From river to reef

The workshop, at Brisbane’s Hotel Grand Chancellor tomorrow and Thursday (1 and 2 November), will discuss scientific tools critical to measurements of land sediments and nutrients flushed out from river catchments.

Leading scientists, policy-makers and natural resource managers will address: The Past, Present and Future of Sediment and Nutrient Modelling in Great Barrier Reef Catchments.

Workshop convenor Dr David Post, a hydrologist with CSIRO in Townsville, says a central aim is to assess the “current state of the art” – or the quality of current models – and find ways to improve the computer models used to assess and predict water quality in catchments.

“Based on past experience and present needs and abilities, we will examine what sort of new modelling can be developed and applied to Great Barrier Reef catchments,” Dr Post says.

“We will look at whether the needs of policy-makers and communities are being met by current nutrient and sediment models.”

“If not, we will need to look at the natural processes and cycles not represented accurately or with enough sophistication in models of reef catchments.

“These might include nutrient transformation – how nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous change once they enter rivers – and the extent to which eco-systems are able to use the nutrients flushed out.”

The workshop, supported by the Water for a Healthy Country Flagship, will be attended by about 60 representatives of organisations with a stake in the Great Barrier Reef.

These include the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, CSIRO, the Queensland Departments of Primary Industries and Fisheries, and Natural Resources and Water, the Queensland Environmental Protection Agency, the Australian National University, University of Canberra, and regional natural resource management boards.

Media are invited to attend the first session of the workshop, Setting the Scene – 9am to 10.40am, Wednesday 1 November, Hotel Grand Chancellor (cnr Leichhardt Street and Wickham Terrace), Brisbane.