Hydronumerics Pty Ltd

Hydronumerics is a specialist water resource engineering and integrated hardware and software provider based in Melbourne, Australia. We work across the aquatic resource portfolio on complex, public and private issues in water supply, catchment condition and health, water quality benchmarking, response of water resources to anthropogenic and environmental change and improving efficiency and access to water resources across range of scales. Our specialist teams of engineers and scientists consult on a wide range of urban, peri-urban and rural water supply and quality projects, and bring a unique blend of quantitative engineering analysis, astute financial acumen and balanced stakeholder engagement approach to our delivery model.

Hydronumerics’ work is based on over two decades of R&D and our products and services are currently implemented in Singapore, Japan, Korea, India, China, PNG, Brazil and the US. Our management team includes Chris O’Neill, Dr Peter Yeates and Dr Chris Dallimore. Chris O’Neill leads our international practice, and he has over 12 years experience in water and wastewater management, catchment planning, integrated modelling, irrigation analysis and stakeholder engagement both in Australia and Internationally.

Chris has worked extensively across India since 2012, and has built an extensive portfolio throughout that country during that time, including complex environmental analysis in Tamil Nadu, Policy advisory in Gujarat, water quality modelling along the Ganga in Uttar Pradesh and water resource accounting in Rajasthan.

Organisational Capability

- Hydrodynamic and water quality modelling for receiving waters
- Real-time monitoring and management for aquatic resources (warehousing, presentation, dissemination,
QA/QC, analysis)
- Online water quality report cards
- Urban water management, qualitative and quantitative analysis of infrastructure investment
- Water accounting for village to basin scale
- Environmental water management (quantity and quantity, flows assessment, pollution impact assessment)
- City-scale Water Sensitive Urban Design
- Economic analysis of policy reform and investment decisions for water resource management
- Ecological impact assessment on aquatic flora and fauna (embayments, estuaries, lakes and reservoirs, riverine
ecosystems)

Projects

Comparative Assessment of Environmental Licensing and Permit Processing in Victoria (Australia) and Gujarat (India)
Working with the Gujarat Pollution Control Board, this body of work provided a comparative analysis and review of the environmental licensing and discharge requirements for industrial discharges in both states. This high-level policy review provided the GPCG with a greater understanding of Victoria’s streamlined environmental licensing programs and aided in the refinement and development of that State’s streamlined suite of planning regulations and regulatory instruments. regulations. Advice on major infrastructure project licensing, exemptions and a review of the process from works’ approval to licensing was included.
Water Quality Improvement Options for Priority Catchments in the ACT under the Basin Priority Project (BPP)
Hydronumerics designed and analysed a range of in-lake water quality improvement options for lakes Tuggeranong and Burley Griffin in the ACT, as well as undertaking a complete water quality, financial and economic analysis of a range of in-lake and catchment options across six priority catchments in the ACT. Over AUD$85 M worth of infrastructure was designed and tested through this process. Importantly, Hydronumerics examined the Water Quality improvements in the context of local and regional policy and legislative guidelines and provided quantitative assessment of the proposed investment options.
Port Phillip Bay Report Card
This project uses water quality indicators to assess the health of Port Phillip Bay and its catchments. It provides, for the first time, a report on the environmental health of Port Phillip Bay and the rivers and streams that flow into it. It allows users to compare water quality across geographical areas and over time based on selected water quality indicators that are measured at routine monitoring sites. It shows how water quality relates to land use and the surrounding environment, and the impacts of land use, catchment activities and environmental events such as storms, floods, fire and climate change.
Future Water 2050 - Tamil Nadu
Hydronumerics was the key architect of a series of workshops aimed a developing a consolidated, basin-wide vision for the management of water and wastewater across major metropolitan regions in Tamil Nadu to 2050. Partnering with local NGO’s and government organisations (including the State Ground-Water Data Centre), the programs delivered a series of workshops and roundtables looking at managing the state’s resources under an Integrated Water Cycle Management (IWCM) approach. The workshops were extremely successful, and delivered a vision, short and medium term work plans and built a tremendous amount of good-will between Australia and India.
Hydrodynamic and Water Quality Modelling for Guarapiranga Reservoir (Brazil)
This project further highlights our technical abilities in foreign jurisdictions: Guarapiranga reservoir is a large, shallow reservoir that supplies drinking water to Sao Paulo, Brazil. The reservoir suffers from eutrophic conditions due to urbanisation and polluted inflows from unregulated residential catchments. A coupled hydrodynamic and water quality model (ELCOM-CAEDYM) was applied to identify the processes leading to cyanobacteria blooms including nutrient cycles and sediment dynamics and the impacts of major reservoir inflows. Hydronumerics developed and installed a real-time Decision Support System (DSS) that integrates remote data streams and water quality modelling to assist with the management of the reservoir.