Current Research and Development in Urban Water and Wastewater A Cook's Tour Around Australia A Report by Bob Swinton INTRODUCTION In the current climate of significant change in the organisation and funding of water research in Australia, as outlined in the other papers in this issue, it seemed useful to compile a listing of the urban water research projects currently in progress. The next issue of the DPIE publication, STREAMLINE, CURRENT PROJECTS, 1990, is being prepared in the AWRAC office in Canberra. However, returns are not yet complete, and this massive publication will not be in print until late in the year. It will probably list about a thousand projects, in fair detail, but nearly 80% of them will be related to the aquatic environment, assessment of water resources on the national scale, and irrigation matters. In this issue of Water the focus is on R&D in urban water and wastewater, and to give our readers some context as to the activity in this field, we have tried to compile a brief survey of the projects which are in progress in 1990. We have done this by direct approach to the academic institutions and the authorities where the research is being carried out. We freely confess that the list is not 100% complete, and we foresee the publication of a supplementary list in the next issue of Water as more information is supplied. For example, no companies or consultants have been contacted as yet, although some are mentioned if they are implicated in projects operated by the water authorities. The involvement of the various Divisions of CSIRO in this field has merited a separate listing. In any listing there is the problem of where to define the limits. Since our focus in this issue is on urban water and wastewater, the areas defined in Figure 1 of the UWRAA paper (this issue) were adopted, but there is considerable overlap in the area termed 'Water Resources' with the multifarious studies of the water environment, which have, quite correctly, been the main area of academic research with Government funding. Accordingly, our decision to include or exclude any particular project in this area may well be argued. The definition of 'research and development' can also be argued. Certainly, this list is completely applied research, but it encompasses a wide spectrum. In our opinion, 'Applied Research' would be the formulation and testing of a novel idea for solving a problem, usually perceived as being of general impact; 'Development', the application of existing techniques to a specific problem; and 'Investigation' the scientific monitoring, measuring, and finally the analysis of a particular system, whether it be environmental, technical or management. The majority of effort by Water Authorities naturally lies in this area, and the scale and scientific expertise involved is reflected in the costs, which, for the whole of Australia, are of the order of $20-30M per year. However, the majority of such investigations are site-specific, are part of the on-going responsibilities of the authorities, and so have been excluded from this list of R&D. Rather than listing by categories, as in STREAMLINE, we have decided to list on the basis of the organisation where the project is in operation. For a number of projects, there is collaboration between two or more organisations. For example, a project in a Water Board's list may be physically carried out by a University Department, the Board's involvement being funding and provision of facilities or data, or the sponsoring of a staff member in a parttime Master's thesis. In some instances, there is true collaboration, ie., the combination of expertise from separate institutions and disciplines. Details of the projects have deliberately been kept to a few lines each and names of personnel involved have not been included. For further details, contact can be made direct to the organisation concerned, or by use of the STREAMLINE data base.
WESTERN AUSTRALIA UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN AUSTRALIA The Centre for Water Research at the University hosts the
AWRAC Centre for Limnological Modelling (CLM), as well as the Centre for Environmental Fluid Dynamics (CHED), and the Coastal and Hydraulic Engineering Laboratory (CHEL) . CLM is primarily concerned with mathematical modelling of various aspects of water storage, surface hydrology and groundwater transport. Current projects which are closely related to urban water are: I. Coordination of land and water planning . .. the development of rational criteria to evaluate competing demands for land and water resources, typically as between agriculture and urban use. 2. Study of the resolution of planning conflicts, both to reduce the costs of public opposition and to gain the cost savings which can result from public advice. 3. The process-based model DYRESM, developed within the Centre, has been accepted internationally for simulation of the dynamic behaviour of lakes and reservoirs, and is being further developed into two and three dimensions to enable it to be used for prediction of water quality parameters, particularly the interaction of biological with physical processes.
a. Canning Reservoir, (CEFD with WAWA) To determine the rate of horizontal transport of pollutants introduced into the reservoir either by recreational use or through potential pump-back schemes. The three-year project has quantified the rapid transport within the surface layer by mixing, and the slower transport mechanisms to the benthic layer. • b. Glennies Creek Reservoir. (CHEL for NSW-DWR) . A three-year project studying the hydraulics of air-bubble destratification and incorporating this into the DYRESM twodimensional (2-D) model. A full-seal~ system designed by the 1-D model was installed at Glennies Creek in October 1989. Operational problems limited the installed air-flow to 50% of design, and stratification occurred. The aeration system is being upgraded to design value and the performance of the system will then be monitored to verify the algorithm. c. Aeration-destratification. (CHEL with WAWA, and EWS) Study of a single bubble plume at Wungong, WA , developed a simulation algorithm suitable for the DYRESM model. This was verified against field data recorded at Myponga, SA. An aerator designed by CHEL was installed in Harding Dam, (north-west WA) and commissioned in August 1989. The the DYRESM model was run from July to November and its predictive capability confirmed. WAWA are continuing to assess the impact on water quality. d. Nepean Reservoir destratification . (CHEL for SWB) A three-year R&D program, including training and technology transfer, has just commenced. e. Darwin and Manton Dams. (CHEL, NT PAWA, Kinhill) Both storages, which are in a monsoonal environment, have extensive historical meteorological and hydrological data. Stage 1 formatted these into the DYRESM model. Stage 2 is to verify the model for the period 1985-1987. The final stage proposes conjunctive simulation of both storages by coupling independent DYRESM runs. 4. Extreme Flood Estimation. (CWR with WAWA) Development of better hydrological models relating PMP with PMF, taking into account antecedent soil moisture. A small representative catchment (Salmon Creek) is being modelled. 5. Application of modern statistical computation to quantify uncertainty in flood estimation and sub-surface hydrology. 6. Groundwater Projects A number of important projects are studying water and salt transport in sub-surface flows after storms, with particular emphasis on the effects of land-use. WATER April 1990 23