The Centre For Water Research

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CWR in conjunction with the CRC for Water Quality and Treatment (Australia) were awarded the Australian Water Association (South Australia Branch) Prize for “Studies, Plans and Investigations” for their work on developing predictive capability of pathogen fate and transport in lakes and reservoirs. Pathogens are an emerging threat to water quality security, as protozoa such as Cryptosporidium parvum are immune to traditional chlorination disinfection. As part of the move within Australia to the multiple barrier approach to reducing risk, where attention is paid to critical processes in the total water cycle prior to delivery to the consumer, the models produced by the project are now able to predict the behaviour of protozoans (such as Cryptosporidum and Giardia) and bacteria (such as E. coli).

Real-time management of threats to water quality and supply

As a result of a flood event in 1998 (described in another case study here), it was recognized that there is a significant threat to the water quality of Lake BUrragorang to inflow events. CWR designed and commissioned a real-time water quality management system for the reservoir that incorporates real-time data streams, historical databases, quality control, visualisation and numerical modelling. The software is a single point-of-call for all issues associated with managing water quality in the Sydney Catchment Authority reservoirs. The economic benefits of the system are significant, as it leads to a reduction in treatment costs due to ability to forecast water quality conditions and optimise water harvesting depth

Figure: Schematic of the Aquatic Real-time Management System (ARMS) designed for the Sydney Catchment Authority. ARMS accesses historical and real-time data, and interacts with forecasting models to predict risk of contamination to flood events.