This preliminary report will provide a geochemical and ionic characterisation of groundwater, to determine baseline conditions and, if possible, to distinguish between different aquifers in the Laura basin. The groundwater quality data will be compared against the water quality guidelines for aquatic ecosystem protection, drinking water use, primary industries, use by industry, recreation and aesthetics, and cultural and spiritual values to assess the environmental values of groundwater and the treatment that may be required prior to reuse or discharge.

Geoscience Australia carried out a marine survey on Carnarvon shelf (WA) in 2008 (SOL4769) to map seabed bathymetry and characterise benthic environments through colocated sampling of surface sediments and infauna, observation of benthic habitats using underwater towed video and stills photography, and measurement of ocean tides and wavegenerated currents. Data and samples were acquired using the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) Research Vessel Solander. Bathymetric mapping, sampling and video transects were completed in three survey areas that extended seaward from Ningaloo Reef to the shelf edge, including: Mandu Creek (80 sq km); Point Cloates (281 sq km), and; Gnaraloo (321 sq km). Additional bathymetric mapping (but no sampling or video) was completed between Mandu creek and Point Cloates, covering 277 sq km and north of Mandu Creek, covering 79 sq km. Two oceanographic moorings were deployed in the Point Cloates survey area. The survey also mapped and sampled an area to the northeast of the Muiron Islands covering 52 sq km. cloates_3m is an ArcINFO grid of Point Cloates of Carnarvon Shelf survey area produced from the processed EM3002 bathymetry data using the CARIS HIPS and SIPS software

Vertical geochemical profiling of the marine Toolebuc Formation, Eromanga Basin - implications for shale gas/oil potential The regionally extensive, marine, mid-Cretaceous (Albian) Toolebuc Formation, Eromanga Basin hosts one of Australia's most prolific potential source rocks. However, its general low thermal maturity precludes pervasive petroleum generation, although regions of high heat flow and/or deeper burial may make it attractive for unconventional (shale gas and shale oil) hydrocarbon exploration. Previous studies have provided a good understanding of the geographic distribution of the marine organic matter in the Toolebuc Formation where total organic carbon (TOC) contents range to over 20% with approx. half being of labile carbon and convertible to gas and oil. This study focuses on the vertical profiling, at the decimetre to metre scale, of the organic and inorganic geochemical fingerprints within the Toolebuc Formation with a view to quantify fluctuations in the depositional environment and mode of preservation of the organic matter and how these factors influence hydrocarbon generation thresholds. The Toolebuc Formation from three wells, Julia Creek-2 and Wallimbulla-2 and -3, was sampled over an interval from 172 to 360m depth. The total core length was 27m from which 60 samples were selected. Cores from the underlying Wallumbilla Formation (11 samples over 13m) and the overlying Allaru Mudstone (3 samples) completed the sample set. Bulk geochemical analyses included %TOC, %carbonate, %total S, -15N kerogen, -13C kerogen, -13C carbonate, -18O carbonate, and major, minor and tracer elements and quantitative mineralogy. More detailed organic geochemical analyses involved molecular fossils (saturated and aromatic hydrocarbons, and metalloporphyrins), compound specific carbon isotopes of n-alkanes, pyrolysis-gas chromatography and compositional kinetics. etc.

The impacts of climate change on sea level rise (SLR) will adversely affect infrastructure in a significant number of Australian coastal communities. A first-pass national assessment has identified the extent and value of infrastructure potentially exposed to impacts from future climate by utilizing a number of fundamental national scale datasets. A mid-resolution digital elevation model was used to model a series of SLR projections incorporating 100 year return-period storm-tide estimates where available (maximum tidal range otherwise). The modeled inundation zones were overlaid with a national coastal geomorphology dataset, titled the Smartline, which identified coastal landforms that are potentially unstable under the influence of rising sea level. These datasets were then overlain with Geoscience Australia's National Exposure Information System (NEXIS) to quantify the number and value of infrastructure elements (including residential and commercial buildings, roads and rail) potentially vulnerable to a range of sea-level rise and coastal recession estimates for the year 2100. In addition, we examined the changes in exposure under a range of future Australian Bureau of Statistics population scenarios. We found that over 270,000 residential buildings are potentially vulnerable to the combined impacts of inundation and recession by 2100 (replacement value of approximately $A72 billion). Nearly 250,000 residential buildings were found to be potentially vulnerable to inundation only ($A64 billion). Queensland and New South Wales have the largest vulnerability considering both value of infrastructure and the number of buildings affected. Nationally, approximately 33,000 km of road and 1,500 km of rail infrastructure are potentially at risk by 2100.

40% coverage east G50/B1-113 Vertical scale: 375

No abstract available

G51/B1-83

(east) 22-1/F55-8/6

The shallow water equations are widely used to model flood and tsunami flows, for example to develop inundation maps for hazard and risk assessments. Finite volume numerical methods are commonly used to derive approximate solutions to these problems, because of their potential to exactly conserve mass and momentum, and correctly simulate both smoothly and rapidly varying flows. However, there remain several common scenarios which often cause numerical difficulties. The occurrence of stationary water near complex wet-dry boundaries is a standard initial condition for tsunami applications. Many numerical methods will generate spurious waves in this situation, which can propagate into the flow domain and contaminate the solution. A related situation involves the simulation of run-off caused by direct rainfall inputs, which is often desirable for flood applications as an alternative to providing discharge inputs derived from rainfall-runoff models. Conserving mass and avoiding unrealistic 'spikes' in the simulated flow velocities can be challenging, particularly when the flow depth is much shallower than the elevation range of each mesh cell, as is practically unavoidable in large scale applications. Several techniques to robustly treat these situations have been implemented in variants of the ANUGA hydrodynamic model, and the performance of these is assessed in a range of ideal and practical examples.

Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) web services offer a cost efficient technology that permits transfer of standardised data from distributed sources, removing the need for data to be regularly uploaded to a centralised database. When combined with community defined exchange standards, the OGC services offer a chance to access the latest data from the originating agency and return the data in a consistent format. Interchange and mark-up languages such as the Geography Markup Language (GML) provide standard structures for transferring geospatial information over the web. The IUGS Commission for the Management and Application of Geoscience Information (CGI) has an on-going collaborative project to develop a data model and exchange language based on GML for geological map and borehole data, the GeoScience Mark-up Language (GeoSciML). The Australian Government Geoscience Information Committee (GGIC) has used the GeoSciML model as a basis to cover mineral resources (EarthResourceML), and the Canadian Groundwater Information Network (GIN) has extended GeoSciML into the groundwater domain (GWML). The focus of these activities is to develop geoscience community schema that use globally accepted geospatial web service data exchange standards.