University of Melbourne

The University of Melbourne is a comprehensive research and teaching university with an interest in improving societal outcomes through changes in water policy and management, both nationally and internationally. This mandate fits with the three grand challenges of the university in improving health and well being, understanding place and purpose, and improving sustainability and resilience. As an extension of these challenges, the university has a deep interest in the development of capability in the water sector through both standard and tailored teaching and learning programs and through research partnership.

Organisational Capability

Basin scale water management inclusive of:
-total water balance and water caps
-climate change and management of water
-environmental flows in rivers
-water markets and trading
-improving the productivity of water diversions to irrigated agriculture through technology
-improving agricultural productivity through spatial information and data analytics

Urban scale management inclusive of:
-pollution monitoring and control
-water quality assessment
-water recycle technologies
-total water balance and network technologies

Projects

Total Channel Control System
Based in the Gansu Shule River Changma District, the project involves expanding current 9 flumegates to about 75 flumegates. The main objectives are to showcase district water resource management ability with accuracy measurement devices and control and also enable water trading and water resource planning.
Water Tradubg - The pilot study on water trading in the Shiyang River Basin in China
The study, supported by the project “Integrated river basin management: managing the threats to sustainable water resources development (AusAID ACEDP Program)”, “The key engineering technologies for ecology protection and water market development of Shiyang Basin, (Program of Ministry of Water Resources of China)” and “Key technologies of Water Internet (funded by Ministry of Science and Technology of China)”, aimed to establish a practical method, including the business rule, information flow, data sets and regulation system, to establish a web-based water trading platform in the Shiyang River Basin, which is one of the most arid catchment in the north-western China.
FarmNet
Digital agriculture: Improved irrigation scheduling and disease forecasting using webbased decision support software and wireless sensor networks.
Remote Sensing And Ground Water Mapping
Field campaigns in the Haihe River Basin and the Murray Darling Basin to increase data exchange and findings and allow science to inform policy/management