The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering is a research node of the Cooperative Research Centre for Catchment Hydrology. Other research nodes include Monash University, Griffith University and CSIRO Land and Water.

The central goal of the CRC for Catchment Hydrology is to deliver to resource managers the capability to assess the hydrologic impact of land-use and water-management decisions at whole-of-catchment scale. To achieve this, the CRC for Catchment Hydrology is developing an integrated suite of software tools to predict the movement of water, sediment, nutrient and solutes through catchments.

This will provide powerful capability to catchment and water resource managers, helping them to evaluate the short-term and long-term outcomes of policy decisions at regional scales, focus management and operational activities efficiently, and assist with interpreting monitoring information and target setting.

To meet its objectives, the CRC for Catchment Hydrology runs six multi-disciplinary research programs:

• Predicting Catchment Behaviour
• Landuse Impacts on Rivers
• Water Allocation
• Urban Stormwater Quality
• Climate Variability
• River Restoration

The Department's hydrology group is involved in all six of these programs.

Program 1: Predicting Catchment Behaviour

This program delivers the key objective of the Centre: to provide land and water managers with the tools and skills to make informed decisions on whole catchments.

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Program 2: Landuse Impacts on Rivers

This program provides a better understanding of the effects of land use on catchment water balance and pollutant delivery to streams.

Program 3: Water Allocation

This program aims to develop principles, guidelines and practical tools for managing water allocation and use in a sustainable and efficient manner.

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Program 4: Urban Stormwater Quality

This program aims to develop both stormwater management understanding and practice for the protection of environmental and community values.

Program 5: Climate Variability

This program aims to develop an improved ability to quantify climatic variability and to reduce hydrologic risk for a wide range of water-related issues via application of climate forecasts.

Program 6: River Restoration

River restoration (used synonymously with rehabilitation) aims to return natural, environmental values to streams.

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