HIGH FLYERS THINK TANK

Innovative technical solutions for water management in Australia

University of Adelaide, 30 October 2006

Executive summary

The Academy's 2006 High Flyers Think Tank on the topic of water coincided with the Murray-Darling Basin recording its lowest ever inflow, making it an opportune time to seek solutions to water issues.

The Think Tank was held in Adelaide at the invitation of the Chair of the Regional Group of South Australian Fellows, Professor Bob Vincent. It was opened by Academy President, Professor Kurt Lambeck, and the Chief Scientist for South Australia, Emeritus Professor Maxwell Brennan. The keynote address was given by Dr Jason Holt of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. He showed how his cutting-edge work could dramatically alter the treatment costs associated with desalination and water purification.

After hearing presentations from other invited speakers, the Think Tank participants divided into four breakout groups to discuss the issues shown in the matrix below. The participants then rearranged into mixed breakout groups to identify trends in advancing national solutions for water management in Australia. Summaries of the discussions that were held by each group are presented in this report.

Outcomes matrix: The themes for Innovative technical solutions for water management in Australia are:

* Hydroinformatics: a cross-disciplinary field of study that combines technological, human sociological and more general environmental interests, including an ethical perspective. It covers the application of information technology in the widest sense to problems of the aquatic environment and of the water resources management.

Participants discussed scientific and technological options for rural and urban environments, with a focus on rural solutions as a context where some of the largest water savings can be made (see the case studies). A number of options to improve the management and availability of water resources in Australia were identified. Participants noted that most of the options would need to be implemented in close consultation with the community, using 'water trust schemes' and trading frameworks, amongst other measures.

Participants observed that there is a shift underway in the approach taken towards applying science and technology to water management. Examples of such existing and emerging approaches are shown below:

Rural environments

The discussion groups identified some substantial potential technologies that could be applied in rural environments to save water. For example, recycling and purifying wastewater; generating freshwater by cheaper desalination; and decreasing losses due to evaporation or leakage in delivery systems. Other technologies could assist with the provision of better environmental flows and the upgrading of ageing infrastructure.

Certainly, new innovative water management policies will be needed soon; and ideally these can be jointly implemented with the community. These could involve using wireless networks and computer based network modelling to monitor and decide on water allocations between competing sectors as well as meeting demands for upstream/downstream water sharing.

Participants identified science and technology options that are available as solutions for rural environments. For implementation over a medium-length time period, and after some development, there is the option of increasingly using genes in plants to improve drought-resistance and salt-resistance. There are also options available for immediate implementation, including:

• reliable and cheaper wireless technology and computer-based networked monitoring, such as the Water Resources Observation Network (WRON);
  
  
• more efficient channel gate irrigation systems, automatically operated, and controlled by wireless systems for the dairy industry;
  
  
• decision-making tools for choosing between crops that indicate appropriate responses to different water trading regimes and incorporate full cost accounting and environmental tradeoffs;
  
  
• sensor networks to assess how much soil moisture is required for each irrigated plant, linked to control systems that manage water supply (eg, NICTA Water Information Networks); and
  
  
• use of evaporation mitigation technologies.

Further options that will require considerable further development before they become available include:

• modelling systems designed to identify appropriate weed management, rotations and outline risks in relation to herbicide resistance, as well as competition for water uptake amongst plants;
  
  
• advances in understanding plant-soil interactions, soil science – eg, which soils respond best to moving dripper systems, applying pH shifts; and
  
  
• new advances in tropical disease and insect management that will require investment in training and skills – especially if agriculture is to move northwards.

Urban environments

In urban environments, the challenges for improving water-use efficiency encompass different issues to those encountered in rural environments, but of course this water supply is interrelated, especially in peri-urban areas. Many challenges for the urban context involve clever replacement, retrofit or upgrade of water delivery infrastructure, as well as new treatment and storage systems – especially for stormwater. These options will be needed to address the forecasted water demand, which is likely to be beyond sustainable supply levels by 2025.

The Think Tank discussions highlighted the fact that while most water – in terms of straightforward volume – might be saved in rural environments, there are opportunities in peri-urban environments for water of different qualities and sources to be economically applied (eg, recycled water from cities).

For urban contexts, several advances in science and technology were identified by participants as offering solutions. In the long-term, advanced treatment technology such as nanotechnology and membranes will be available. However, at the present rate of development and investment, some of this technology may take up to 15 years to develop. Of the science and technology presently available, the following options were identified:

• use of easily installed local recycled water and advanced desalination water plants;
  
  
• use of technology for predicting leaks in pipes with models, acoustic technology, cable-based sensor technology, thermography, ground-penetrating radar, sonar, CCTV, laser profiling, wireless robots;
  
  
• automation, E-technique and services in the water market – a 'water web' linked to an accessible national data repository;
  
  
• advances in the methods for relining pipes with polymers, inflatable sleeves, ceramics;
  
  
• uptake of decentralised alternatives to centralised pumping stations powered by renewable energy;
  
  
• use of moisture sensors and wireless computer networks for sports fields and garden irrigation;
  
  
• data management tools to maximise corporate memory in government departments and the water industry; and
  
  
• use of new highly sensitive contaminant detection systems such as fish sentinels.

Conclusions

The Think Tank participants suggested that Australia should gradually abandon the more expensive, vulnerable and non-sustainable approaches to waste treatment in favour of technological and social innovations that are based on relatively simple and highly sustainable concepts. For example, applying natural biological treatment for wastewater treatment or implementing more decentralised sanitation and recycling where transport of water is kept to a minimal level. With some careful choices, there is much to be gained from greater integration of the water supply, stormwater, and wastewater components of the urban water cycle.

Similar gains can be made with improved dissemination of knowledge (information sharing between local, state and federal agencies), enhancement of skills in both public and private organisations, and better monitoring of the performance of water systems and technologies (such as the Water Resources Observation Network – WRON). Some participants were concerned that a shortage of skills in risk assessment, particularly those relating to biological remediation, will need to be addressed in order to capture lucrative new markets for managing contamination and providing waste management services.

These proceedings draw attention to the fact that beyond the available and emerging science and technology there is much innovation that still remains to be employed. In terms of social and political advances, these will include incorporation of community attitudes to environmental flows into policy and regulation, such as those outlined by the National Water Commission in reference to the National Water Initiative. The National Water Initiative, established by the Commonwealth government to improve water management across the country, was agreed to and signed on 25 June 2004 at a meeting of the Council of Australian Governments (COAG).

Australians place a high value on the natural landscape, and scientific investigations into the principles of natural resource management indicate that preventative action for challenges like salinity can be far less costly than repairing a system left to degrade. For example, dredging rivers clogged with silt that have not been allowed to flush during high flow events can be a very expensive and substantial task.