Outsmarting the drought in NSW
The Hon. Melinda Pavey, NSW Minister for Water, Property and Housing at NSSN’s NSW Water Industry Workshop.
The NSW Water Industry Workshop, opened by the NSW Minister for Water, Property and Housing, the Hon. Melinda Pavey and hosted by NSW Smart Sensing Network (NSSN) was held on 2 October 2019 in Sydney, NSW.
“We need to become the leading state for respecting water, using it to its optimum value and opportunity, and we can only do this together and with good conversations with the scientific community, with policymakers and our communities more generally,” said Ms Pavey.
“We absolutely need to be able to measure the water that’s going into our floodplain harvesting, and we’re still struggling with the technology to get that right,” said Ms Pavey. “but we are committed.”
The strictly science-oriented workshop brought together decision-makers and stakeholders from different water utilities with scientists from NSW & ACT leading universities to explore possible scientific and technological solutions to enhance NSW’s water management capabilities.
“Water scarcity is at the forefront of our concerns. Now more than ever, innovative approaches to measuring and managing water is urgently needed. its a complex challenge that requires complex solutions,” said NSSN Co-Director, Professor Benjamin Eggleton. “A network like the NSSN is uniquely placed to address challenges like this.”
With a focus on smart sensing solutions, the one-day event was delivered in two parts. The first part of the event aimed at understanding the challenges and ‘pain points’ faced by leading decision-makers and stakeholders in providing water for NSW. The speakers included the NSW Minister for Water, Property and Housing, the Hon. Melinda Pavey; NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer, Prof. Hugh Durrant-Whyte; NSW’s chief water officer, Department of Planning, Industry & Environment (DPIE), Dr Jim Bentley; and the Chief Data Scientist and CEO of the NSW Data Analytics Centre, Dr Ian Oppermann.
Professor Benjamin Eggleton, NSSN Co-Director and the Director of Sydney Nano Institute.
Currently, 95% of NSW is experiencing drought. Industries such as agriculture and mining that add over $26 billion to the state’s economy rely on freshwater and depend on a stable water supply; while the biodiversity of the state relies on a well-managed water ecosystem.
“There will never be a better time in New South Wales for scientists and technologists to come together with industry practitioners, and change the way we do water in the future,” said NSW’s chief water officer, Dr Jim Bentley. “We need a very significant increase in reuse of wastewater.”
“You cannot make any decisions or any designs without data and understanding what that data is telling you. At an even more fundamental level, we’ve got to understand the data that we already have,” said NSW Chief Scientist and Engineer, Professor Hugh Durrant-Whyte.
The morning continued with two-panel discussions on data access, availability, sharing and outcomes and New Tech and Innovation. Representatives from Manly Hydraulics Laboratory, NSW Farmers, Department of Planning, Industry and Environment (DPIE), Department of Primary Industries, Natural Resources Access Regulator (NRAR), and Sydney Water discussed instances of challenges and problems faced by their agencies and organisations.
Led by NSSN Co-Directors Professor Justin Gooding and Professor Benjamin Eggleton, the afternoon saw the workshop break into two concurrent streams focussed on new smart sensing technology and data. Collaborative teams of researchers and practitioners workshopped potential solutions to the wicked problems stated in the morning session. The outcome was a series of innovative, impactful and implementable projects that can address the challenge.
Following the NSW Water Industry Innovation Workshop, the NSSN will serve as a broker between universities, industry and government to further shape the proposals resulting from the day, negotiate funding and curate multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional project teams.
“We are very pleased to see how efficiently and effectively the whole day was run. Certainly, the energy around the issues, the keynote addresses, and subsequent supporting addresses, as well as the move into the panels and the breakouts all flowed well,” said Xavier Martin from NSW Farmers.
Media: Shahrzad Abbasi — 0466548145
Panel Discussion on Data access, availability, sharing and outcomes. Moderated by Peter Runcie, New Industry & Platforms Leader, CSIRO Data61; Vanessa O’Keefe, A/Executive Director Policy Planning & Sciences, Water Group, DPIE; Dr. Georgina Kelly, Executive Director Science, DPIE; Helen Liossis, Head of Corporate Strategy and Business Planning, Sydney Water; Kaia Hodge, Director Regulatory Innovation, Natural Resources Access Regulator (NRAR).
Panel discussion on New Tech & Innovation in monitoring. Moderated by Matthew Coulton, Water Sector Engagement Lead, Bureau of Meteorology; Xavier Martin, Chair, NSW Farmers’ Water taskforce; Ed Couriel, Director, Manly Hydraulics Laboratory; Nick Milton, Technology specialist, NRAR; Dr. Anthony Clark, Leader, Climate Applications and Digital Ag, Dept. of Primary Industries.