites around the world (USA, The Netherlands, Vietnam, Indonesia and New Zealand) and how these lessons have been applied at a range of coastal wetland restoration sites in Australia. The recent on-ground work at the Tomago wetlands, near Newcastle, was highlighted. Major lessons gained from the on-ground experiences were discussed and highlighted. The presentation finished with a discussion on major areas of current research and project work.

For more information, Dr William Glamore can be contacted directly at: w.glamore@wrl.unsw.edu.au

•   Download Wetland Restoration Solutions

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The conference brought together a broad spectrum of scientists studying mathematical modelling, simulation, statistical, engineering, spatial and computer science with more than 700 papers being submitted. Some key themes were spatio-temporal verification of numerical predictions, decision support systems for complex water resource systems, economic modelling, global change and natural hazards, and effective use of modelling to inform and support water management decisions.

In the session dedicated to water resources, specifically measuring and modelling of interaction between surface water and groundwater, Dr Beatrice Giambastiani presented a multidimensional spatial analysis of hydrograph data for mapping river and aquifer interactions. This 3D time and space analysis of groundwater head change enables the 3D mapping of hydraulic pathways through complex sedimentary aquifer system in the Namoi Catchment (NSW).

Mr Conrad Wasko also presented in a session dedicated to modelling of weather and climate extremes and their impact in a changing climate. His paper, entitled “Assessing the impact of the 11-year solar cycle on drought in Australia”, presented the result of several model simulations showing that the cycle has a significant impact on the long-term persistence of climatic trends in an already very variable climate such as Australia.

The conference included a ‘break-out’ on Wednesday afternoon where conference delegates were invited to sample some of the more scenic parts of Cairns and its surrounds. Along with many other conference delegates, Beatrice and Conrad visited Green Island, just off the coast of Cairns for an afternoon of snorkelling.

(Top) Cairns from the ferry to Green Island;
(Bottom) Green Island; Mossman Gorge - Daintree National Park

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WRL is celebrating 50 years in 2009, and as a part of our celebrations, we are holding an Open Day.

Saturday, 4th July
between 9 am and 2 pm
at 110 King St, Manly Vale (near Manly Dam)

The Water Research Laboratory is a unique facility undertaking various water engineering studies. A major component is the construction and testing of waves and water flow in large scale physical models of breakwaters, desalination plants, dams and spillways.

With several physical models on display, the Open Day is a great opportunity to visit WRL. We invite you to come and see the expanse and resources of WRL, and observe a range of physical models in action.

Click here to download a PDF flyer for the Open Day

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The Groundwater in the Sydney Basin Symposium is being convened by the International Association of Hydrologists, NSW Branch, chaired by Dr Wendy Timms of the Water Research Laboratory. The Symposium will take place from the 4th - 5th of August, 2009 at the Australian Technology Park in Sydney. The Symposium is expected to attract delegates from industry, consulting, academia and government.

An informative line-up of local, key note speakers and posters are programmed, including international experts:

• Dr Colin Booth on hydrogeology of coal mining
• Dr Larry McKay on fracture zone hydrology (Birdsall-Dreiss Lecturer 2008)

WRL’s Alexandra Badenhop and Dr Wendy Timms will be presenting on managed aquifer recharge in Sydney coastal sands. WRL is actively involved in several MAR projects via consulting services and research.

WRL will also contribute posters to the Symposium including ‘Quantifying the significance of leaky bores’

For the program of the Groundwater in the Sydney Basin Symposium click here.

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Water Research Laboratory Project Engineer Alessio Mariani will attend the 10^th International Coastal Symposium that will be held in Lisbon on the 13th - 18th April. The symposium will reunite more the 400 coastal and environmental scientists, engineers and researchers to discuss a broad range of themes from coastal engineering to coastal management and science, climate change and impact of extreme storm events. For a full list of conference themes click here

Alessio will present the paper “Wave Overtopping of Coastal Structures. Physical Model Versus Desktop Predictions”. The paper was co-authored by Matt Blacka, Ron Cox, Ian Coghlan and James Carley, of WRL, and will be published in the Special Issue 56 of the Journal of Coastal Research.

After the conference, Alessio will visit some of the major hydraulic laboratories in Europe including the French SOGREAH Laboratories in Grenoble, and the Portuguese LNEC in Lisbon, Portugal.

Alessio working in the 1m Flume at WRL

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Grantley Smith has recently joined the Water Research Laboratory project team as a Senior Project Engineer.  Grantley will be well known to many in his former role as Sydney Office Manager for DHI Water and Environment.

Grantley has a broad range of experience providing assessment and solutions in water engineering and water resources, developed during his more than 19 years as a professional engineer. He has a track record of successfully managing complex water projects as well as specific expertise in the selection and application of appropriate numerical models to support design solutions, planning and management across the water spectrum.

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Steven Pells has recently joined the Water Research Laboratory project team as a Senior Project Engineer. Steven has spent the past 2 years in Cairns working as a Senior Water Engineer for Arup; and in Sydney working as a Senior Water Engineer for Cardno Wiling.

Steven is an experienced consultant with expertise in a broad range of water engineering disciplines. Steven has specialist experience and training in the fields of: Hydrogeology, Coastal Engineering, Physical Model Studies, Environmental Monitoring, Surface Water, Water Resources and Project Management.

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The Water Research Laboratory’s Professor Ian Acworth and Anna Greve were interviewed by the ABC’s Catalyst to dicuss the research being done by WRL towards irrigation and soil crack dynamics.

http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/2402408.htm

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A/Prof Ron Cox from the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering has been awarded Engineering Australia’s prestigious Sir John Holland Award for Civil Engineer of the Year 2008 in recognition of his long standing and continuing contribution to the profession and community, particularly in the field of coastal engineering.

Ron has been associated with UNSW’s Water Research Laboratory since 1973 and held senior positions for more than half of his 34 years at the laboratory. He was Director from 1993 to 2006 and for many years before that was the Projects Manager. As a practicing coastal engineer, as a leader of Australia’s foremost coastal engineering organisation, and as an inspirational academic, Ron has led research, investigation and design teams for projects in every state and territory in Australia and many others around the world.

During his time on Engineers Australia’s National Committee on Coastal Engineering  -including his four years as President-  Ron Cox was involved in developing coastal engineering response to climate change (probably the first Australian engineering organisation to take this issue seriously) co-authoring several important Engineers Australia publications such as Guidelines for Working with the Coast in an Ecologically Sustainable Way, and Guidelines for Responding to the Effects of Climate Change in Coastal and Ocean Engineering.

He has been in high level communication with governments and industries in USA, Canada, Europe, North Asia, South-East Asia, the Middle East and South Africa.

Since early in his career Ron has understood the need to use the media in promulgating good engineering practice and to publicise causes such as the necessity for sound environmental practice in coastal engineering, and climate change issues. Not just with the media but also with his thousands of students, his academic peers, national and international government representatives and at every community consultation meeting, Ron’s arguments are clear, concise, comprehensive and convincing.

A/Prof Cox is currently the Director of Academic, Marketing & Finance for the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering where he continues to teach and pursue his research interests and to support the engineering profession.

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Grantley Smith - Principal Engineer & Manager: In 2012, Grantley transitioned into the role of WRL Principal Engineer and Manager, taking over from the successful tenure of Brett Miller who held the Manager’s position for 10 years. The sound management systems set in place by Brett during his time as manager, including the WRL Projects Team ISO9001 quality management system, allowed for a smooth management transition for the team. This enabled Grantley to maintain a significant technical contribution to the group.

Grantley has been busy contributing to a range of industry projects. In particular, he has made a significant contribution as co-author of several reports in the revision of the Engineers Australia (EA) guideline document Australian Rainfall and Runoff (ARR). These reports include the recently released Project 15 Report “Two Dimensional Modelling in Urban and Rural Floodplains”, which is set to become an international standard for numerical model development, and the Project 10 reports on “People and Vehicle Stability in Floods”, which generated considerable interest from industry.

In recognition of his contribution to ARR, Grantley was invited by Engineers Australia to present his work to EA seminars in a tour of Australian capital cities. Grantley was also an invited keynote speaker at the Queensland Water Engineering Symposium and the DHI Modelling Forum in the United Kingdom.

Grantley is also actively consulted by government and industry. This year he has provided advice supporting the Federal Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities’ QLD Expert Panel on Coal Seam Gas and through review of the proposed Methodology for Bioregional Assessments by the Independent Expert Scientific Committee on Coal Seam Gas and Coal Mining. He reviewed numerous flood studies and floodplain management studies as part of the Victorian Flood Warning Network - Repair and Improvement Initiative, and contributed to the National Flood Risk Advisory Group (NFRAG), a reference group of the National Emergency Management Committee as part of the development of the draft national guideline, Managing the Floodplain: A Guide to Best Practice in Flood Risk Management in Australia.

Grantley continues in his role as Chair of the EA Sydney Water Engineering Panel. As part of this commitment, Grantley chaired the organising committee of the 34^th Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium. The Symposium, held in November this year at Cockle Bay in Darling Harbour, was enjoyed by 290 delegates who presented some 190 peer reviewed papers on the latest industry research and best practice.

Brett Miller - Principal Engineer - Hydraulics & Modelling: Brett’s major projects in 2012 included; design, construction and testing of specialist barochambers for the NSW Department of Primary Industries; rainfall-runoff, erosion and surface water modelling for the Ranger Uranium Mine (Northern Territory); modelling of pollutant source and fate in Darwin Harbour; computational fluid dynamics modelling of flows through undershot weirs; and the design and implementation of an online database for hosting UNSW’s hydrology archives. Brett was active in providing specialist advice on several ocean outfalls projects, where he chaired the workshop Ocean and Estuarine Outfalls - NSW Perspectives at WRL, and hosted a visit from international outfall expert Professor Phillip Roberts. In addition, Brett was a co-editor in the Engineers Australia National Committee on Ocean Engineering’s Climate Change Adaptation Guidelines in Coastal Management and Planning.

Matt Blacka - Senior Project Engineer: Major projects for Matt in 2012 were spread between the desk, the laboratory and in the field. Desktop studies included several investigations for the Tasmanian Coastal Adaptation Decision Pathways Project, as well as a major review of the use of artificial reefs for coastal protection in NSW. Matt also completed several trips to the Cook Islands during the year, undertaking the first two stages of an adaptation and vulnerability assessment for Avarua, Rarotonga, with the third stage currently underway in the laboratory at WRL. Most recently Matt has been working on a complete upgrade of WRL’s coastal imaging program, including the installation of new equipment at four stations on the Southern Gold Coast and the development of a new coastal imaging website.

Throughout the year Matt coordinated a range of coastal physical modelling studies, including testing for the Ichthys LNG plant site in Darwin, the Coffs Harbour eastern breakwater upgrade, and testing of pontoon structures for Gladstone Ports Corporation. Matt was also elected as Secretary for the Engineers Australia NSW Coastal, Ocean and Port Engineering Panel (COPEP).

Dr William Glamore - Senior Research Fellow: Will’s major projects in 2012 included the hydrologic assessment of several wetlands including Big Swamp (Manning Valley), Lake Innes (near Port Macquarie), Yarrahapinni Wetland (Maclaey Valley), Tomago Wetland (Hunter Valley), Arndilly Wetland (Clarence Valley), Temperate Peat Swamps on Sandstone (Federal Government), and Broughton Creek (Shoalhaven Valley). Two large boat wave-riverbank vulnerability projects were also undertaken at the Seaham Weir Pool (Hunter Water Corporation) and at the Shoalhaven River (Southern Rivers CMA).

In addition, Will directed the course Wetland Hydrology - Restoring the Basics in September, conducted Estuarine Hydrodynamic training workshops to NSW’s Office of Environment and Heritage, and was also involved in a series of expert panels and reviews including the Federal Government’s Expert Panel on Coal Seam Gas in Queensland (Technical Advice). Will presented at the NSW Coastal Conference in Kiama and was Vice-Chairman of the 2012 Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium in Sydney. A major highlight was the publication of a chapter in Tidal Marsh Restoration by Island Press.

Alexandra Badenhop - Project Engineer: Alexandra has been focussed on two major projects in 2012; Namoi groundwater mapping and transition zones, analysing groundwater level data to determine areas of greatest risk and decline in the alluvial aquifers in the Namoi; and SHOROC regional groundwater investigations for Manly, Warringah and Pittwater Councils including groundwater use, aquifer extents, water quality, recharge, groundwater dependent ecosystems, sustainable extraction and management. Alexandra has been pleased to present her work on long-term salinisation of the Namoi Catchment at the International Association of Hydrogeologists Symposium in Niagara Falls, Canada, and the Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium in Sydney.

Ian Coghlan - Project Engineer: Ian’s major projects in 2012 included preparation of the coastal hazard study for the Batemans Bay Coastal Zone Management Plan for the Eurobodalla Shire Council; the preparation and assessment of preliminary designs for a long-term seawall in combination with beach nourishment at Kingscliff Beach for Tweed Shire Council; and the preparation of case studies examining existing seawall structures at Clontarf and Bilgola Beach for Sydney Coastal Councils Group. Ian also developed concept designs for 4WD beach access on to Ten Mile Beach from Black Rocks campground in Bundjalung National Park (near Evans Head) for the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service.

In addition, Ian presented at the National Practical Responses to Climate Change Conference in Canberra and co-authored a paper at the NSW Coastal Conference in Kiama.

Erica Davey - Project Engineer: Erica’s project work in 2012 was multi-disciplinary. Projects undertaken included two large boat wave-riverbank vulnerability projects, on the Seaham Weir Pool for the Hunter Water Corporation; and on the Shoalhaven River for the Southern Rivers CMA. Erica was also involved in a variety of coastal engineering work including North Narrabeen Beach Reserve engineering advice; and protection works advice for Roches Beach in Tasmania, and for Kingscliff in NSW. Erica is currently investigating remediation options for temperate highland peat swamps on sandstone in the Sydney Basin, and in the second half of 2012 has been heavily involved in the upgrade of the Argus coastal imaging stations on the Southern Gold Coast. Erica presented at the 2^nd International Rip Current Symposium, held in Sydney in October.

Chris Drummond - Project Engineer: Chris joined the WRL Project Team late in 2012 after graduating with a Bachelor of Civil Engineering from UNSW. Following his graduation, Chris volunteered in Cambodia and was involved in the design and implementation of biodigester systems in floating communities to improve sanitation. Since starting at WRL, Chris has primarily been involved in physical modelling of a breakwater for Wyndham Harbour.

Dr Francois Flocard - Project Engineer: Francois’ major project in 2012 was the costal hazards assessment of Port Fairy in Victoria, as part of the Future Coasts Program which is led by the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment, in partnership with the Department of Planning and Community Development. The projects main objective was to provide Moyne Shire Council and other land and asset managers with information that will assist in the planning and management of the projected impacts of climate change.

Francois also performed an assessment of the wave power resource near Port Fairy for BioPower Systems Pty Ltd, to assist them in the planning of their pilot ocean wave energy conversion project. In addition, Francois undertook testing of a prototype fresh water to salt water heat exchanger module fixed to the Overseas Passenger Terminal caisson in Sydney Harbour for Aurecon.

Alessio Mariani - Project Engineer: In 2012 Alessio completed a major study quantifying vulnerability of Australian beaches to erosion due to extreme wave events and sea level rise. The project was undertaken in collaboration with the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Centre and the following report was produced: Generic Design Coastal Erosion Volumes and Setbacks for Australia. Alessio also assessed coastal erosion and inundation hazards for Manly Beach in Sydney, as well as for several beaches within Sydney Harbour. In collaboration with the Sydney Coastal Councils Group and Coastal Environment Pty Ltd, a methodology for assessing impacts of extreme storms and sea level rise on existing coastal protection structures such as seawalls was formulated and implemented.

For over two months, Alessio travelled as a Churchill Fellow researching international innovative coastal engineering practices to combat beach erosion. Alessio was able to witness the practical application of alternative approaches on beaches along the coastlines of Japan, USA, Spain, France, The Netherlands and Italy; and was able to meet with world leading experts as he visited key research and private institutions in the field of coastal and water studies. Alessio also contributed a chapter to the newly published Engineers Australia Climate Change Adaptation Guidelines in Coastal Management and Planning.

Priom Rahman - Project Engineer: Priom’s major projects in 2012 included Darwin Harbour water quality modelling; and surface water and erosion modelling for Ranger Mine in the Northern Territory. Priom also undertook hydraulic conductivity testing using WRL’s centrifuge permeameter for Stuart oil shale aquitard assessments and Surat Basin rock cores. In addition, Priom was involved with MIKE flood modelling for the Port Fairy coastal hazard assessment; SHOROC regional groundwater resource investigations; bathymetric survey and gauging station assessment for arid regions at Fowlers Gap; and field testing for the Brooklyn and Dangar Island outfall dilution study.

Duncan Rayner - Project Engineer: Duncan undertook a wide range of projects for 2012 with a strong focus on environmental investigations consisting of both field and desktop components. A range of field investigations were undertaken including the Shoalhaven River floodplain, Lake Innes near Port Macquarie, Tomago Wetland, Big Swamp near Taree and Rarotonga in the Cook Islands. The data collected at these sites included groundwater, water quality, topographic, bathymetric and hydrodynamic. These projects targeted wetland restoration, floodplain rehabilitation and coastal extreme event prediction.

Duncan continued to maintain involvement in outfall hydraulics with the field testing of the Brooklyn and Dangar Island outfall. This experiment was undertaken in May involving the injection of Rhodamine WT tracer into the outfall system to be monitored by several vessels at the discharge location. Duncan has also undertaken the desktop review of several smaller outfalls on the NSW coast during 2012. Duncan presented at the Coasts to Coast conference in Brisbane where his ongoing research on wetlands and eco-hydraulics was summarised in a paper titled Modelling the Restoration of Coastal Wetlands.

Jamie Ruprecht - Project Engineer: Jamie’s major projects in 2012 included the hydrologic assessment of Big Swamp, a large coastal wetland on the NSW Mid North Coast. This project involved a large literature review, several field programs and the development of a 1D-2D Mike Flood model. Jamie was also involved in various stages of the restoration program underway at Tomago Wetland in the Hunter Valley, which formed the impetus for his research plan for 2012. Jamie presented a paper in line with his research goals titled Developing Empirical Hydraulic Geometry Relationships for NSW Wetlands, at the 2012 Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium in Sydney.    

Jamie was also involved in the construction two barochambers and a unique shear flume. These systems will allow NSW Fisheries to undertake trials on various native Australian fish species to investigate the effects of rapid pressure changes and shear on fish. Data from these studies can be used for weir (especially undershot) and hydro-turbine design. Jamie’s interest in the coastal zone also led him to be involved with physical modelling of the remediation of the Coffs Harbour eastern breakwater, as well as the development of a coastal zone management plan for the Eurobodalla Shire Council which is currently underway.

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