outstanding waterway management project · 2016-03-22 · outstanding waterway management project...

Outstanding Waterway Management Project Award Winner & Finalists

This award is proudly sponsored by

Outstanding Waterway Management Project Flooding Enhancement of Gunbower Forest – Hipwell Road Package of Works North Central CMA

2015 RBMS Awards Night

Winner

Construction of the $13.5 million ‘Flooding Enhancement of Gunbower Forest Project Hipwell Road Package of Works’ project was completed in February 2014. This followed earlier work where five refurbished regulators and one new regulator were constructed to enable the delivery of water to lower forest wetlands from the Murray River and Gunbower Creek. The project was officially opened on 8 August 2014 and can facilitate the watering of up to 4,000 ha of wetland and floodplain in Gunbower Forest. The works enable flexible and efficient management of environmental water to meet the ecological objectives for the Ramsar listed site under the Living Murray program. This will restore the diversity of Gunbower’s aquatic and wetland plant communities, and provide feeding and breeding habitat for native waterbirds, fish, frogs and turtles. From May to December 2014 one of the largest environmental watering events was undertaken at Gunbower Forest using the newly constructed Hipwell Road Channel for the first time. A total of 98 GL was delivered continuously through the Hipwell Road Channel over 198 days.

Project partners: DELWP, VEWH, Parks Victoria, MDBA, Goulburn-Murray Water, Yorta Yorta Nation Aboriginal Corporation & Barapa Barapa Traditional Owners, and the local community

Outstanding Waterway Management Project Dandenong Creek Riparian Vegetation Management Program Melbourne Water


Finalist

Since 2013, Melbourne Water has delivered a range of waterway improvement works along a 28km reach of Dandenong Creek through an integrated vegetation management program. Works delivered along the waterway have involved numerous stakeholders across multiple municipalities with the key to success being cooperative partnerships. A variety of delivery approaches for the riparian vegetation program have been applied, ranging from community grants for weed management to large scale capital works to remove willows and stabilise creek banks. Central to the coordinated delivery of the program was a Riparian Vegetation Management Plan commissioned by Melbourne Water in 2012. Australian Ecosystems prepared a plan utilising existing data from management plans and undertaking field survey to map the condition of riparian vegetation 20m either side of the channel. The plan outlined an approach for mitigating weed threats to remnant vegetation and set priorities for management actions. The plan was utilised over subsequent years to consult with stakeholder agencies, prepare cost estimates for capital program works and to identify project opportunities for partnership projects and community grants.

An integrated program of work has been delivered over a period of three years based on the plan objectives and priorities. The vegetation management program has resulted in significant landscape scale change of the riparian condition of the waterway. Projects delivered include: • Tirhatuan Wetland rabbit control program – the monitoring and destruction of approximately 120 rabbit warrens in the floodplain of Dandenong Creek, with the aim of minimising indigenous vegetation grazing and destruction of creek banks. • Maintenance of Sites of Biodiversity Significance – weed control around wetlands within the Dandenong Creek floodplain for improved fauna habitat, including Winton Wetlands & Police Road Retarding Basin. • Goat pulse grazing habitat trial – a partnership with Whitehorse Council, trialling an innovative solution for weed management in an urban area, adjacent to a popular shared-user path. • Woody weed removal project – Treatment and removal of woody weeds within the riparian zone along a 12km length of Dandenong Creek, targeting key weed species.

Project partners: Australian Ecosystems, Ecodynamics, Fulton Hogan, GrazeAway, Greater Dandenong City Council, Knox City Council, Monash City Council, Parks Victoria, SMEC, Whitehorse City Council

Outstanding Waterway Management Project Partnering with the Community to Manage Flows to the Moorabool River Corangamite CMA


Finalist

The Corangamite CMA has a strong history of partnering with the community during the development of annual Seasonal Watering Proposals. This has resulted in many improvements to environmental water delivery, including a greater focus on the lower reaches of the Moorabool River system. Their history in partnering with the community played an important role in establishing the Moorabool Stakeholder Advisory Committee (MSAC). This Committee, which includes agency stakeholders, Landcare, People for a Living Moorabool, and other community representatives, has, since its formation in 2014: • informed the development an updated FLOWS investigation for the Moorabool to refine watering priorities, • lead the development of the draft Moorabool Environmental Water Management Plan that will guide management of environmental flows over the next 10 years, and • identified exciting future opportunities for improving the health of the Moorabool River. The enthusiasm and input of this group has built on the success of earlier community driven advocacy to improve flows and the health of the Moorabool River, one of Victoria’s most stressed river systems.

The returned flows to the Moorabool River and greater community ownership in future management of the system is leading to improved health of the river downstream of the Lal Lal reservoir. This has been highlighted by the improvement in fish survey results between 2008 and 2014.

In 2014 Corangamite CMA undertook aquatic sampling on the Moorabool River to investigate fish diversity and help identify the impact of environmental water delivery on ecological values. This project built on a survey undertaken in 2008. Community and agency stakeholders participated in a fish sampling field day to witness survey techniques and hear the initial results of the sampling. Over 6000 fish from 9 different native species were recorded compared to the 2008 results where 1000 fish from 5 different species were found. At this event, community members, who had played a strong role in advocating for water for the Moorabool River over many years, could see the legacy of their involvement.

Project partners: DELWP, VEWH, Southern Rural Water, People for a Living Moorabool, Central Highlands Water

Innovation in Waterway Management Project Award Winner & Finalists

This award is proudly sponsored by

Innovation in Waterway Management Carp Monitoring and Control Program Glenelg Hopkins CMA


Winner

Prior to undertaking this strategic and focused carp program, Glenelg Hopkins CMA and the wider natural resource management industry had little knowledge of carp behaviour, population size and distribution in the Glenelg River system. The carp program between 2012 and 2015 has included a combination of Judas carp trials, the ‘Text-a-Carp’ program, and investigation into harvesting strategies. Glenelg Hopkins CMA is now using ground-breaking approaches to track and control carp in the Glenelg River. In 2012, Glenelg Hopkins CMA partnered with VEMCO (manufacturer of underwater acoustic telemetry transmitters and receivers) and the South Australian Research and Development Institute (SARDI Aquatic Sciences) to design a focused and cost-effective carp tracking system. Arthur Rylah Institute (ARI) have also contributed equipment and expert advice, whilst the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) and the Victorian Environmental Water Holder (VEWH) have funded the program. The tracking system takes advantage of the congregating habits of the carp and utilises a ‘Judas’ fish – a tagged fish that provides information on the patterns and distributions of large carp groups – allowing more effective targeting and eradication.

Although similar techniques have proven to be effective in closed water bodies, the application of this technique for carp is one of the largest in the world for a riverine system. The Glenelg Hopkins CMA has also expanded its carp identification and reporting program to incorporate social media (Facebook and Twitter) and smart phone technology. Community members text carp catches (‘Text-a-Carp’) to the CMA. This information is used along with the ‘Judas’ carp tracking project to help map carp distribution and abundance. To date, 178 community members are registered with the ‘Text-a-Carp’ program.

Project partners: VEMCO, Austral Research, SARDI, ARI, DELWP, VEWH

Innovation in Waterway Management Upper Ovens River Low Flow Habitat: Interactive River Depth Map North East CMA


Finalist

The North East CMA engaged Jacobs to complete a bathymetric and aquatic habitat survey of the upper Ovens River under low flows (less than 80ML/d). Jacobs developed an innovative kayak mounted survey rig to complete a high accuracy depth survey of 40 km of the Ovens River between Bright and Myrtleford. An assessment of the aquatic habitat in the river was completed concurrently with the bathymetric survey. The output from this project is an interactive, GIS based map of the river, incorporating the depth survey and spatially oriented photography of the river. The detailed bathymetric survey data has been categorised into colour coded depth classes to allow rapid visualisation of different habitats. In addition, a longitudinal section of the river is incorporated into the interactive map, allowing both an aerial and longitudinal section view of the river to be visualised simultaneously. Both the aerial and longitudinal views can be easily zoomed in and out, allowing data to be interrogated at the reach scale or over the space of metres. In addition to the map, a number of conceptual diagrams were developed for riffle habitats which will be used as the basis of a long term monitoring program. Together, these provide the CMA with a powerful tool for understanding the river and how habitat availability and condition change as flows reduce.

Project partner: Jacobs Group Australia

Innovation in Waterway Management Wetland Vegetation Condition Assessment Using Remote Sensing Technology GHD


Finalist

The objective of this study was to develop an efficient and rapid numerical indicator of asset condition through assessment of vegetation cover across Melbourne Water’s wetlands, that cover an area of ~5.3 million m2. Traditionally, Melbourne Water has relied on field observations to determine asset condition. This method is expensive, time consuming and yields unreliable results because of highly subjective interpretation of conditions and inconsistent approaches by the individuals undertaking the assessments. Furthermore, the quantity of Melbourne Water assets meant that only approximately 30% of wetlands could be assessed every three years. The method developed reliably identified areas of open water, sparse, moderately dense and dense vegetation within each wetland. The process was designed to provide a quality dataset; via a transparent, robust and repeatable methodology using Object Based Image Analysis (OBIA). Key tasks included image acquisition, ground-truthing, image analysis and quantitative data analysis. Results were used to develop better asset information at multiple spatial scales, optimise use of capital works and operational budgets and facilitate adaptive management of wetland assets. In 2012, a pilot study was performed to determine the condition of wetlands in the Dandenong catchment using the Remote Sensing technology. The success of the trial meant that in 2014, Melbourne Water expanded the application of the method to cover approximately 90% of their wetland assets.

The method will enable Melbourne Water wetland assets to be rapidly and consistently assessed in the future. This will lead to greatly improved asset management decisions and a more transparent method for prioritising works on this asset class. Improved understanding of the condition of Melbourne Water wetland assets, and consequently the level of service delivered by these assets, was the key outcome of this work. This project achieved this by mapping and analysing wetland assets using spatial technology that enabled adaptive decision making by the development of the tool for regular monitoring of condition and wetland performance. This is a new tool which will provide an assessment method not previously available that may also be suitable for application to other aquatic environments.

Project partner: Melbourne Water

Involving Community in Waterway Management Award Winner & Finalists This award is proudly sponsored by

Involving Community in Waterway Management Why ‘Y Water’ Succeeds Y Water Centre Association Inc


Winner

The architecturally designed Y Water Discovery Centre is an attractive, multi-purposed building adjoining the beautiful and popular Yea Wetlands that exist along the Yea River. It provides an iconic entrance and ideal learning facility around the natural assets in the wetlands. The Y Water Discovery Centre would not have been built without the dedication and tenacity of a small group of community volunteers. The concept began in 1999 through one person's vision that the neglected, partly grazed Yea Wetlands that adjoin the Yea township could be transformed into a major regional eco-tourism attraction and, in time, could become an environmental learning centre and a new industry for the community. Just 13 months after opening, the Y Water Discovery Centre at Yea Wetlands is already exceeding expectations. • The Yea Wetlands Committee has 60 financial ‘Friends' who

regularly attend events where they enjoy a talk on an interesting environmental topic, good food, wine and company.

• The committee, supported by the local Rotary and Landcare groups, have sought and implemented grants to enhance the environment for the wetland ecology and visitors alike. Works to the value of $1million have been undertaken in the wetlands since 2002, much of which has been using community volunteer forces and equipment. This does not include the Y Water Centre.

• The United Nations of Australia Association awarded the Yea Wetlands Committee its 2007 World Environment Day ‘Best Community Group Award’ leading to greater community interest and involvement and council awareness of the potential benefits the Y Water Discovery Centre may bring.

• Approximately 40 volunteers generously give their time and expertise to enable the Centre to open 9am-5pm, seven days a week.

• Ten community members with specialist knowledge and/or experience in wetland ecology, flora, fauna, bird life, and waterway health volunteer to take pre-booked groups and school students on structured walks and activities in the Discovery Centre and wetlands.

• The volunteer YWCA members provide their expertise and wealth of experience to strategically plan and oversee the marketing and development of the Centre and the visitor and environmental learning programs and services.

• Local craftsmen, artisans, businesses and producers showcase and avail their products for sale in the Centre adding to visitor satisfaction and contributing to the Centre’s sustainability.

• Even the cleaning and ground maintenance is performed by community volunteers!

Project partners: Yea Wetlands Trust, Murrindindi Shire Council, Upper Goulburn Landcare Network, Goulburn Broken CMA, Yea Wetlands Committee Of Management

Involving Community in Waterway Management Communities for Platypus Program Melbourne Water


Finalist

Communities for Platypus is a behaviour change program involving a series of engagement activities encouraging protection of platypus in priority areas. The program was piloted in Belgrave in 2014 to focus on a small population of platypus in Monbulk Creek, and is also now being delivered in Diamond Creek, with future plans for expansion to Mullum Mullum Creek and the Yarra River at Warburton in 2016. Working in partnership with a range of local community organisations has been key to the success of the program implementation, community capacity building, and ongoing support for the program. The aims of the program are to educate and engage local communities about the presence of platypus in their waterways, the status of local populations, key threats to platypus, and how individuals can help. Key outcomes of the pilot program were: • Increased knowledge and awareness of local platypus populations • 50% reduction in entangling litter items in surveyed hotspots • Increased traffic to citizen science website PlatypusSpot and Belgrave Platypus Facebook page • Reduction in number of dogs entering creeks where platypus inhabit These outcomes will contribute to an overall reduction in platypus deaths due to entanglement, dog attacks and fishing equipment like opera house nets and discarded fishing line. Encouraging communities to protect platypus supports the waterway management and habitat rehabilitation works undertaken by Melbourne Water.

The Communities for Platypus program has also included the collection of platypus population information through citizen scientists. Groups in Belgrave, Melton, Werribee and Diamond Creek have been conducting surveys to complement the information gathered through the Urban Platypus Monitoring Program run by Melbourne Water and Cesar Australia. The citizen science component of Communities for Platypus is expanding in 2015 to include environmental DNA (eDNA) collection in key waterways. This information will provide Melbourne Water with fast, accurate and inexpensive data on platypus distribution, which will allow for improved management of this iconic species.

Involving Community in Waterway Management Community Caring for the Campaspe North Central CMA


Finalist

The Caring for the Campaspe project aims to protect and enhance 400ha (20%) of riparian land along the Campaspe River’s length while complementing the delivery of environmental flows (downstream of Lake Eppalock). This is achieved by delivering fencing, off-stream stock watering, weed control and revegetation activities using local contractors and suppliers. The Caring for the Campaspe project has, to date, engaged over 2,000 people including individual landholders, members from three Traditional Owner groups, nine Landcare groups, five community groups, nine schools and four natural resource management or water related organisations. Engagement with a wide range of stakeholders has not only resulted in outstanding project results but also built individual and group capacity. For example: • Two Traditional Owner groups have on-ground works crews that are employed to undertake fencing, weed control and revegetation at project sites. This experience has contributed to a member of the work crew gaining full-time employment with an natural resource management agency. • Two groups also undertake cultural inductions of contractors and have learnt skills to test water quality through the Waterwatch program.

• Individuals have also gained confidence to perform Welcome to Country ceremonies and speak at a number of community engagement workshops. Partnerships continue to be strengthened between a wide range of groups and the North Central CMA as the project enters its final year of funding. Learnings from these partnerships provide the model for successful and meaningful engagement and communication across the State.

Building Knowledge in Waterway Management Award Winner & Finalists This award is proudly sponsored by

Building Knowledge in Waterway Management RiverMAP: a River Health Tool for Decision Makers Environment Protection Authority (EPA) Victoria


Winner

EPA Victoria monitoring and assessment of rivers has led the way nationally over the last 20 years in using macroinvertebrates (waterbugs) for State-scale river health condition assessment. We now have a mature knowledge of the current health of over 2,500 stream sites in Victoria. EPA have been able to develop models to predict biological condition for unknown (i.e.. non-sampled) or projected future conditions, for example, under future changes in land use or riparian vegetation cover. The RiverMAP model links macroinvertebrate communities with State-wide GIS layers of land use (including cropping, grazing, mining and urban) and catchment and riparian vegetation cover. With this model, the EPA have estimated the river health condition at more than 40,000 unsampled reaches across Victoria. The RiverMAP model will fill knowledge gaps for better management at various spatial scales. Improved understanding of the ways that land use and vegetation cover affects macroinvertebrate communities and therefore river ecological condition, allows macroinvertebrate responses to multiple natural and human-driven impacts to be predicted. The RiverMAP model will help improve the ways in which limited resources for river restoration works are used in a way that provides the most ‘bang for buck’.

Project partners: DELWP, Glenelg Hopkins CMA, Corangamite CMA, North Central CMA

Building Knowledge in Waterway Management Understanding Community Values for Waterways Melbourne Water


Finalist

Melbourne Water is exploring how to better understand community values of waterways and improve the public value of Melbourne’s waterways. Melbourne Water has directly engaged with the public on what waterway management services people most value, including the community’s willingness to pay for these services. An important element of this research is the amenity of waterways, ranging from the naturalness of a waterway to its accessibility and ability to provide respite from heat and other urban conditions, and how this may affect the design of Melbourne Water’s waterway management programs. This information will inform priorities for investment and the processes for understanding community values will be used to develop a more disciplined approach to determining waterway management priorities. To gauge the relativity of these values, Melbourne Water engaged the support of La Trobe University to investigate and enumerate the non-market value of waterways in Melbourne. In addition, a model was disseminated to a representative sample of customers to determine the priorities that they place on different attributes and the trade-offs they make in their decision making processes. Both of these tools have enabled Melbourne Water to gain a much stronger understanding of what the community wish to see from their waterways, to help guide priorities for investment.

In short, Melbourne Water’s customers value urban waterways and are willing to pay to see them improved. The most significant values relate to ecological improvement, although amenity improvements (such as for urban cooling) are also valued, provided that they are accompanied by enhancements in ecological value. The research is significant in supporting the differentiation of management planning between ecological and social values of waterways, which is an ongoing challenge for waterway managers across Australia.

Project partner: La Trobe University

Building Knowledge in Waterway Management Stringybark Catchment Water Quality Tender Melbourne Water


Finalist

Melbourne Water, together with RMCG, delivered the Stringybark Catchment Water Quality Tender from May 2014 to August 2015. The primary objective was to improve water quality by reducing diffuse source nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment loads from rural properties in the Stringybark Creek catchment using a tender process. While tenders are not a new approach, they have not been widely adopted in water quality programs. In addition to water quality goals, this project aimed to: • Test a tender as an alternative to a cost share approach in allocating grant funding for a water quality program • Increase the level of knowledge and understanding among Melbourne Water staff on alternative models for allocating grants • Identify the circumstances where tender approaches would be suitable for waterway and rural land management, and assess the advantages and disadvantages of a tender in this context • Test whether combining multiple Melbourne Water incentive programs under the tender improves customer service The key drivers of the project were to build understanding among Stringybark Creek landholders of the connection between their land management practices and water quality, and to document and evaluate the approach so that the experiences could be shared across the industry.

Developing the tender involved extensive research and consultation with industries, communities and landholders in the catchment. The early phases included: • Market analysis – a detailed profile of land and landholders in the catchment (land use, property sizes, tenure, agricultural production). This was used to determine whether there was a viable market. • Tender design – development of tender rules such as landholder eligibility criteria and bidding processes. • Preparation and planning – development of an implementation plan, communications plan and staff training. • Implementation – awareness raising activities, information sessions, site assessments and bid assessments. Agreements with successful bidders are now being finalised and evaluation of the project is being undertaken. Evaluation findings throughout implementation of on-ground works will continue to be documented and added to project learnings.

Project partner: RMCG

Progression of Public Policy for Waterway Management Award Winner & Finalists

Progression of Public Policy for Waterway Management Risk Assessment of Barrier Works on Queensland Waterways Department of Agriculture and Fisheries, Queensland


Winner

When barriers to fish movement are installed across waterways in Queensland, they are regulated under the Fisheries Act 1994 and Sustainable Planning Act 2009. The first question a developer asks is whether their site is on a waterway, and does this trigger the Fisheries Act? Answering this question often necessitated a site visit and subjective assessment of flow, habitat and topographic features. In 2013, a Queensland-wide data layer was developed to better delineate the furthest extent of Fisheries Act interest in barrier works on waterways. The classification of 1.4 million kilometres of streams in Queensland required the analysis of a combination of factors to produce a categorisation appropriate for the mapping product. This classification was determined by using the established knowledge of fish species distributions within Queensland and their biological requirements, in conjunction with a number of physical characteristics (derived from GIS data sets). At the time, no single streams dataset existed. The combined analysis of these characteristics allowed all Queensland streams to be classified and colour-coded according to the risk of impact from waterway barrier works on fish movement and fish communities. The data layer covers all waterways and catchments across the State.

The mapping project was coupled with the development of self-assessable codes, which provide a set of design criteria for low impact, minor, temporary, and some regularly re-built waterway barriers. Works that adhere to the standards and requirements of Fisheries Queensland’s self-assessable codes are now able to proceed through a self-reporting process, without having to gain development approval. Waterway barriers in most major risk and tidal waterways remain subject to the development approval process, given the need to undertake detailed design analysis to ensure fish passage in these most critical environments is maintained. Prior to the introduction of the mapping and development codes in 2013, all waterway barrier works in Queensland required a submission by the developer of application forms, fees and further information as requested. Since the release of the dataset in 2013, the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries has seen a tripling of self-assessable code notifications, whilst developmental approval numbers remain relatively static. This indicates that high risk crossings continue to be assessed, while thousands more fish friendly crossings are being built on lower risk streams, which would not have previously considered fish passage in their design and construction.

Project partners: Department of Transport and Main Roads Qld, Australasian Fish Passage Services, Aquatic Biopassage Services, Craig Broadfoot Consulting, Claire Peterken Consulting

Progression of Public Policy for Waterway Management Victorian Waterway Management Strategy Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning


Finalist

The Victorian Waterway Management Strategy, launched in 2013, has replaced the policy framework of the Victorian River Health Strategy with a single, integrated management framework for rivers, estuaries and wetlands. It provides direction for managing Victoria’s waterways over an eight-year period and describes the Victorian Government’s policy on regional decision-making, investment, management issues, and roles and responsibilities of management agencies. New policy was developed for involvement of Victoria’s Traditional Owners in waterway management and a more flexible management approach enabled better planning and response to climatic variability and extreme events such as flood and bushfire. Developing the strategy involved a comprehensive stakeholder engagement program, including guidance by an expert scientific panel, stakeholder reference committee, the Victorian waterway managers forum, an internal review committee and Victorian Traditional Owners. Additional stakeholders such as Victoria’s nineteen water corporations were also engaged on relevant policy areas. The broader Victorian community provided input and feedback on the draft policies and actions during a six-week public consultation period.

A series of regional information sessions were held at ten locations across Victoria and a total of 78 formal submissions were received. These submissions were analysed and informed the final policy and actions in the strategy. A public document was also prepared for the community to outline the key themes raised in the formal submissions and to explain what the government was doing as a result of that feedback. The management objective under the Victorian Waterway Management Strategy is to maintain or improve the environmental condition of waterways to support environmental, social, cultural and economic values. This recognises that many of the benefits that healthy waterways provide to communities rely on the environmental condition of waterways.

Project partners: Victorian Catchment Management Authorities, Melbourne Water

Progression of Public Policy for Waterway Management Water Quality Offsets Framework Smart Water Fund – Applied Research, Melbourne Water


Finalist

The Water Quality Offsets Framework provides a framework for offsetting the water quality impacts of wastewater discharges into waterways. It is intended for adoption by the Victorian water industry. The Smart Water Fund and Western Water led development of this framework during 2014/15, with support from Alluvium Consulting, Marsden Jacob Associates and various technical experts, in close consultation with stakeholders from across the Victorian water industry and State government agencies, including the Victorian Environment Protection Authority, and the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning. The offsets framework is designed to support water authorities to protect and enhance Victoria’s waterways while providing the flexibility needed to achieve the best community outcomes in an efficient manner. The framework gives regulators, policy makers, the water industry, and the community clarity around how wastewater discharges can be offset in Victoria. It outlines the steps for assessing and implementing options for offsetting the water quality impacts of wastewater discharges into waterways. The framework uses the EPA’s proposed offset principles, risk assessment guidelines, and principles for environmental protection as its basis.

Water quality offsets might be considered in instances where Victorian water corporations face a significant challenge in meeting existing or projected EPA discharge licence conditions or recognise a genuine opportunity to deliver a net environmental benefit at a lower community cost. In most instances, the use of an offset arrangement will be driven by the potential to defer capital expenditure on infrastructure upgrades that might otherwise help meet the licence conditions, or a specific policy driver. The framework aims to provide enough rigour so that the community and regulators have confidence in decisions that are made while providing the water industry with flexibility and the opportunity for innovation. In July 2015, VicWater – the peak industry association for water businesses in Victoria – took on the role of housing and overseeing the framework.

Project partners: Smart Water Fund, Western Water, Marsden Jacob Associates, DELWP, Alluvium Consulting, EPA Victoria, South East Water, Yarra Valley Water, Coliban Water, Gippsland Water, Goulburn Valley Water, Vic Water, Karoo Consulting, Waterscience, Volders Consulting

Advancing Waterway Management Through Graduate Research Award Winner

Advancing Waterway Management Through Graduate Research Toward Sediment Sensitive Cities by Improving Streams and Reducing Maintenance Costs Monash University – Arezou Houshmand


Winner

This project, for the first time in Australia or even across the world, has shown that sediments in urban stormwater control measures such as gross pollutant traps (GPTs) can be safely bypassed to streams to improve their physical condition, as well as significantly reduce stormwater maintenance costs to authorities. To do so required novel thinking, robust science, and strong industry collaboration. While stormwater control measures help to maintain the natural hydrologic regime of catchments and treat the stormwater for improving stream health, they neglect the sediment budget in the catchment and often exacerbate stream erosion. Establishment of urban catchments often results in increased flow to receiving streams, capable of mobilising sediments, and can also lead to reduction in coarse-grained sediments to streams. The resulting loss of coarse-grained sediments in streams (e.g. sands and gravels) has negative consequences for aquatic ecosystems, including reduced foraging and refuge for macroinvertebrates and fish.

Project partners: The University of Melbourne, CRC for Water Sensitive Cities, Melbourne Water, EPA Victoria, Knox City Council

Most stormwater control measures such as gross pollutant traps (GPTs) are designed to remove solids from stormwater to reduce the pollutant potential for streams and protect secondary treatments such as wetlands. By doing so they exacerbate the loss of sediments in receiving streams, starving streams of coarse-grained sediments. Yet, by passing coarse-grained sediments through these systems, there is a potential risk of transporting associated contaminants to receiving water bodies. In addition, it is estimated that the annual costs of sediment management and maintenance in stormwater systems is more than $100 million across Australia, and we need to consider ways to reduce these costs by improving stormwater system design. This study tested contamination levels in GPTs to understand the relationships between sediment size and contamination. It then used this information to undertake a real-world test, in conjunction with numerous authorities, where coarse-grained sediments were deposited in a nearby stream directly from a GPT. The results will have implications for the design of stormwater systems, maintenance costs and the health of streams in urban catchments.

Technical Excellence in Waterway Management Award Winner & Finalists

Technical Excellence in Waterway Management Revegetation Risk Calculator Alluvium Consulting


Winner

Up until now there has been no means to quantify the likelihood of revegetation works being scoured out in flood events, and no simple analysis tool available to waterway management practitioners to assess the likelihood of success of their revegetation program, particularly over the critical vegetation establishment phase (i.e.. up to 15 years). Revegetation projects have had an unquantified risk (likelihood) of failure arising as a result of stream related scour during the vegetation establishment phase. The Revegetation Risk Calculator is therefore both original in its concept and unique to the industry. In response to this unquantified risk, Alluvium Consulting, in association with its project partners, has developed a simple spreadsheet based tool that can be applied to assess the cumulative likelihood of failure (or success) of a revegetation program arising as a result of streambank erosion over the critical vegetation establishment phase. The tool can not only be used to assess the likelihood of failure or success, it can also be used to come up with alternate arrangements to develop a design that provides an acceptable compromise between the level of investment in structural protection, and the likelihood of failure of the revegetation works. The analysis approach is founded upon concepts used in other industries, but not yet applied to waterway management. The approach is based on cumulative hazard rate functions used in survival theory, reliability engineering and life insurance. The cumulative hazard rate function is used to estimate the cumulative probability of an ‘event’, where the ‘event’ is the failure of a non-repairable

component, or any occurrence for the which the unit remains in the failed state. This is known as a ‘mortal event’. Previously such analysis has been applied in reliability engineering, actuarial studies and epidemiology, where through time the unit of interest has increasing strength or resistance, yet through time that unit has an increased chance of being exposed to a ‘mortal event’. We know that revegetation takes time to establish. Over the establishment phase, the revegetation develops increasing resistance to scour i.e. initially having only the resistance of the underlying material (e.g. soil) and later higher resistance consistent with established vegetation community. However, there is also an increased likelihood of the revegetation being exposed to a potentially ‘mortal’ scour event. The tool enables waterway managers to critically assess the requirement for structural protection works at a revegetation site and enables the rapid analysis and design of alternate structural protection arrangements to optimise the project costs and probability of failure. In so doing, the tool assists to avoid both over-investing and under-investing in structural protection pending vegetation establishment.

Project partners: Melbourne Water, Australian Coal Association Research Program After

Before

Technical Excellence in Waterway Management Australian Grayling Research Program Melbourne Water


Finalist

Australian grayling are a threatened fish species whose life cycle is dependent on specific flow triggers. In the Yarra and Bunyip Rivers, environmental flow studies recommended the delivery of substantial flows events, requiring the use of a significant volume of environmental water to support Australian grayling. To allow for the adaptive management of environmental flows, Melbourne Water initiated a research program to better understand the flow requirements of the Australian grayling. The Arthur Rylah Institute was commissioned to undertake a range of studies into the spawning and migration patterns of grayling in both the Yarra and Bunyip Rivers. These projects have included: • Basic presence or absence monitoring of spawning events allowed the early flow releases to begin to understand the conditions under which spawning occurs. • Recent advances in acoustic tagging has pushed the boundaries further in understanding the movement of adults to spawning grounds. This has enhanced our understanding of the importance of the duration of the flow event as well as the magnitude. • Investigations into grayling migration using grayling otoliths (ear bone) have pioneered a technique to help date the movement of juvenile fish from the marine environment into the freshwater reaches, with future research planned to further understand the flow triggers required to prompt/facilitate successful migration.

• A research project is underway to model the dispersal of grayling larvae in the Port Phillip and Westernport Bay to investigate if Australian grayling larvae have the potential to leave the bay prior to returning to freshwater. This will help waterway managers understand the potential mixing of grayling populations across river systems.

Project partner: Arthur Rylah Institute (ARI)

Technical Excellence in Waterway Management Lower Ovens Floodplain Connectivity Study North East CMA


Finalist

Water Technology completed the Lower Ovens Floodplain Connectivity Study in partnership with North East CMA. The project focused on the lower Ovens River floodplain environment, which contains a complex floodplain and wetland system. It aimed to understand the condition of the floodplain, and how flow and barriers to flow influenced its condition. The overbank flows that are important for connecting the Ovens River with its floodplain have not been significantly altered; however, the project sought to confirm whether floodplain connectivity had been affected by the presence of levees, road crossings and other floodplain modifications, which have the potential to isolate environmental assets. The project used a multi-disciplinary methodology which incorporated advanced spatial analysis techniques, comprehensive ecological field investigations (tree and wetland health assessments), and extensive and complex hydrological and hydraulic modelling. By combining these factors, the project has significantly improved the knowledge of the lower Ovens River floodplain. The highly detailed and accurate hydraulic model allows the frequency of inundation, storage capacity, depth and area of inundation to be determined for all identified wetlands. The study has surpassed industry best practice in a number of areas including developing innovative new spatial techniques as well

as cutting edge modelling which has allowed a 50 kilometre reach of river with an expansive floodplain to be modelled at a level of detail not previously seen. The project has demonstrated that this floodplain receives an appropriate watering regime and excellent river to wetland connectivity. This is undoubtedly reflected in the high environmental scores observed in this project; evidence that environmental outcomes can be achieved when the required components for a healthy river and floodplain are maintained and managed for effectively. The methodology developed in this study could be easily applied to other systems.

Project partner: Water Technology

outstanding waterway management project · 2016-03-22 · outstanding waterway management project...

Documents