Capabilities

• River health and ecological condition assessments
• Fluvial geomorphic and process investigations
• Strategic river health planning
• Geomorphic and hydraulic design of waterway works
• Hydrology and hydraulic investigations and modelling
• Design and construction support for waterway rehabilitation
• GIS theme capture and thematic mapping
• Identification of threats to river health
• Post fire and flood waterway assessments and design
• Environmental flows
• Fishway detailed design and specification
• Community consultation
• Ecological risk assessments
• Estuary management plans
• Monitoring program design and implementation

Water Technology is one of Australia’s leading riverine and coastal consultancies. With experience spanning from riparian condition assessment to strategic planning and implementation of works, our team of qualified engineers and scientists integrate the many fields of critical importance to waterway management. Our specialist expertise in ecology, geomorphology, waterway design, hydrologic and hydraulic modelling and environmental hydraulics allows Water Technology to deliver complete and cost-effective project solutions for our clients.

Overview

Subject to immense pressures from natural and human influences, Australia’s waterways are a critical element in the landscape. Providing a haven for wildlife, an ecological niche for plants, a playground for the community and a lifeline for agriculture and industry, everyone has a perspective on the management of our rivers. With many competing pressures, waterway management requires an integrated assessment and planning approach to ensure considered and sustainable outcomes are achieved for all stakeholders.

From the provision of environmental flows to sustain critical environmental assets, to assessment of waterway condition and implementation of works to address the causes and effects of stream degradation, specialist knowledge is critical. An understanding of the ecological condition, geomorphic processes, hydrologic and hydraulic character and threatening processes specific to each waterway must form the basis for informed management.

Selected Projects

River Diversions

Client: BMA Coal
Water Technology has been engaged by BMA Coal to develop diversion designs for 4 streams within current and future open-cut coal mine works areas. The diversions are to function as a component of the broader stream network, providing similar ecological functioning and levels of stability to that in adjacent reaches. Water Technology adopts hydraulic and geomorphic form templates based on equivalent natural streams in proximity to the diversion site to satisfy ecological, regulatory and functional requirements.
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Upper King River Waterway Action Plan Management Plan

Client: North East Catchment Management Authority
Water Technology is currently developing a Waterway Action Plan for the Upper King River. Major flooding occurred in the catchment in 1998, following which an extensive program of river management works was undertaken. The cessation of tobacco farming and growing popularity of the region for winemaking and viticulture has led to more recent changes in land use in the valley and an opportune time to develop a strategic plan.
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Design Sites for the Inglis-Flowerdale Catchment

Client: Cradle Coast Natural Resource Management, Tasmania
Water Technology was commissioned by Cradle Coast NRM to investigate site condition and prepare recommendations for the implementation of river health works designed to address ongoing concerns with bank erosion at two sites located in the Inglis‐Flowerdale catchment, in North‐west Tasmania.
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Travellers Creek River Management Plan

Client: NSW Office of Water
Water Technology developed a River Management Plan (RMP) for the Travellers reach on behalf of the NSW Office of Water who is responsible for the management of the Hume to Yarrawonga reach of the River Murray. The RMP aims to assist the DWE in identifying the features, values and issues for the river and its associated floodplain features including anabranches.
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Chowilla Surface Water Management Options Assessment

Client: South Australian Murray Darling Basin Natural Resource Management Board
Water Technology Pty Ltd (Water Technology) has been engaged by the South Australian Murray Darling Basin Natural Resource Management Board to identify surface water management options to increase the frequency and extent of inundation on the eastern portion of the Chowilla floodplain to improve ecological health. The Water Technology project team has undertaken field and desktop assessments, informed by topographic and hydraulic modelling to identify options for enhanced flooding.
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Victorian Environmental Flows Monitoring and Assessment Program

Client: Goulburn Broken Catchment Management Authority
Water Technology was engaged by the Goulburn Broken CMA to assess the physical habitat at 10 selected sites on the Goulburn and Broken Rivers and Broken Creek. This project forms a component of VEFMAP with separate projects assessing riparian and in-channel vegetation, fish and macro-invertebrates in accordance with the VEFMAP methodology.

The process of physical habitat monitoring as performed by Water Technology included; selection and pegging of cross-section locations; cross-sectional surveys; installation of stage recorders; development of hydraulic models; qualitative assessment of habitat area and velocity; visual estimate of substrate composition; woody debris load assessment; and reporting of findings.
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Hydraulic Investigation of the Common Creek and Parlour Creek Systems

Client: NSW Office of Water
The NSW Office of Water is responsible for the management of the River Murray including Parlour reach that lies between Hume Dam to Lake Mulwala and contains a complex anabranch network on both sides of the floodplain. Several anabranches within this network, including Parlour Creek and Common Creek form significantly straighter, steeper and hence shorter sections of stream in comparison to the adjacent section of the Murray River. As such, there is a risk that these channel networks will further develop and capture an increasing proportion of flow from the Murray River. Water Technology undertook a hydraulic investigation of the anabranch network to model the re-introduction of large woody debris in an attempt to manage anabranch development.
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Thomson Fishway – Cowwarr Weir Detailed Design

Client: West Gippsland Catchment Management Authority
Water Technology were engaged by West Gippsland CMA to prepare detailed designs for the Cowwarr Weir fishway upgrade. The existing fishway had been identified as too steep to enable fish passage and concept designs had been prepared to lengthen it to a grade of 1:30. Water Technology adopted a different approach by testing arrangements of precast vertical slots to be retrofitted into the existing structure. The hydraulic characteristics of multiple arrangements were tested in the hydrodynamic modelling package MIKE21 (above) to ensure that the critical velocities were not exceeded within the fishway.
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