Supervising Scientist latest news

Annual Report

Supervising Scientist Annual Report 2010-2011 is now available.

Item posted 26 October 2011

New members for ARRTC

Two new members have been appointed to Alligator Rivers Region Technical Committee (ARRTC).

Professor Paul Boon was appointed to ARRTC as the independent scientific member with expertise in Freshwater Ecology on 22 June 2001. Professor Boon is currently working with the Institute for Sustainability & Innovation at the Victoria University in Melbourne. His main areas of interest include the ecology and management of inland rivers and their floodplains, and coastal and estuarine wetlands. He has worked for CSIRO Land and Water on various river systems in the Murray-Darling Basin and has researched the ecology and rehabilitation of salinised wetlands in the Gippsland Lakes region. Other recent tasks include the preparation of the first State-wide inventory of coastal saline wetlands and assessing environmental flow requirements of various coastal rivers and wetlands in Victoria.

Ms Jane Coram was appointed to ARRTC as the independent scientific member with expertise in Hydrogeology on 25 July 2011. Ms Coram is currently Group leader of the Groundwater Group within Geoscience Australia where she is responsible for providing scientific and technical advice and research services to a range of Commonwealth agencies. Ms Coram's current areas of work include the assessment of implications of proposed uranium mining and coal seam gas developments on groundwater values and processes, evaluation of regional groundwater recharge processes, development of a national groundwater flow systems framework and guidelines, and the characterisation and assessment of hydrogeological and hydrochemical processes involved in dryland salinisation.

Paul Boon replaces former ARRTC member Terry Hillman and Jane Coram replaces former ARRTC member Ray Evans.

More information about the Alligator Rivers Region Technical Committee

Item posted 24 August 2011

Australia Day Award

Photo: Alan Hughes (Supervising Scientist) presents Andrew Esparon with his award

Spatial Sciences and Data Integration team member, Andrew Esparon, received a Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities Australia Day Award.

The award was for the development and implementation of an Electronic Document and Records Management System (EDRMS) to solve a business critical need for Supervising Scientist Division.

Andrew's excellent technical execution coupled with active engagement with end users resulted in a platform that was intuitive to use and rapidly adopted.

More information about the Alligator Rivers Region Technical Committee is available on the ARRTC page

Proceedings of final KNP landscape change symposia published

The Feral Animal Management Symposium is the fifth and final in the series of symposia and workshops held by Parks Australia Kakadu National Park focussing on agents of landscape change. Previous symposia have included an overview of landscape change, weed and fire management, and climate change. The Feral Animal Management Symposium was held at the Jabiru Youth Centre in Kakadu on 3–4 December 2008. The symposium was successful in bringing together researchers, practitioners, managers, planners and land owners involved in making decisions about feral animal management and implementing control programs. Over 80 participants attended from a wide range of stakeholders including government, commercial enterprises, academia, traditional owners, indigenous associations and indigenous ranger groups.

The aims of the symposium were to share knowledge between all stakeholders; discuss the management implications from research outcomes; identify knowledge gaps in order to better direct research; and investigate opportunities for regional collaboration. Presentations brought participants up to date on the status of pest animals in the region, current control, monitoring and research activities, and future directions.

The proceedings were edited by Parks Australia's Mim Jambrecina and published in the Supervising Scientist Internal Report series (IR568).

Supervising Scientist Internal Report 568

Item posted 30 March 2011

Program Leader for Physico-Chemical Processes group

Dr Wayne Erskine has taken up the position of Program Leader of the newly named Physico-Chemical Processes group in the Environmental Research Institute of the Supervising Scientist.

He has come from the Ourimbah Campus of the University of Newcastle where he was Professor of Natural Resource Management in the School of Environmental and Life Sciences for the last six years. He is a keen fisherman who confesses to be obsessive about rivers and anything to do with water!

PCP (formed by expansion of the former Hydrologic and Geomorphic Processes Group) will have a broad remit covering all aspects of the generation, transport and attenuation of physical and chemical constituents in surface water. It provides the core physicochemical monitoring capability (both grab and continuous in situ methods) of the Supervising Scientist Division. The group also carries out research to develop improved monitoring capability and to assist with development of water quality guidelines.

An important component of the group's work will be assessing the likely future performance of rehabilitated mine landforms. Sophisticated landform evolution computer models, developed and run in collaboration with other researchers in Australia and overseas, are used for this. In particular, concern about potential long range impacts of climate change have strengthened the need to understand the effect of extreme rainfall events to assess the risk of transport of suspended sediment (and associated contaminants) to the receiving waters of Kakadu National Park.

Contacts for Dr Erskine
wayne.erskine@environment.gov.au
Ph: 08 89201150

Item posted 24 March 2011

EnviroTox 2011 - Sharing knowledge for a healthier environment

EnviroTox 2011 aims to promote the sharing of knowledge to gain a better understanding of the environmental risks, impacts and management of contaminants to ensure a healthier environment.

The final program is now available on the conference website http://www.envirotox2011.org/

Secretariat: Alicia Hogan, SSD
Ph: +61 (0)8 89201162
alicia.hogan@environment.gov.au

Item posted 24 March 2011

Supervising Scientist releases latest annual research summary

The Supervising Scientist has released the latest annual research summary as Supervising Scientist Report 202. This report documents research projects undertaken by the Environmental Research Institute of the Supervising Scientist (eriss) over the 2009-10 financial year. A particular focus was the consolidation of all components of the research program that underpin the acquisition and interpretation of continuous water quality monitoring data, as SSD moves towards this being its primary monitoring method for the 2010-11 wet season and beyond. A key component was continuing with the extensive ecotoxicological testwork, involving exposure of a suite of five aquatic test organisms to pulses of magnesium over periods of 4, 8, and 24 h, required to derive appropriate trigger values spanning this range of exposure durations. Other major areas of activity related to the acquisition of data from erosion plots constructed on the Ranger Trial Landform and assisting Parks Australia Operations with the final phases of radiological assement for rehabilitation activities in the South Alligator River Valley. The final phases of data analysis and reporting were also completed for projects to assess the current status of surface and groundwater at the Rum Jungle legacy site.

Supervising Scientist Report 202

Item posted 20 January 2011

The Physico-Chemical Processes Group at SSD

The group (formed by expansion of the former Hydrologic and Geomorphic Processes Group, HGP) will have a broad remit covering all aspects of the generation, transport and attenuation of physical and chemical constituents in surface water. It provides the core physicochemical monitoring capability (both grab and continuous in situ methods) of the Supervising Scientist Division (SSD). The group also carries out research to develop improved monitoring capability and to assist with development of water quality guidelines. An important component of the group's work will be assessing the likely future performance of rehabilitated mine landforms. Sophisticated landform evolution computer models, developed and run in collaboration with other researchers in Australia and overseas, are used for this. In particular, concern about potential long range impacts of climate change have strengthened the need to understand the effect of extreme rainfall events to assess the risk of transport of suspended sediment (and associated contaminants) to the receiving waters of Kakadu National Park.

For more information about the Physico-Chemical Processes Group, please contact Dr David Jones at david.jones@environment.gov.au

Item posted 10 January 2011