Mission Statement
The objectives of the Centre are
To publish high impact papers by carrying out research funded from a range of sources, primarily external to the traditional University system.
To establish, maintain and strengthen links with industry by incorporating research results into tools and systems for managing water, carbon and sustainability.
To deliver a strong post-graduate programme in natural systems engineering.
Background
Our research has contributed significantly, over the last 20 years, to the very rapid advances achieved in process understanding, sensor and instrumentation technology and modelling of both natural lakes and reservoirs. These advances in fundamental understanding are now finding application in the operation and management of reservoirs used for drinking water, power generation, flood control and in the enhancement of natural lakes. In general the challenge is the same in most situations: How do we optimise water quality, carbon sequestration, aesthetic value and human satisfaction while maximizing water yield, power generation, flood protection and protein yield. The major challenge is that authorities are generally unwilling to trade the latter (water yield, power, flood protection and fish yield) for improvements in water quality, carbon sequestration, lake aesthetics and human convenience.
Our Future Direction
CWR has been the world leader in these emerging technologies, first through the understanding of individual process descriptions (1981 to 1987), then understanding their interactions and the interplay between the hydrodynamic and ecological processes (1988 to 1994) and most recently (1995 to 2005) in providing the foundations for real time management. We see the period 2006 to 2008 as the time to make these real time management systems available as turn key installations to industry. The focus will be, as discussed above, on manipulating the control variables in real time, so as to achieve optimum water quality, carbon sequestration, aesthetic value and human enjoyment while constraining water yield, power generation, flood risk and protein yield to economic considerations. The strategy to achieve this is a combination of further fundamental research in each area and increased application to prototype installations. The emphasis will range over perspectives of economic, social and cultural values.
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