Partnerships and cooperation for ecosystem conservation, management, and good aquatic stewardship
Griffith University was host to one of the original centres of excellence established by the Australian Water Research Advisory Council in 1987 and has subsequently played a major role in three aquatic and catchment-based Cooperative Research Centres: Freshwater Ecology; Catchment Hydrology; Coastal and Estuarine Waterways Management.
Since 2006, the University has hosted the Australian Rivers Institute, with staff and students engaged in river, catchment and coastal research and training. Griffith is also a founding partner of the International Water Centre and is host to the Sustainable Water Future Programme, a new global science initiative established under Future Earth.
Through the work on these institutes and centres, Griffith works directly with industry (through both research and engagement activities) to maintain and extend existing ecosystems and their biodiversity, of both plants and animals, especially ecosystems under threat. Our research and engagement partners include government, water utilities, marine and freshwater industries and conservation bodies, as well as aquaculture, agriculture and tourism providers. Through our work we develop and support programmes and incentives that encourage and maintain good aquatic stewardship practices.
Sustainable Development Goals
Griffith University is aligned to the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and is committed to ensuring clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, and the preservation of marine life, working towards a sustainable and environmentally responsible future.
Australian Rivers Institute (ARI)
The Institute is a world leader in research and education on rivers, coasts and catchments, working directly with industry through research and engagement to maintain and extend existing ecosystems and their biodiversity, of both plants and animals, especially ecosystems under threat.
The Institute brings together scientists and postgraduate students with expertise across a broad range of disciplines including aquatic ecology, biogeochemistry, geomorphology, economics and law. ARI is also host to the new Sustainable Water Future Programme under Future Earth.
ARI aims to deliver world-class science that improves understanding of catchment, river, estuarine and coastal ecosystems, focusing on both plants and animals, and in particular ecosystems under threat. Working closely with industry, the Institute encourages a creative and collaborative environment that fosters the next generation of ecosystem scientists, and provides the knowledge to support sustainable use and conservation of the world’s natural resources.
ARI's research supports governments, resource managers, the water industry and the community in making informed decisions about the future of catchment, river, estuarine and coastal ecosystems.
Find out more Read the highlights about our 2023 initiatives
International WaterCentre engagement activities for increased cooperation
The International WaterCentre (IWC) brings together professionals, industry practitioners and academics to undertake research, synthesise and share experiences, knowledge and skills, and enable the application of Integrated Water Management. The IWC supports several domestic and international Communities of Practice including the annual Water and WASH Futures Knowledge Events, with the 2023 conference held in Brisbane (Queensland, Australia), the Queensland Water Modelling Network (which was established in 2017 and is ongoing) and the Flood Community of Practice (which was established in 2014 and is ongoing). These initiatives are directly designed to protect and enhance ecosystems under threat, while promoting good aquatic stewardship practices, water security, and water conservation.
In 2023, the IWC organised 20 events and conferences, attended by 1286 participants from industry, government and academia from over 45 countries.
Maintaining and extending existing ecosystems under threat
At Griffith, we work directly – through our research, partnerships and engagement – with industry, government non-government organisations, and communities to maintain and extend existing ecosystems and their biodiversity. This includes both plants and animals, with a particular focus on ecosystems under threat.
In 2023, we continued our work in the Murray-Darling Basin working directly with the Murry-Darling Basin Authority. This ecosystem is significantly under significant threat. It is a vast and ecologically diverse area, which spans over 1 million square kilometres. It is home to a range of unique species, wetlands, and river systems. However, the basin faces several serious environmental challenges due to a combination of human activities and climate change.
We also continued our work with the Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research, UNESCO and the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), to provide scientific information on threats to the Antarctic environment, and government advice as to preventative and remedial action. Antarctica is an ecosystem under significant threat, primarily due to the impacts of climate change and human activities. While the region is remote and its ecosystems are relatively pristine, the effects of global warming, pollution, and increasing human presence in the area are starting to take a toll.
Find out more about our work in the Murray-Darling Basin and the Antarctic below.
Through research and engagement, Griffith works directly with industry to protect and enhance threatened ecosystems. Antarctica is no longer pristine, and our ability to capture change, forecast and mitigate impacts hinges on our ability to implement and coordinate effective circum-Polar surveillance measures. This initiative seeks to provide scientific information on threats to the Antarctic environment, and government advice as to preventative and remedial action. It represents an investment into an existing area of research capacity and excellence, and will deliver an established, international, research, logistics and policy network ready to ascend with the initiative for immediate impact. The 2021-2030 Antarctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AnMAP) is a joint initiative between the Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research, UNESCO and the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme (AMAP), hosted by Griffith. AnMAP ensures sufficient and reliable data from the Antarctic, regarding animals and plants, is collected to support global policy development through coordinated circum-Antarctic surveillance of trends and ecosystem change to ultimately help protect the threatened ecosystem and its biodiversity.
Recent severe droughts and extreme ecological events in parts of the Basin have highlighted the significant challenges ahead in adaptively managing Basin ecosystems (and environmental water) to achieve environmental outcomes under a changing climate.
Research commissioned by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority to inform the delivery of environmental flows in the Murray-Darling Basin. This is a critical element of water security as the Authority is tasked with managing water for human use and environmental outcomes. The Murray-Darling Basin Authority is a statutory body representing the Commonwealth government in the management of the region. The ecological health of the Basin’s rivers and other water systems is central to a healthy, working Basin now and into the future. Griffith is playing a key role in an ongoing consortium, established in 2021 (and is continuing throughout 2024), with La Trobe University, the Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations and IDEEA Group. They are delivering research on environmental outcomes, and social, economic and cultural outcomes.
Programs that support good aquatic stewardship practices
At Griffith, we are focused on encouraging and maintaining good aquatic stewardship practices and supporting our partners – including industry, government and non-government organisations – as well as community members to do the same. In 2023, we continued our work to maintain local aquatic ecosystems around the university and further afield. Find out more about our work in 2023 to maintain Slacks Creek around our Logan Campus, facilitate the Queensland Water Modelling Network, rewild a creek in the Hunter region, and train groups of Traditional owners in safeguarding waterways in North Queensland below.
Ensuring healthy catchments requires engagement and collaboration across a range of public and private stakeholders. Griffith University builds on our research expertise to work with key stakeholders to support water management improvements within our local catchments.
A key aspect of our community engagement work has been on the Logan campus where, in collaboration with the Slacks Creek Catchment Restoration Group, Griffith University has undertaken riparian restoration along the banks of Slacks Creek and built the native vegetation arboretum to maintain and extend its ecosystem, which it continues to monitor and protect. Griffith continues to maintain this area.
The campus is also used by Logan City Council for their Logan Eco Action Festival (LEAF). During LEAF, visitors to Logan campus engage with the arboretum to discover more about the value of restoring riparian zones, encouraging good aquatic stewardship, as well as a range of other important sustainability issues.
The QWMN is improving the state’s capacity to model its surface and groundwater resources and their quality, by providing the tools, information and collaborative platforms to support best-practice use of water models, and the uptake of their results by policy makers, community members and natural resource managers. The engagement program of the Community of Practice is designed to help develop and support programmes and incentives that encourage and maintain good aquatic stewardship practices. Water models are developed and used in Queensland to inform decision making across a range of water policy, planning and management issues, including, but not limited to, water resource planning, groundwater impact assessment, flood risk management and Great Barrier Reef water quality improvement. The purpose of the QWMN is to build the capacity and collaboration in the Queensland water modelling sector, to fill strategic sectoral gaps are strengthen the sector. Throughout 2023, QWMN outreached to community, practitioners, government, academic, and business sector stakeholders and included all parts of the catchment in water management and conservation through workshops and events.
A research project 20 years in the making to restore a dynamic creek system in NSW's Hunter region has yielded fantastic results for the environment and all involved.
Griffith University’s Associate Professor Andrew Brooks started on the experiment to stabilise the creek that ran through Brian Woodward and Sally Middleton’s property in 2001.
Since then, under Associate Professor Brooks’ guiding expertise and the support of the NSW Government and Hunter Local Land Services, the natural interventions put in place have seen the waterway remain a healthy and robust ecosystem, even through major flooding and bushfires.
The fact that the Gulf of Carpentaria region is seen as one of Australia’s iconic, pristine natural environments, full of wildlife and natural wonders, can lead to complacency when it comes to monitoring the health of these ecosystems over time making them particularly vulnerable.
A 2022-2024 collaboration between Griffith University and the Carpentaria Land Council Aboriginal Corporation (CLCAC) is helping to overcome this complacency. This is being achieved through the development and implementation of an educational program on freshwater ecosystems. As part of this program, Traditional Owners are being trained to take the lead monitoring and safeguarding fresh and marine waterways in the Gulf of Carpentaria region, thus promoting good aquatic stewardship.
Aquatic systems, such as wetlands, lakes, rivers and streams, groundwater seeps and estuaries can suffer from water quality problems, both natural and manmade, which impact drinking water supplies, and the animals and plants that live in these systems. There is also increasing pressure from water development, which can impact on waterway productivity and health.
Traditional owners have lived in northern Australia for tens of thousands of years and have a deep knowledge and connection to these aquatic systems, and a desire to protect them.
In the southern Gulf of Carpentaria lands, the CLCAC undertake ranger programs support the aquatic health of the lands and waters. Their program now includes water quality monitoring in both marine and freshwater lakes, wetlands, rivers and estuaries, thanks to a collaboration CLCAC initiated with Griffith University researchers.
This educational program involved developing a monitoring program tailored for each ranger group and identification of sites either of particular significance and/or where there is concern about water quality. Throughout 2023 three ranger groups conducted their own regular monitoring of the region, with an additional group trained in 2024.
Maintaining and enhancing ecosystems through water and wastewater management research
While safe and sustainable water and waste management systems are essential in resilient cities, Griffith University recognises that the integration of these systems is equally important. The Cities Research Institute works with partners in industry and government to identify the key research challenges of integrating water and waste management in our ever-expanding cities, as well as Australia's remote Indigenous communities, while protecting vulnerable ecosystems, including both plants and animals.
Improving community-based water management options for remote Australia
Working directly with industry and community, Griffith researchers brought their expertise to remote communities to help remote and isolated communities use less water and energy, empower communities and households through sharing data, and improve the environmental health and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) outcomes in regional/remote/isolated Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. In 2023, Griffith University contributed to a global review highlighting the effects of racism, social exclusion and discrimination on achieving universal safe water and sanitation in high-income countries and published in The Lancet Global Health. Most recently, the Cities Research Institute has been working in remote Australia through the iKnow, weKnow (2023-2026) project.
Green Research Labs
Delivering the principles of water sensitive urban design presents an enduring challenge in many urban environments. Griffith's Green Infrastructure Research Labs supports water-sensitive cities through a range of green assets, from green roofs, walls and sky gardens through to street trees, bioretention systems, constructed wetlands, parks and gardens, fauna overpasses and movement corridors, landfill and mine waste phytocapping.
Embedding biodiversity in buildings
Griffith University's Green Infrastructure Research Labs has teamed with Aria Property Group in a new testing facility dedicated to researching the performances of trees and plants that are embedded in green buildings. The long-cycle facility, the first of its kind in a subtropical region anywhere in the world, will test the performance of different types of trees and different types of shrubs, embedded into the fabric of buildings, either into the walls of the buildings, or into their roofs.
Sea World and sea jellies research
Our state-of-the-art laboratory, which was established in 2018 and which is open everyday to the public throughout 2023 and 2024, was specifically designed for studying sea jellies, is located within Sea World’s ‘Sea Jellies Illuminated’ exhibit and is on display to the public. The laboratory provides fantastic opportunities for studying sea jellies and for engaging the public in scientific research.
The lab connects Griffith’s research with the community in an interactive and fun manner, allowing marine conservation education and engagement for all all ages through conservation partnerships.
Contact Griffith Sustainability
Griffith Sustainability Room 0.08, Building N23, Griffith University, 170 Kessels Road, Nathan QLD, 4111