Adelaide Laboratory Public Seminar Series
- Abstracts 2008
Radionuclides and OSL: Capabilities and Applications
Tim Pietsch and Gary Hancock
CSIRO Land and Water, Canberra Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) laboratory
Abstract
The CLW laboratory in Canberra houses state-of-the-art radionuclide and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) facilities.
The labs provide data for scientific studies mostly addressing river function and its relationship to catchment erosion and estuarine health. The data allow empirical verification of erosion source and sediment flux predictions determined using catchment modelling techniques.
The two labs also provide powerful dating tools for studies of sediment chronologies covering time frames ranging from recent decades to millenia. In particular, OSL provides dating information for the important pre-post European settlement period 100-300 years BP (~1700-1900 AD), commonly referred to as the “blind spot” for modern dating due to the lack of reliable alternatives.
This seminar will briefly describe the operation and output of the two labs, giving examples of recent applications to CLW research.
About the speakers
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Novel approaches to assess fate and transport of organic chemicals during Managed Aquifer Recharge
Jörg E. Drewes
Director of the Advanced Water Technology Center (AQWATEC), Colorado School of Mines, USA
Abstract
Organic chemicals present in recycled water represent a wide range of compounds including pharmaceutical residues, personal care products, household chemicals, disinfection by-products and endocrine disrupting compounds. Considering the concern regarding the presence and fate of organic chemicals in recycled water schemes, this talk will highlight novel approaches to assess the performance of managed aquifer recharge systems, including soil-aquifer treatment (SAT) and riverbank filtration (RBF) regarding removal of organic chemicals. These approaches include the identification of indicator compounds and surrogate parameters that can be selected for performance assessment as well as approaches to derive biodegradation rate constants that can be used in contaminant transport models.
About the speaker
Jörg E. Drewes is an Associate Professor of Environmental Science and Engineering and Director of the Advanced Water Technology Center (AQWATEC) at the Colorado School of Mines. AQWATEC is a research centre to advance the research and development of novel water treatment processes and hybrid systems to enable sustainable and energy efficient utilization of impaired water sources to provide potable and non-potable water supplies. For the academic year 2007/2008, he was appointed as a Senior Research Fellow at the University of New South Wales
Australia’s Water Management - Potential changes, new risks and opportunities
Dr John Radcliffe AM FTSE
Commissioner, National Water Commission
Abstract
The Council of Australian Governments began the reform of Australia’s water management in 1994 by separating the rights to land from those to water so they became separately tradable.
At the same time, water resource management was separated from the provision of water supply services. In a further development in 2004-6, all states and territories and the Australian Government signed the Intergovernmental Agreement on the National Water Initiative (NWI). This encompasses policies dealing with water entitlements, water markets and trading, water pricing, management of environmental water, water accounting, urban water, community partnerships and adjustment, and knowledge and skills.
The National Water Commission was established to facilitate adoption of the NWI and assess progress with its implementation. Its programs include Raising National Water Standards, which has encompassed over 110 water science and policy projects and publications derived from them. CSIRO has been involved with a number of these.
About the speaker
John Radcliffe, a former Deputy Chief Executive of CSIRO and now an Honorary Research Fellow at CSIRO Urrbrae, has been a Commissioner of the National Water Commission since its inception, and will outline the NWI’s content, what has been achieved to date and what opportunities there may be in the future.
Glacial tills and prairie dogs: an overview of aquitard research in Canada
Glenn Harrington
Abstract
The surface geology of the Great Plains in central-western North America is often characterised by very thick, low-permeability, clay-rich geological formations through which water and solutes move extremely slowly. Accordingly, these environments have become attractive sites for potential hazardous waste disposal over the last 2-3 decades, as well as presenting an opportunity for studying paleoclimatic conditions. This talk presents an overview of aquitard research conducted during a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada several years ago, including field-based methods to characterise subtle changes in porosity and groundwater quality, and modelling studies to predict solute transport through these very low-permeability environments.
Quantifying Water Savings from Willow Removal along Creeks
Tanya Doody, Experimental Scientist, CSIRO Land and Water
Abstract:
Willow infestations in creek systems in eastern Australia have been identified as a major environmental issue. In south central New South Wales, weeping willows (Salix babylonica) have spread along creek systems and in many locations occupy the stream banks, floodplains and stream bed. The Yanco Creek Management Plan was seeking to identify current water losses from the Yanco Creek system which could potentially be returned to the system, so a research project was undertaken to quantify the net impact on evapotranspiration of removing willow trees from creeks used to transport irrigation water. Evapotranspiration from willows and natural riparian vegetation nearby was monitored over an August 2005 to May 2006 growing season with additional willow water use measurements conducted over the summer of 2006/2007 and 2007/2008. The results indicate that willows are capable of extracting substantial amounts of water from a stream system if they are located within the steam. A potential for water savings by willow removal was estimated as 3-4 ML ha-1 of willow crown projected area, if willows situated in-stream with permanent access to water were removed.
About the speaker:
Tanya Doody has a BSc from Adelaide Uni and is completing a Grad Dip in Spatial Science from Charles Sturt University. She currently works as an Experimental Scientist within the Water for a Healthy Country Flagship and has 14 years experience in forest hydrology. Her major research has been in quantifying the water balance of plantation forests in South-East South Australia. More recently, research has broadened to include water balance measurements of Indian Sandalwood and associated hosts, riparian floodplain vegetation and weeping willows. She is currently involved in spatial eco-hydrology research within floodplains of the Murray-Darling Basin.
Annual Lecture for the SA ASSSI
Looking over the fence: trials and triumphs for soil science in South-Western Australia
Professor Bob Gilkes, School of Earth and Geographical Sciences, The University of Western Australia
Abstract:
The talk will identify the extreme characteristics of many soils in South-Western Australia and the stresses imposed upon them by agricultural, mining and urban development.
Although there is a long and sorry history of soil degradation in WA recent advances in our understanding of the soils and the development of appropriate management procedures are providing the basis for sustainable land uses.
Many of the soil conditions encountered in WA extend beyond the “fence” into SA and elsewhere and the solutions being pioneered by WA soil scientists will have broad application.
About the speaker
Bob Gilkes is Professor of Soil Science at the University of Western Australia. He received his degrees from Southampton University, UK; a BSc in physics/mathematics and PhD in geology. He worked for CSIRO Division of Soils from 1966 – 1969 in Adelaide and Brisbane before moving to UWA. He has also spent several years working in UK, France, Indonesia, India, East Timor and Thailand on cooperative research and aid projects.
Bob has supervised more than 100 postgraduate students from sixteen countries and published 300+ journal articles and chapters. His research has been broadly focussed including pedology, mineral science, fertilizer technology and land rehabilitation. He has been an officer of IUSS and ASSSI and has received awards from several national and international scientific societies including the Prescott medal of ASSSI. Bob joined ASSSI, then ASSS, in 1966.
Taxation as an Instrument of Agri-Environmental Policy in the European Union
Prof. Rob Fraser, Professor in Agricultural Economics, University of Kent, UK
Webstreamed version
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Abstract:
This presentation considers the range of tax instruments used in the EU to deliver agri-environmental policy goals. "Tax instruments" are defined broadly to include: (positive) taxes, tax expenditures, cross-compliance/quotas (conditional taxes) and negative taxes (subsidies).
After providing examples of each type of tax instrument, the presentation outlines the criteria used to choose the appropriate instrument for each policy situation and then discusses the problems and complications associated with using each type of instrument.
About the speaker
Rob Fraser is currently Professor of Agricultural Economics in the Department of Economics at the University of Kent. He previously studied at the Universities of Adelaide and Oxford in the 70s and 80s, and worked at the Universities of Virginia and Western Australia in the 80s and 90s. He has an international research reputation as a policy economist, specialising on both agri-environmental and invasive species policy design and evaluation. In this context, since moving to the UK in 2000 he has participated in a range of DEFRA and other funded research projects. In addition, he was commissioned in 2006 by the OECD to prepare a report on “Information Deficiencies in Agri-Environmental Policies”, which was then presented as the keynote paper to an OECD Workshop on this topic. Most recently he has been appointed a Consultant Economist to the World Bank on policies affecting world trade.
Unravelling ground water flow paths and flow rates using inert gas tracers
Prof. Kip Solomon, McMaster Distinguished Visiting Fellow at CLW,
University of Utah, USA
Abstract:
Inert gases are present in all ground water as dissolved species, but the concentration and origin of a specific gas can be highly dependent on physical processes within and at the boundaries of a flow system. As a result, dissolved gas tracers (DGTs) have been used to evaluate a variety of processes and flow systems including recharge temperature and elevation in mountainous regions, spatial variations in recharge rates, solute transport in diffusion controlled systems, and as partitioning tracers in the vadose zone. A particular strength of DGTs is that multiple tracers having independent sources can often be measured. For example, noble gases such as Ne, Kr, and Xe are of atmospheric origin and their concentrations in ground water depend on temperature, elevation, and the magnitude of water level fluctuations in recharge areas. Helium-3 is produced within an aquifer due to radioactive decay, and thus depends on travel times. Helium-4 is produced both within and external to aquifers and depends on flow rates and boundary fluxes. By combining tracers that are produced at the top, bottom and within a flow system a “tomographic” approach for unravelling ground water flow paths and rates can be taken. The presentation will illustrate the basic concepts of using inert gas tracers along with case studies that describe their applications to ground water flow problems.
About the speaker
Prof Kip Solomon is a Distinguished OCE Visiting Fellow and Professor of Geology and Geophysics, University of Utah, USA visiting CSIRO for 6 weeks. He is an expert on measurement and application of noble gas geochemistry in ground water. He is currently assembling, calibrating and testing a new vacuum extraction and measurement facility for helium and noble gases in groundwater at CSIRO.
to the World Bank on policies affecting world trade.
Acid Sulfate Soils update: Ramsar sites in the Murray Darling Basin and update on the National Atlas
Brett Thomas and Steve Marvanek
Abstract:
Acid sulfate soils (ASS) are those soils in which sulfuric acid may be produced, is being produced or has been produced in amounts that have a lasting effect on main soil characteristics (Pons 1973).
ASS is well known in coastal environments because tidal, waterlogged environments are ideal for the formation of sulfide minerals. We estimate that 58,000 km2 of the Australian coastline contains sulfidic materials, potentially containing 2 million tonnes of sulfuric acid.
Recently inland ASS has been getting the most attention, and we now estimate that 157,000 km2 of ASS occurs in lakes, rivers and wetlands, particularly those in the lower Murray Darling Basin and Lower Lakes. Many of the wetlands along the River Murray and its tributaries contain or contained sulfidic materials which have become exposed due to the drought. Many wetlands are now showing signs of degradation due to ASS, which has water quality implications when ‘normal’ river flows return.
Although inland and coastal ASS share similar properties, management and remediation techniques are not easily transferable. The production of ASS hazard maps and dissemination of information to wetland managers (eg through the Australian Soil Resource Information System) is our most effective management tool.
About the speakers
Brett Thomas is a research scientist in the Centre for Environmental Contaminants Research working with Rob Fitzpatrick’s group on coastal and inland acid sulfate soils. Brett’s research interests are principally in pedology, geology, mineralogy, biogeochemistry and spatial analysis as applied to soil-landscape processes. Currently his main project deliverables are the ASS assessment, and production of ASS hazard and risk maps for Ramsar listed and other ‘priority’ wetlands within the Murray Darling Basin.
Steve Marvanek is a Spatial Data Analyst with CSIRO Land and Water. Over his 10 years experience with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) he has been involved in numerous national and regional scale land resource mapping and assessment projects. These include the 2001 National Land and Water Resources Audit and most recently the Murray-Darling Basin, Northern Australian and Tasmanian Sustainable Yields projects. Steve has been working with Rob Fitzpatrick’s group since 2004 undertaking the spatial analysis and mapping for the group's ASS work, including compiling the Australian Atlas of Acid Sulfate Soils.
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