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  • 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.

  • The background of this report is a research project titled `Cost effective mitigation strategy development for flood prone buildings within the Bushfire and Natural hazards Cooperative Research Centre (BNHCRC, 2015). The motivation of this project arises from the experience and observations during the recent flooding in Australia in 2011 and 2013 which caused tremendous devastation in Queensland. The fundamental reason of this damage was inappropriate developments in floodplains and a legacy of high risk building stock in food prone areas. Although the vulnerability and associated flood risk is being reduced for newer construction by adopting strict standards (ABCB, 2012), building controls and land use planning, the vulnerability associated with existing building stock is quite high which contributes disproportionally to overall flood risk in many Australian catchments. Therefore, the project within the BNHCRC aims to address this issue and target to assess optimum mitigation strategies to reduce the vulnerability of existing residential building stock in Australian floodplains. To achieve this goal, as a first step, a building schema has been developed to categorise Australian residential building stock (Maqsood et al. 2015). The next step is to conduct a literature review of mitigation strategies and this report presents a comprehensive review of mitigation strategies developed nationally and internationally. The review will help to evaluate the strategies that can be adopted in Australia which suites Australian building types and typical catchment behaviours. Strategies have been developed for different types of floods and adoption of a particular strategy depends upon the characteristics of flood hazard, building stock, mitigation incentive (if any) and benefit cost analysis. The report discusses the widely used strategies and summarises the pros and cons of each of them. The review categorises mitigation strategies into the following categories: Elevation Relocation Dry floodproofing Wet floodproofing Flood barriers Elevation is traditionally considered to be an easier and effective strategy and is the one which generally result in incentives such as reduction in insurance premiums. However it becomes difficult for slab-on-grade structures. Relocation is the surest way to eliminate flood risk but as in case of elevation it becomes more difficult for heavier and larger structures. Dry floodproofing and flood barriers are efficient only in shallow low velocity hazard areas and are generally not recommended in deep fast flowing waters. Wet floodproofing is suitable in low to moderate depths of water with a duration of not more than a day. It also require adapted building use and use of flood resistant building materials. In the following years of the project, each mitigation strategy will be evaluated and costed through engagement of professional quantity surveyors. Cost benefit analysis will be conducted to determine optimum retrofit strategies for selected building types within a range of catchment behaviours. The result will be an evidence base to inform decision making by government and property owners on mitigation of flood risk by providing information on the cost effectiveness of different mitigation strategies and an optimal solution for different cases of building and catchment types.

  • Covers activities of all vessels for 2000

  • This report contains the presurvey report for AGSO Survey 229, the third survey carried out under the Australian Antarctic and Southern Ocean Profiling Project. The survey will acquire deep-seismic, bathymetry, magnetics and gravity data and will record the in-fill lines to Survey 228, recorded in 2000/01.