Ecology

Sustaining the ecology of our rivers, groundwater, storages, lakes, floodplains, wetlands and groundwater dependent ecosystems is a fundamental objective of the Water Management Act 2000.

The Department undertakes a range of studies to better understand the water requirements of these ecosystems investigating factors such as volume, quality, and flow variation. Many of these studies are collaborative efforts with a range other organisations such as universities and state and federal agencies. Once we know how much water is needed to sustain the ecosystem, we can develop new water sharing plans or use this information to enhance existing water sharing plans.

Collaborative research

The NSW Office of Water actively encourages researchers from external organisations to collaborate in research projects with its science and economics staff. Collaborative research projects provide the Office with an opportunity to access and use leading-edge technology and scientific expertise from across Australia. In return, these projects give researchers the chance to work with the State’s water resource manager on research topics of critical relevance to the equitable sharing of water between the environment and users.

Collaborative research program

Our Environmental Evaluation and Performance Branch has developed a research prospectus that identifies a range of critical knowledge needs where collaboration with one or more external research bodies/agencies or provision of funding to support research officers, post-doctorial fellows, Honours, MSc or PhD students can help and improve resource allocation decisions. The projects may vary in duration depending on the timeline for decision-making.
In addition NOW offers scholarships under the Peter Cullen Postgraduate Scholarship program on an annual basis.

Australian Research Council Linkage Grants

The NSW Office of Water is also a partner organisation in a number of Australian Research Council (ARC) Linkage grant projects. These may be initiated as an opportunity to supplement research conducted under the collaborative research program, or be developed independently.

The Office is open to applications from research organisations to partner them in an application for an ARC Linkage Grant. Applications must be made to the Office three months prior to ARC closing dates to allow full consideration of the proposal.