Water pollution identification

Background
Water needs to be of an adequate quality to support healthy aquatic ecosystems and for potable,
industrial and agricultural uses. Pollution needs to be managed to ensure that waters are suitable for
these uses. Need to understand what the priority contaminants impacting beneficial uses are. Need to
determine what the major sources of these pollutants entering the environment are. This will help to focus
management on the most important pollution issues.

Research aims

Develop techniques to determine what the priority pollutants in the environment (ecology,
ecotoxicology & environmental chemistry combined with a weight of evidence approach) are.

Increase information on aquatic ecosystems and biological test species.

Increase information on the amount and type of pollution in rivers.

Demonstrate our approach in a catchment that has various land use activities

Understanding the evolution of river governance mechanisms in the Murray Darling

Basin and the Yellow River Basin
Background
Both the Murray-Darling river basin and the Yellow River Basin are now facing the
similar challenges in water scarcity and water resources management. Both river
basins have not only the high economic value but also high ecological values. There
are different levels of governments are involved in the management in these two
river basins.

There have been some studies on the governance mechanism assessment in river
basins. The existing assessments failed to provide quantitative information to water
managers on the improvement of their decision in the future. Furthermore, current
assessment system cannot be used to make comparison of governance
performance cross river basins. Furthermore, the interaction between the river basin
governance and its ecological driving force is needed to be better understood in
order to improve the governance for the river basins in different ecological status in
future.

Research aims
Development of a quantitative indicator assessment system for the comparison of
river governance performance cross river basins.
Establishing the link between the river basin governance and its ecological driving
force.