With a growing population, the impact of climate change and the worst drought in recorded history, unprecedented demand has been placed on South East Queensland’s (SEQ) water supplies. To deal with this challenge the water distribution business in SEQ was restructured in 2009, creating a new organisational structure to manage SEQ water resources. Central to the new structure was the concept of a water grid.  

The water grid is a critical part of the government’s strategy to manage SEQ population growth and will connect dams, weirs and other new water sources throughout the region. QCIF is working in partnership with the SEQ Water Grid Manager to investigate opportunities for cost effective management of water security and quality in the region.

South East Queensland Water Grid Visualisation of Grid Water Flow Project
 

The SEQ Water Grid is a complex residential and commercial water provisioning network servicing a current population of three million people. At the heart of any safe water supply network is a risk-based water quality management plan. One of the key components of good water quality management is transparency and trust within the stakeholder groups.  

The fundamental aim of this project was to provide the SEQ Water Grid Manager (SEQWGM) stakeholders with clear and easy to understand information regarding the distribution and quality of potable water. In December QCIF staff presented a pilot ‘Where is my Water From?’ web application.  This application will be refined at migrated to the SEQWGM website and will allow people to see which water storage facilities have supplied their water in the past month based on their location.

Project Participants

South East Queensland Water Grid Manager

Cost Modelling of Water Grid Manager (WGM) Operations
 

The SEQWGM is responsible for the cost efficient operation of the Water Grid, while also maintaining water quality, water security and risk management. QCIF is working with the WGM to develop a high-level, simple Cost Model of WGM operation using appropriate modelling tools.

This project was specifically a data discovery project where QCIF staff worked alongside staff from the SEQWGM to identify suitable data for modelling. QCIF staff then modelled this data and an initial cost model was demonstrated to the SEQWGM Management team at the end of 2009. It demonstrated the potential for significant savings in energy costs with minimal change. The model is a guide and this recommendation will need to be tested against the operation scenarios of the grid. The next stage of the project will be to further refine the model and determine optimum operating scenarios for various situations.  

Project Participants

South East Queensland Water Grid Manager
South East Queensland Water Storages

Three-dimensional hydrodynamic and bio-geochemical modelling
 

Seqwater, in collaboration with researchers from the School of Civil Engineering at the University of Queensland, are developing sophisticated numerical models to simulate three-dimensional hydrodynamic and bio-geochemical processes in some of Seqwater's major water supply reservoirs. The models use software (ELCOM-CAEDYM) developed by the University of Western Australia (UWA) and had traditionally been run on desktop PCs. With a 12 month simulation typically requiring 4-6 weeks computational time on a desktop PC, the models are computationally expensive.
 
QCIF worked the Seqwater and UQ-based researchers to migrate the models onto QCIF infrastructure. Whilst this was not initially as successful as expected, it did highlight the need for model data to be stored in a secure and managed facility. The QCIF research data store at UQ was ideal for this task and the data and models results are now stored securely. This data migration has greatly increased the efficiency of the Seqwater-UQ modelling program.
 
Project Participants

The University of Queensland School of Civil Engineering & Seqwater

Visualisation of Methane Gas on Little Nerang Dam
 

Seqwater is continually assessing the health of the water storages and examining ways to ensure the water requires as little treatment as possible when it enters the grid. Dammed water can emit methane which needs to be monitored so Seqwater has employed a new remote controlled vehicle take samples of the methane levels from the surface of Little Nerang Dam. These results however, appear in tabular form and Seqwater recognised the need for this data to be integrated with other data to form a more complete picture of dam biochemistry.

QCIF staff at QUT created a visualisation that combined the methane readings with bathymetry (depth) data to provide a three-dimensional visualisation of methane levels emitted by the Little Nerang Dam in a single picture. The locations of methane bubbling to the surface were defined in a colour spectrum to indicate strength. The visualisation showed that levels of methane are higher where debris from minor tributaries is being washed into the dam. This helps develop the understanding of how methanogenesis (production of methane) affects dam chemistry and greenhouse gas emissions.

This visualisation has potential for all types of storage-related data to be combined to provide scientists with new, more comprehensive ways of looking at their data.

Project Participants

The Queensland University of Technology high performance computing unit, the University of Queensland School of Engineering & Seqwater