Pollution and Water Quality
Enabling sustainable management of coastal and marine systems by developing innovative approaches to understand and predict how human activities impact aquatic environments.
This theme encompasses the development of advanced, multidisciplinary approaches to understand and predict the complex interactions between human activities, pollution, and aquatic environments. Harnessing expertise across water quality, ecosystem monitoring, technological innovation, and the interconnectedness of catchments and coasts, our objective is to generate actionable insights into how multiple and cumulative environmental pressures impact coastal and marine systems.
By integrating socio-economic and biophysical data, deploying state-of-the-art monitoring and modelling tools, and engaging with government and stakeholders, we aim to inform the sustainable management and stewardship of estuarine, coastal, and shelf waters. Our efforts are directed towards delivering robust scientific evidence that underpins policy decisions, enhances ecosystem resilience, and supports the long-term health of our aquatic environments. We will work with governments and stakeholders to identify sustainable regimes of access and use for coastal and marine waters.
To achieve this, we:
Better understand and predict the impact of interactions between the aquatic environment and people and consequences of pollution on coastal and marine systems.
Analyse and use both socio-economic and biophysical information to achieve a truly interdisciplinary understanding of how pollution impacts on communities and the environment.
Innovate the approaches we apply to the science and policy intersections of coastal and marine waters and influence international programs, monitoring and assessment guidelines.
Improve understanding and predictions of integrated impacts of contrasting pollution and climate pressures.
Assess human impacts on the status (including biodiversity) of estuaries, coastal and shelf waters across the freshwater to marine continuum.
Apply our truly integrated ecosystem monitoring programmes that use Research Vessels, autonomous systems, satellite imagery, sensors and high-resolution modelling to monitor the aquatic environment.
