Archive for the 'General Information' Category

2012 Darcey Lecture: Confirmed for February 23

The Panel is pleased to announce that, once again, it is co-hosting the travelling Darcy Lecture Series with the NSW Branch of the IAH. The date of the presention is set for Thursday 23rd February 2012 in Sydney City with the final venue details to be confirmed closer to the event.

This year’s lecture will be given by S. Majid Hassanizadeh, Ph.D professor of hydrogeology, Faculty of Geosciences at Utrecht University and will talk on either “Capillarity in Porous Media, on Micro- and Macroscale, Revisited” or “Transport of Viruses in Partially Saturated Soil and Groundwater”.
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MDBA Has Released the Draft Plan for Comment

The Murray-Darling Basin Authority last night released its draft plan for comment, which is available at:

http://www.mdba.gov.au/draft-basin-plan/draft-basin-plan-for-consultation

Understanding Floods Q&A

Queensland’s Chief Scientist, Dr Geoff Garrett, release a short while back a report Understanding Floods: Questions and Answers which attempts to explain the key scientific and engineering concepts of floods to the community. It appears to have had extensive input from scientific and engineering professionals and could be well worth a look. It is available as a PDF download from the Chief Scientists website at: http://www.chiefscientist.qld.gov.au/publications/understanding-floods.aspx.

From the media release:

Understanding Floods: Questions and Answers (UFQA) explains fundamental scientific and engineering concepts regarding floods, in clear and simple language. It provides balanced and authoritative information within the current state of knowledge, and focuses on three key themes: floods and their consequences; flood forecasts and warnings; and managing floods. It was written by the Queensland Floods Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) Panel, convened by the Queensland Chief Scientist, Dr Geoff Garrett, AO. The SET panel includes 25 Australian and international specialists with expertise across the range of flood-related disciplines. UFQA was developed in support of the Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry, to build capacity and understanding of floods in general. UFQA will also educate our leaders, the media and the Queensland community at large on the complex, inter-relational factors impacting on floods. UFQA will facilitate informed decisions to help shape the way in which we can plan for and mitigate our level of flood related risk now, and in the future.

WSUD and Flooding: 35th EEA Stormwater Management Workshop

A 2-day Workshop entitled “Stormwater Management (source control)” has been organised by EEA (Engineering Education, Australia) for Thursday/Friday 17/18 March, 2011 in Sydney. The Notes provided in the course are based on content of the award-winning manual “WSUD: basic procedures for ‘source control’ of stormwater – a Handbook for Australian practice” edited by Professor John Argue (University of South Australia). This document is endorsed by Stormwater Industry Association (SIA), Australian Water Association (AWA) and by Dept of Water, Western Australia. The Notes have been regularly updated since first publication in 2004

The content features a balance between the three domains of WSUD (stormwater) practice – quantity control, pollution control and stormwater harvesting. Serious issues of stormwater management in Australia are posed by the prospect of 35 million population by 2050. How will Sydney’s existing stormwater infrastructure cope with change to selected regions under the ‘high rise’ option being proposed as the likely re-development scenario? What strategies can be adopted to enable existing (competently-performing) infrastructure to cope with this scenario without expensive upgrade? How can re-development in catchments with existing under-performing stormwater infrastructure be managed to enable the in-ground works to progressively meet greater capacity demand without expensive upgrade? Must the creeks and natural waterways on Sydney’s northern, western and southern perimeters be sacrificed to hard-lining in the wake of the proposed expansion? Positive, strategic answers to these and many other questions based on WSUD ‘source control’ practices will be provided in the Workshop.

The Workshop will also include results of hydrological modelling that provides a ‘design front-end’ for use in the MUSIC model. The pollution control practice presented takes advantage of enhanced treatment available in parent soil masses. The fate of dissolved pollutants is singled out for particular attention.

The short course includes: design procedures based on state-of-the-art analyses and best overseas practices adapted to Australia-wide conditions; case study illustrations drawn from field installations with between ten and 18 years of Australian operational history; design ‘worked examples’; introduction and access to rainwater tank sizing software applicable across Australia. The Workshop will be led by Professor John Argue.

Attendance at the Workshop earns 32 hours credit for continuing professional development purposes with Engineers Australia. More information about the workshop including course content, cost and Registration Forms may be obtained from Ms Ann Ellis on (03) 9326 9777 or HIDDEN EMAIL

ARR Update February 2011

The article below is reposted from the AR&R admin team, for full details check out their website.

Call for Reviewers
Those interested in reviewing projects should email HIDDEN EMAIL briefly describing which projects they are interested in reviewing and what qualifications/experience they have in those practice areas.

Draft Chapters
Draft chapters of the new edition are placed on the website as they become available. Industry is reminded that the current edition of ARR puts the responsibility on practitioners to stay abreast of current research/best practice and not to use out dated techniques even when documented in ARR. It also explains that ARR is not to be treated as a standard where compliance with the published document constitutes acceptable practice. The draft flood frequency chapter of the new version of ARR is currently available. The introduction and chapter on peak flow estimation are expected to be released December 2011. www.arr.org.au/doc_drafts4download.html

Project Updates
-Project 10 (People Safety) was extended to investigate Vehicle stability during flood events. The Literature review conducted by WRL is now available on the website http://www.arr.org.au/Website_links/ARR_Project_10_Stage2_Report_Final.pdf

General Updates
Climate Change-
Engineers Australia with the Assistance of BoM and CSIRO are developing their climate change strategy which will outline research necessary to define the impact of climate change on design rainfall, losses, temporal patterns etc.

Website-
We have received a number emails about the menus on the website. The website is standards compliant. Unfortunately, Internet Explorer is not even close to standards compliance and while every effort has been made to ensure that all the pages herein are visible with Internet Explorer there may be some small discrepancies. If you are having serious problems there are a number of excellent open source and proprietary browsers that are standards complaint and will render these pages correctly, for example Firefox, Chrome, Opera or Safari. Updating your Internet Explorer version may remove the problem. If this doesn’t work please use the site map link at the bottom of the page.

Regards
The ARR Revision Team

Notification of AGM

Further to the email a while ago this is a reminder that the Panel’s AGM will be held next Tuesday at restaurant Venuto. As we need numbers for a booking, please RSVP ASAP to Seth Westra (HIDDEN EMAIL).

UNSW Seminar on Hurricane Katrina

There is a seminar on Hurricane Katrina being presented by Dr. Andrew W. Garcia at UNSW on 28th September 2010 5:30 for a 6pm start. If you are interested please have a look at the attached flier for further details.

Hurricane Katrina Presentation Flier

Maritime Panel: Half Day Seminar on Legislation and Impacts

The Institution of Engineers Australia – Sydney Division Maritime Panel in association with PIANC, present:

Half Day Seminar: Changes to NSW Coastal Protection Legislation and Implications for Coastal Protection in NSW

  • Session 1 – Policy and Legislation
  • Session 2 – Emergency Measures
  • Session 3 – Coastal Protection and the Courts

DATE & TIME: Monday 23 August 2010, 12:30pm start (Lunch provided from 12.00 noon) finishes 5:30pm.

VENUE: Engineers Australia Auditorium Ground Floor, 8 Thomas Street, Chatswood, NSW, 2067.

ENQUIRIES: Indra Jayewardene (Chair Maritime Panel 2010) HIDDEN EMAIL

Timetable and registration details can be found in the attached PDF. Please note payments can only be processed online.

34th IAHR Congress: Abstracts 15th July

The welcome letter from the congress chair is reproduced here with minor formatting changes:

The 34th Biennial Congress of the International Association for Hydro-Environment Engineering and Research (IAHR) will be held in Brisbane, Australia, 26 June to 1 July, 2011. The Congress theme “Balance and Uncertainty: Water in a Changing World” focuses on the central roles of hydraulic engineering, hydrology and water resources in our changing world and how these roles link to the broader issues. A balance is continually being sought between competing values in water engineering, including the environment, the economy, tourism, social and indigenous values, health aspects, aesthetics, and the needs of current and future generations.

The deadline for abstract submission is the 15 July 2010. Submit your abstract now!

To submit your abstract, visit www.iahr2011.org and select the “Call for abstracts” option. Once A full list of topics and themes is provided and you can quickly lodge your abstract using the on-line submission system. you submit an abstract, you will automatically receive updates. The notification of abstract will be early September and the deadline for full paper will be in October 2010. Each submitted paper will be peer-reviewed.

The congress is jointly organised by IAHR, Engineers Australia and its National Committee on Water Engineering. It will be held in conjunction with Australia’s two premier hydrology and hydraulic conferences:

  • the 33rd National Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium and
  • the 10th National Conference on Hydraulics in Water Engineering.
    1. The integrated event will be attended by a wide range of international and Australasian academics, researchers, practitioners, regulators, infrastructure developers and resource managers with an interest in water . The congress will include the prestigious IAHR plenary lectures, the Munro and Henderson Orations, the Ippen Award Lecture, and announcements of the GN Alexander Medal recipient and John F Kennedy student award.

The Water Challenge: Dams, Desalination, and Engineering

The EA Society of Sustainability and Environmental Engineering is running a seminar titled: “The Water Challenge: Dams, Desalination, and Engineering” on 22nd March 2010 at the EA Auditorium Chatswood. For full details see that attached PDF and the society would appreciate RSVPS.