Salacia Waters Paradise Point
Salacia Waters at Paradise Point is a new residential development with commercial and community facilities. The development includes a village centre, marina, public amenities, boardwalk and parklands. Due to proposed marine plant disturbance, a permit condition of the Department of Primary Industries and Environment was that a series of 2-5 year projects be undertaken during and after the construction works. The project commenced after the construction of Stage 1 and the first brief was to monitor the tolerance and response to altered environment conditions of seagrass meadows which adjoin the Broadwater foreshores. Subsequent projects will examine any report of dieback of mangroves within the community at the tip of Paradise Point, seagrass recolonisation and monthly inspections to monitor the rehabilitation of the dunes along the Broadwater foreshores. This project will be ongoing until late 2015.
Application of Neural Networks in Flood Emergency Decision Support Systems
In May 2011 the Centre was successful in winning an Australian Research Council grant to investigate flood estimation in small catchments. This research will examine the effectiveness of Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) as a solution to the recognised shortcomings of the existing flood emergency decision support systems.
The project will also consolidate our relationship with Associate Professor Michael Blumenstein (Dean Research), and Adjunct Professor Hamid Mirfenderesk from the Flood Strategies and Waterway Management group in Gold Coast City Council.
Saltwater Creek foreshore management plan
Saltwater Creek is a tributary of the Coomera River. It includes estuarine, tidally-influenced, areas and freshwater reaches. The Saltwater Creek Management Plan
- identified areas of the Creek subject to erosion
- utilised and reinforced existing research to identify causes of this erosion
- evaluated the various options and made recommendations.
The completion of the Environmental Inventory of Saltwater Creek also facilitated the formulation of a master plan to minimise the ongoing erosion of the banks of Saltwater Creek.