One Basin PhD Research Programs

The One Basin Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) offers attractive PhD packages across multiple universities in Australia (Australian National University, Charles Sturt University, Flinders University, The University of Adelaide, The University of Melbourne, The University of Sydney).

Project Descriptions

Four PhD scholarships will support PhD candidates enrolled at ANU:

Economic analysis of water banking and managed aquifer recharge as innovations for enhancing and regulating water supply

• Water banking and managed aquifer recharge (MAR) are promising innovations to improve water supply availability and timing, increase farm productivity and sustainability and improve community resilience to floods and droughts. Water banking and MAR involve storing “surplus” surface water and alternative sources in aquifers when they are available, and taking water from aquifers when water is scarce and additional supplies are needed. Although there is increasing application of water banking and MAR in some urban areas in Australia, there has been limited application in rural areas in the Murray Darling Basin. While financial analysis of MAR and alternative water sources has been developed there are few examples of economic analysis. Investment in water banking and MAR is constrained by lack of information and confidence about the economic viability of this technology. This PhD project would develop methodology and compile data for assessing the economic benefits and costs of water banking and MAR and alternative sources of water, taking account of the distribution of benefits and costs, and risks and uncertainty. This methodology would be tested by analysis of the economic viability of water banking and alternative water sources in selected case studies such as those in the proposed 1Basin CRC project on water banking, and the 1BCRC Quickstart project on brackish groundwater.
• Supervisors: Assoc Prof Barry Croke and Dr Andrew Ross, Fenner School of Environment & Society

Understanding the potential for achieving multiple benefits through water system operations

• The Murray-Darling Basin is a large and complex river system that has experienced decades of environmental decline. The Basin Plan sets to establish sustainable water use, however water remains a highly contested resource. Amongst the world’s major arid and semi-arid river basins, the Murray Darling Basin is considered one of the driest and under climate change, water scarcity and year-to-year flow variability is expected to increase into the future. As a finite resource, it is becoming more pertinent that water flow is managed to concurrently achieve multiple benefits, including social, economic, ecological and cultural uses, protecting current users while achieving more. This project will develop case studies to explore how multiple benefits can be identified, valued and achieved through rethinking the outcomes of water management and its processes, considering aspects of space, time and delivery to diverse values.
  The research will engage with local organisations and stakeholders to identify and characterise the different potential outcomes of water at the case study site(s). The research will then explore different water system operations including water transfers and deliveries that can generate benefits (and avoid disbenefits) to a range of social, economic, ecological and cultural uses. This research will include a review of water delivery strategies such as piggy-backing, augmentation and shepherding, and other mechanisms such as weir pool manipulations, and examine how they could potentially be applied in the case study site(s). The effectiveness of these strategies may be assessed under current and future climate change scenarios.
• Supervisor: Dr Serena Hamilton, Fenner School of Environment & Society

How can water assessment tools be inclusive of First Nations’ values and knowledge?

• Current water resources management in Australia tends to be biased towards agricultural and market -based uses as well as 'western' value and knowledge systems. In a similar way, water-related assessments and analytical tools tend to be more disciplinary focused with preference towards values and indicators that are tangible and easily quantified. This bias in water assessment and management has contributed to the undervaluing or neglect of the cultural dimensions of water, especially with respect to First Nations' peoples and their relationship with water. While there has been increased acknowledgement of the importance of considering First Nations' perspectives in water management, there seems to be a lack of guidance on how to best incorporate their values and knowledge in water assessment tools.
  This research will explore ways that water assessment tools can be more inclusive of First Nations’ values and knowledge. This will involve an examination of how water-related problems are framed differently by the different cultures, and how water assessment tools can be transformed to capture different ways of seeing and knowing.
  The PhD candidate will work with an interdisciplinary cross-university team with extensive experience in working with First Nations and tools and processes for water resource management.
• Supervisor: Dr Serena Hamilton, Fenner School of Environment & Society

Optimal Cross-Scale Irrigation Operation in the Era of Sensor Networks, Data Science, and Automation

• The prolonged droughts in Australia, particularly the Millennium Drought, have spurred significant investment and innovation in data collection and operational strategies across various scales, ranging from individual farms to irrigation districts and river basins. The existing infrastructure encompassing sensor technology, data management, and automation is providing an unprecedented opportunity, possibly a unique one globally, to contemplate a shift toward an operational scheme that optimizes system performance in 'real-time' across a variety of objectives, even when they might appear conflicting.
  This project aims to forge an advanced framework uniting data science, machine learning, simulation, multi-objective optimization, and uncertainty-based decision making. In collaboration with CRC research projects, objectives encompass: (1) developing a cross-scale water supply simulation model integrating existing process-based models and new machine learning tools linked to sensor data; (2) characterizing diverse water resource interests, including monetary (e.g., crop production) and non-monetary (e.g., environmental and cultural flows), and tracking their temporal and spatial dynamics; (3) creating a multi-objective optimization algorithm that embeds the simulation model to maximize co-benefits of real-time decisions for diverse users and ecosystems.
  Through the CRC, this project will work with Murrumbidgee Irrigation (MI) and the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA). MI, a prominent global irrigation enterprise, possesses extensive proficiency in data, sensors, and operational strategies. In parallel, MDBA, the principal governmental water agency, assumes responsibility for integrated and sustainable basin management. Their collaboration promises invaluable practical insights spanning from farm-level complexities to comprehensive river basin dynamics.
• Supervisor: Dr Saman Razavi, Mathematical Sciences Institute