The teams' research findings are valuable inputs to eWater models and databases, enabling them to more accurately simulate the effects of water management, - and to more effectively bring stakeholders into discussion with each other.

During 2006-2008 (July) eWater's research was organised in 20 projects, grouped into five research programs. Click here for an overview and summaries of the outputs and outcomes of those 20 research projects. The aims of the programs and projects (projects are identified by letter-number codes) are shown further down this page, under the program titles.

A series of one-page 'Research Highlights' gives another perspective on eWater's research activities up to July 2008 (see www.ewatercrc.com.au/Research_highlight, or click on each project title below).

Note that now, to 2011, eWater's research activities are not separated from product development. Instead they are integral to our R&D in our four core work areas: river systems, urban systems, catchments & climates, ecological management (see blue menu at right of screen).

Researchers continue to disseminate their results in refereed research papers and conference papers and presentations, as well as via articles and book chapters and special journal issues.

The busy leaders of these projects, who also had other research and administration on the go in their own organisations, were a vital part of eWater's history.

Initially, each of the 20 projects 2006-2008 was outlined in the summary booklet 'Innovation in water research and product development' (pdf file).

'Water education and e-learning' program:
Developing and evaluating methods in education, training and engagement to support uptake and adoption of water knowledge and eWater products.

• M1: Improving uptake and adoption: This project is clarifying the way stakeholders absorb and seek information about water resources and ecological management.

'Landscape analysis' program:
How do distribution patterns, dispersal, and colonisation processes influence the persistence or recovery of aquatic populations in disturbed and fragmented river systems?

• A1: Theories of landscape ecology: Investigating whole-of-river- and catchment-scale ecology of freshwaters, so we can understand how freshwater ecology is networked across the landscape.
• A2: Spatial optimisation of planning: Finding out how best to combine river rehabilitation works across a whole catchment, and whether the answer will be different in catchments with different structures or types of land-uses.
• B1: Modelling multiple drivers: Identifying impacts of multiple human disturbances in river ecosystems.
• C1: Modelling hydroclimatic variability: Improving assessment of the impacts of climate variability and climate change on water resources and freshwater ecosystems.

'Biophysical processes' program:
Improving understanding of and our predictive capabilities for whole-of-catchment systems, in order to guide river operations and the management of riverine and estuarine ecosystems.

• D1: Forecasting and prediction of streamflow: Enabling management groups to both forecast (short-term) and predict (long-term) streamflow by better using remotely sensed and other gridded time-series datasets.
• D2: Constituent dynamics: Revealing the processes whereby constituents pose a serious threat to the water quality of streams and the condition of freshwater ecosystems.
• D3: Groundwater: Extending the distance over which we can reliably model movements of water and salts between groundwater and surfacewater.
• F1: In-stream processes: Increasing our understanding on what happens to carbon and nitrogen in streams.
• F2: Rivers and floodplains: Ensuring we understand the roles and ecological benefits of flow for maintenance of habitats, water quality, populations, communities and ecosystem processes, and how to manage environmental flows.
• F3: Rivers and estuaries: Identifying the benefits and/or ill-effects of river inflow on estuaries and their biochemistry and ecology.

'Water management' program:
Providing tools and groups of methods to enhance the management of water in both urban and rural systems.

• E1: Urban water management: Finding ways of building large models with which to design complex urban water systems that are predictable and secure.
• E2: Innovative approaches urban: Evaluating the outcomes of integrating traditional infrastructure and innovative water-sensitive urban design in urban water management.
• G1: Economic analysis in resources: Finding new economic incentives to encourage people to manage water in a manner that will achieve good ecological outcomes.
• H1: Uncertainty analysis in models: Enabling eWater models to systematically account for uncertainty arising from a range of sources when making model predictions.
• H2: Risk and resilience: Devising risk assessment methods for eWater products, so users can allow for risks as they make water management decisions.
• J1: Water management decisions: Developing modelling capability directly intended for use in water resources management products.
• J2: New approaches to modelling: Exploring new artificial intelligence techniques to see how they can be applied in hydrology, ecology and water resources management.

'Product technologies' program:
eWater products incorporate the integrated outputs of eWater research, via platforms built by the Product Technologies program.

• K1: Software research: Developing new software framework elements that are capable of supporting the complex models and decision-support tools eWater is building.
• L1: Linking to predictive models: Developing a reference model for a national water resources observation network (WRON).
• X1: Integration Blueprint: Leading the processes that ensure eWater's research outcomes interact successfully with our development of tools for the water industry.