Improving success of rehabilitation of land and water systems

We address the need to improve the success and sustainability of restoration and rehabilitation efforts for land and water systems. Many of our catchments and aquatic ecosystems – and the services they provide – are degraded. Millions of dollars are spent on their repair, often with limited success. We focus on understanding the impacts of stressors on all aspects of catchments and associated aquatic ecosystems, and developing tools to optimise investment in on-ground actions.

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Australian Rivers Institute

The Australian Rivers Institute was the number 1 ranked global think tank for water security in 2020.

Global Go To Think Tank ranking

Under the auspices of Future Earth's Sustainable Water Future Programme ( SWFP ), spearheaded by Executive Director Dr Anik Bhaduri, Griffith University has entered a Memorandum of Understanding with UNESCO .

This collaboration aims to create a transformative initiative for the UN 2023 Water Conference: the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform for Water Sustainability. This invaluable resource will find its home in the UNESCO Digital Library.

Game-Changer for the UN 2023 Water Conference

We address the requirement to balance water needs for humans and nature

Our focus is on repairing key components of hydrological flow regimes and ecosystems to maintain connectivity and facilitate the processing of nutrients and provision of water for sustainable human and ecosystem needs.

We facilitate effective collaboration between sanitation and conservation practitioners

In partnership with Science for Nature and People, our collaborative effort focuses on the formulation of wastewater polluting guidelines and sanitation planning strategies. These resources are intended to facilitate effective collaboration between sanitation and conservation practitioners, ultimately leading to advancements in both human well-being and the health of marine ecosystems.

We are dedicated to the rigorous scientific delineation

In collaboration with the Earth Commission, we are dedicated to the rigorous scientific delineation and quantification of a safe and equitable corridor for the well-being of both humanity and the planet. Fundamental to all life on Earth are essential elements such as clean air and water, biodiversity, thriving oceans, and a stable climate. Through the concerted efforts of our working groups, the Earth Commission scrutinises strategies for safeguarding our planet in a manner that ensures not only environmental sustainability, but also upholds human well-being within the bounds of ecological limits.

Our work with Earth Commission

Our Earth system boundaries

We are dedicated to the rigorous scientific delineation

In collaboration with the Earth Commission, we are dedicated to the rigorous scientific delineation and quantification of a safe and equitable corridor for the well-being of both humanity and the planet. Fundamental to all life on Earth are essential elements such as clean air and water, biodiversity, thriving oceans, and a stable climate. Through the concerted efforts of our working groups, the Earth Commission scrutinises strategies for safeguarding our planet in a manner that ensures not only environmental sustainability, but also upholds human well-being within the bounds of ecological limits.

Our work with Earth Commission

Our Earth system boundaries

We foster the creation of a robust framework

We have joined forces with the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR) in a collaborative effort to foster the creation of a robust framework. This framework is geared towards enhancing our comprehension of the efficacy of strategies aimed at mitigating and adapting to land, soil, and water degredation.

A comprehensive framework

A cost-benefit assessment framework

We aim to arrest the decline of aquatic biodiversity and ecosystem services

Our work identifies water regimes necessary to meet the critical habitat and life cycle requirements of plants and animals, key functional processes, and ensure the natural spectrum of spatial and temporal habitat dynamics and connectivity across catchments, riparian, estuarine and coastal areas.

We are addressing land-based pollution of waterways

Resilient catchments act as filters for nutrients and stores for sediment. We identify critical flow regimes so that longitudinal, lateral and vertical connection pathways are maintained for catchment nutrient processing and sediment retention. These source-to-sea linkages are vital for the health, biodiversity and services of estuarine and coastal ecosystems.

We help to make catchments, estuaries and coasts more resilient to climate change

To increase resilience to climate change our focus is to make catchments more resilient to climate variability so that they have greater capacity to absorb rainfall and mediate the impacts of extreme climatic events. We focus on riparian zones to shade waterways from the sun and mitigate temperature increases in ecosystems, and we seek to make estuarine and coastal systems more resilient to temperature increase, sea level rise, and extreme variability of freshwater inflows.

We engaged in an ongoing initiative aim at creating a management system

In collaboration with Water Research Australia, we engaged in an ongoing initiative aimed at creating a management system for addressing emerging contaminants in the water industry, with a focus on mitigating land-based pollution. The primary objective of the project is to empower the water industry with improved capabilities to manage and comprehend contaminants of emerging concern (CEC), by implementing a comprehensive framework, encompassing a classification system, risk assessment, and guideline development.

Professor Leusch and his colleagues on Cape Town's Faure New Water project

As a prominent member of an eight-person Independent Advisory Panel for Cape Town's Faure New Water Scheme, Professor Leusch and his colleagues have collaborated closely with the South African Water Research Commission and the City of Cape Town. Their aim is to ensure that the city's plans for water reuse align seamlessly with the highest standards of both local and international best practices.

Dr Melanie Roberts with Modelling Erosion Resistance for Gully Erosion

In 2022, Dr Melanie Roberts was entrusted by the Queensland State Government with the task of creating a MERGE (Modelling Erosion Resistance for Gully Erosion) model. This initiative was sparked by a recognised necessity for a process-based model focussed on gully erosion. Its purpose is to provide critical insights to guide efforts in gully rehabilitation and management.

Mitchell River Catchment

Our dedicated efforts in the Mitchell River Catchment from 2020 to 2022 have yielded valuable insights into the scope and health of both aquatic and terrestrial ecosystem assets, along with their corresponding ecosystem services. This comprehensive assessment, encompassing both biophysical and monetary valuations, furnishes crucial data. It not only serves as a foundation for enhancing climate resilience but also plays a pivotal role in mitigating biodiversity loss. Additionally, the findings will serve as a cornerstone for shaping effective climate adaptation strategies.

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Australian Water Partnership

The Australian Water Partnership ( AWP ) is an international cooperation initiative helping developing countries in the Indo-Pacific region, and beyond, work towards the sustainable management of their water resources, actively supporting the UN ’s Sustainable Development Goals. Griffith has worked with AWP (2019-2023) to develop a COVID-19 Water Security Index that assesses the vulnerability of 49 Indo-Pacific countries to COVID through a water lens.

Covid-19 Water Security Index

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