The following projects were delivered by two research partnerships:

Aquatic Pollution Prevention Partnership (A3P)

Aquatic Pollution Prevention Partnership

Understanding how toxicants impact waterway and wetland function (2023-2028)

This project aims to improve our understanding on how toxicants impact waterway function. This supports the way we monitor, report and interpret measures of waterway function as an environmental value for the Healthy Waterways Strategy. It also aims to understand how toxicants affect the treatment performance of stormwater wetlands, to inform wetland design and maintenance planning. This will aid in including waterway function as a new value in the next Healthy Waterways Strategy, and provide recommendations for improving the design and maintenance of stormwater wetlands to reduce the risk of toxicants on reduced stormwater wetlands performance. For more details, visit the partnership project webpage

Understanding water and sediment quality in estuaries and bays (2023-2028)

This project will fill a major gap in the Healthy Waterways Strategy by better understanding the water quality condition of estuaries and bays in the region. In doing so, it will help with the prioritisation of water quality improvement activities, as well as the development of condition metrics and management targets for bays and estuaries in the next Healthy Waterways Strategy. This project is associated with the DEECA-funded project Exploring Unseen Threats: Contaminant Trends and Impacts in Port Phillip Bay. For more details, visit 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 (2018-2023)

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, visit the partnership project webpage and see the factsheet.

Waterways Practice Partnership (MWRPP)

Melbourne Waterways Research Practice Partnership

Development and application of stream and wetlands habitat suitability models to support Healthy Waterways Strategy planning (2013-2028)

This long-running project combines Melbourne Water's long-term biological and spatial data to develop models that predict the distribution of key environmental values (e.g. aquatic macroinvertebrates, fish, platypus, frogs and waterbirds) across Greater Melbourne. These models also help us to understand likely benefits of certain management actions (e.g. streamside revegetation, stormwater management, fishway construction), in isolation and in combination, under future urban growth and climate change. Habitats suitability models for instream environmental values were a fundamental input into determining management priorities and targets in the current Healthy Waterways Strategy. Development of equivalent habitat suitability models for wetlands (e.g. frogs and waterbirds) are also expected to be important for identifying management opportunities in the next Healthy Waterways Strategy.

Traditional Owner-led restoration of urban billabongs (2018-2023)

Led by Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung, this project aims to demonstrate the importance and efficacy of Traditional Owner-led wetland management and restoration of remnant billabongs, including environmental watering regimes and cultural burns, along the lower Birrarung (Yarra River).

Optimising constructed wetland design, management and performance prediction (2018-2023)

This project focused on understanding the drivers of stormwater wetland treatment performance, as well as practical indicators (e.g. vegetation cover, water levels) to identify when maintenance or renewal was required. Results from this research are being used to improve guidelines for wetland design and inform Melbourne Water's stormwater wetland maintenance program.