Australian Centre for Environmetrics (ACE)
The Australian Centre for Environmetrics is an initiative of the University of Melbourne (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering).
The need for robust and fit-for-purpose assessments of environmental condition has never been greater and increasingly, issues of environmental compliance are being challenged in the courts.
Government, businesses, and communities are demanding greater certainty in statements of the extent of environmental impacts and of their consequences. This is placing greater reliance on statistical modes of inference, analysis, and interpretation. Our high-level objectives are to:
- Assist agencies and regulators to establish statistically defensible monitoring protocols, pollution limits, trigger values, and baseline estimates of existing conditions for trend and compliance assessment;
- Provide increased capacity-building in environmental monitoring and assessment for state agencies, business, and government;
- Elevate the level of environmental protection and level of public trust in regulatory decision-making processes through adoption of state-of-the-art ecological/environmental risk assessment methodologies;
- Provide high-level advice to government agencies on environmental monitoring, compliance, data analysis issues, and scientific policy.
Current R&D activities include:
- The design, evaluation, and placement of environmental monitoring networks. This is relevant to the cost-effective management of sediments, nutrients, and salinity.
- Robust statistical methods for the estimation of sediment and nutrient loads. Current research is focussed on estimating nutrient exports (principally phosphorus) in the Gippsland region. This is crucial to the underpinning of meaningful and defensible nutrient reduction targets - a cornerstone of the Gippsland Lakes Future Development Action Plan.
- The development of 'smart' autosamplers for measuring sediment and nutrient loads in Victorian rivers, streams, and drains. Preliminary work in this area has developed to proof of concept, advanced statistical algorithms that have demonstrated a 90% reduction in monitoring effort with little loss of statistical accuracy or precision.
- Environmental risk assessment program. Continue developing logical and consistent framework for undertaking environmental and ecological risk assessments. Explore new paradigms such as Bayesian risk models and the use of epidemiological data in risk assessment for characterizing and reducing uncertainty in environmental risk assessment.
The Australian Centre for Environmetrics is a key partner in the newly established Australian Centre of Excellence for Risk Assessment.
Short-Courses in Environmetrics
The Australian Centre for Environmetrics provides specialised training in contemporary statistics for environmental researchers, managers, and technicians. Our flagship short-course 'Introductory Environmetrics' has been enthusiastically embraced by natural resource management agencies around Australia, including:
- NSW EPA
- VIC EPA
- SA EPA
- QLD EPA
- DEH (Northern Territory)
Other specialised courses in spatial statistics, time-series modeling, and Bayesian networks are also available.
For all training enquiries, please contact:
Natalie Dunham
Programs Team Manager
Melbourne Consulting and Custom Programs
T: +61 3 9810 3317
E: n.dunham@mccp.unimelb.edu.au
Recent Projects
The Centre's reach and influence extends nationally and internationally, with advice and adjudication on a diversity of statistical matters including:
- Air quality in Whyalla South Australia [pdf]
- Health impacts from Sydney's M5 East tunnel
- Sediment and nutrient delivery to the Great Barrier Reef
- Uranium contamination from the Ranger mine, NT
- Ecosystem health of Adelaide's metropolitan coastal waters
- Chlorophyll levels in Cockburn Sound, WA [pdf]
- Impact of the Coff's harbour deep sea release of treated wastewater
- Mine impacts, PNG: cyanide management; 4 Corners report "After the Goldrush" here
ACE Director
Prof David Fox
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering
The University of Melbourne
Victoria 3010 Australia
T: +61 3
83447253
F: +61 3
83446215
E: david.fox@unimelb.edu.au