AFTER celebrating 20 years of scientific monitoring, the Hornsby Shire Council
have announced an achievement within the Australian scientific community that will benefit decision making for the public, researchers and the government.
For the past two decades, the Hornsby Shire Council, in partnership with the NSW Government Manly Hydraulics laboratory, has deployed monitoring stations for the observation of algal presence.
This includes extreme weather events and conditions of the estuary. This system is vital for the health and safety of recreational and commercial use of the river as well as maintaining water standards with Sydney water.
Council’s Catchments Coordinator, Dr Ana Rubio, says the dataset will enhance future scientific studies of estuarine processes.
“What we have now is a very high-resolution data set and with information comes knowledge — we now have an unprecedented understanding of the needs for protection of the estuary and the confidence required to make decisions based off of this abundance of data,” said Dr Rubio.
The present threat to the ecosystem of the Hawkesbury River is chlorophyll-a, an indicator that marks the presence of toxic algae blooms.
These harmful blooms could affect swimming conditions and calls for new innovations such as Artificial Intelligence to assist the council’s decision making.
As it stands, the 50-kilometer river system requires observation on rainfall, water quality and water levels. The network itself consists of a network of seven buoys and gauges across the river.
They measure water temperature and salinity every 15-30 minutes. This information then gets deposited into the public web portal.
“The Hawkesbury River is the lifeblood of many industries in our region.
This innovative collaboration should be celebrated. It’s a great success for the community, for science, for industry and for the future of this precious river,” said Hornsby Shire Mayor, Philip Ruddock.
When first launched, HawkesburyWatch has set the benchmark for estuary monitoring, and in 2018 was awarded the Green Globe Award for Public Sector Leadership.
As a result of the technologies success, MHL now also supports The Northern Beaches Council and the Central Coast in the effort to maintain the health of their local waterways.