The following projects were delivered by two research partnerships:

Aquatic Pollution Prevention Partnership (A3P)

Aquatic Pollution Prevention Partnership

Identification of cost effective opportunities for addressing pollutants from industrial catchments (2018-2028)

This project aims to understand the types, levels and sources of pollutants in waterways within industrial areas. Through literature reviews, laboratory and field studies, it will also assess the effectiveness of a range of structural (e.g. water quality treatment assets, protective barriers) and non-structural (e.g. education, enforcement) options to reduce industrial pollutants. For more details, visit the partnership project webpage or see the factsheet.

A decision support framework (DSF) to help prioritise water quality management actions across the region, set management targets and assess management effectiveness (2023-2028)

This project aims to develop a decision support framework that will support prioritisation of actions and setting of management targets to protect and improve water quality across the Port Phillip and Westernport region in the next Healthy Waterways Strategy. For more details, visit the partnership project webpage.

Understanding the ecological impacts of untreated sewage inputs in waterways (2018-2028)

This project aims to understand risks to waterway health from treated and untreated wastewater, and validate chemical and ecological indicators of wastewater pollution in waterways. Ultimately, this will help inform prioritisation of wastewater management interventions across the region. For more details, see the partnership project webpage.

Understanding the major sources, pathways and waterway health implications of chemicals of concern in waterways to inform risk assessments and management interventions (2018-2028)

This project gathers national and international information on emerging contaminations of concern to inform the development and application of laboratory and field techniques to screen for the presence of priority chemicals in waterways, assess likely impacts on aquatic life and identify possible management or water reuse options. This enables Melbourne Water and our stakeholders to proactively manage the risks of emerging chemicals that have the potential impact stream health across Greater Melbourne. For more details, see the partnership project webpage.

Develop efficient and effective indicators and approaches to monitor the performance of stormwater wetlands to inform improved designs, appropriate maintenance regimes and long-term sustainability (2018-2028)

This project aimed to investigate the types and levels of pollutants captured in stormwater treatment wetlands, and implications for wetland performance. This will help inform stormwater wetland maintenance programs as well as future wetland design guidelines. For more details on this project, visit the partnership project webpage, or see the factsheet.

Developing methods to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of waterway health assessments within streams, wetlands and estuaries (2018-2023)

The project aimed to investigate cost-effective tools for monitoring and assessing types of pollution and their ecological impacts on waterways. This will help identify and develop indicators that improve conceptual models to better understand the link between water quality and environmental values for improved waterway health.

New tools can potentially be added to the Healthy Waterways Strategy Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting and Improvement (MERI) framework to track changes in water quality and progress towards environmental value targets. For more details, visit the partnership project webpage.

Impacts of sediments from urban stormwater on stream health (2018-2023)

This project aimed to understand types and levels of pollutants associated with run-off during the construction of new residential estates. This has the potential to help inform future sediment control guidelines and standards. For more details about this project, visit partnership project webpage or see the factsheet.

Understand the impact of litter, including microplastics, on the social and ecological values of waterways and bays (2018-2023)

This project developed a framework for conducting litter assessments along waterways, including guidelines for surveying and monitoring litter to support litter management programs. For more details on this project, visit RMIT University's litter framework webpage or see the factsheet.

Synopsis of the sources and impacts of pollutants on waterways and bays from urban and rural landscapes in the Melbourne Water region (2018-2023)

This project consolidates our understanding of the sources, types and impacts of pollutants in urban, rural and forested waterways across Greater Melbourne. This will improve understanding of priority pollutants, impacts on waterway health and opportunities for collaborative management. This is expected to inform strategic management prioritisation of pollutants for the Healthy Waterways Strategy.

Waterways Practice Partnership (MWRPP)

Melbourne Waterways Research Practice Partnership

Developing methods, metrics and strategic management frameworks for waterway function as a key environmental value (2023-2028)

A healthy waterway is one that maintains its ecological structure (what lives in an ecosystem e.g. frogs, fish, platypus) and function (what happens in an ecosystem e.g. nutrient processing) over time. Currently, the Healthy Waterways Strategy only considers environmental values that relate to ecological structure. This project seeks to understand how best to monitor, report and manage waterway function as an environmental value for the next Healthy Waterways Strategy. This will provide a greater understanding of both waterway function and structure, and how functional indicator(s) relate to environmental conditions, other values and management actions methods. This is a join project between both partnerships.

Review and refining our long-term water quality monitoring network to support waterway management under a changing climate (2018-2023)

This project reviews the suitability of Melbourne Water's long-term water quality network to meet current and future needs, and optimise future data collection through site selection and integration of a range of sampling methods and measurement frequency. It will help to develop new water quality targets and identify management interventions as part of the next Healthy Waterways Strategy.

Major sources and fate of sediments in streams, wetlands, estuaries and bays to inform management opportunities (2018-2023)

This project will improve models of urban, peri-urban and rural sediment budgets. This will inform plans and strategies to decrease sediment loads to receiving waters, focusing on urban construction in the Westernport catchment. The outcome will be more effective sediment control measures and management planning.