Dr Tom Hatton

Message from the Director

Message from the Director

For those of us involved in water research in Australia, 2007 has been a big year. The need for information, data and planning tools continues to escalate, as concern focuses on how, as a nation, we manage what appears to be a continued drying trend in southern Australia.

Our research explicitly responds to these knowledge needs, as some of the items in this newsletter attest.

As many will be aware we are moving towards completion of the Murray-Darling Basin Sustainable Yields project, an ambitious 12 month research effort that will, for the first time, provide a complete assessment of water yield in the Basin, now and to 2030. Dr Bill Young and his team are to be congratulated for the exemplary management and delivery of this research. 

The building of research partnerships to deliver relevant outcomes continues. The ink is just dry on a $50m partnership between the Queensland Government, CSIRO, University of Queensland and Griffith University to establish the SEQ Urban Water Security Research Alliance. This five-year project will address South-East Queensland's emerging urban water issues, with a focus on climate change, water loss management, enhanced treatment, water reuse, social engagement and science capacity building. The Alliance stands to free the region from the economic uncertainty of future rainfall and climate change patterns, and to contribute to the development and adoption of new practices in urban wastewater and stormwater recycling to increase our national water security. Thanks to Mark O'Donohue for leading CSIRO's involvement in the Alliance.

In August the Flagship was honoured to receive the Land & Water Australia Eureka Prize for Water Research and Innovation. This same research was this week awarded one of CSIRO's highest accolades, the CSIRO Medal for Research Achievement, my congratulations to our irrigation team for these significant achievements.  Congratulations also to our Lower Murray Landscape Futures team for their CSIRO Partnership Excellence award a tribute not only to the research but to establishment of complex and enduring relationships that are critical to the adoption of improved land management practices.

The new financial year saw a significant change in the way water research is organised within CSIRO. As of July, the majority CSIRO's water related research is delivered through the Water for a Healthy Country Flagship. This translates to nearly 400 researchers drawn from a broad range of disciplinary backgrounds, enriching our capacity to develop new ideas and, with our research partners, deliver on the expectations of industry, government and the Australian community.

This week also heralds a change of government in Australia. We have, over the course of the last 4 years, developed productive relationships with our federal and state government partners and we look forward to establishing relationships with a new Australian government. Water management is, and will continue to be a national research priority and we look forward to working with all our partners to deliver relevant and timely information that informs decision making.

Please feel free to contact me or any of the Flagship team to discuss our research. 

Tom Hatton

Director, Water for a Healthy Country National Research Flagship

IN THIS EDITION:

Update Home

Message from the Director

Novel new membrane could cut CO₂ emissions and purify water

MDB water assessment project in final stages

$50M Research Alliance tackles urban water sustainability

Tracking how groundwater goes with the flow

Research into water impacts on plantations leads to world-first policy change

Planning landscapes of the future

Economic assessment of acquiring water for environmental flows in the Murray Basin

Eastern Australian drought connected with El Nino

WA team makes a big splash in groundwater management

It's so good it's been bottled

Monitoring leaky landscapes

Thinking Water and Climate: Hydrological Consequences of Climate Change

What's in Our Water: The significance of trace organic compounds

Key Contacts

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