CeRDI Newsletter Autumn 2023

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Improving water security for farms and lakes

Pete Dahlhaus presenting the findings from the recent Lismore work at a workshop for farmers.

Researchers from CeRDI have been working to improve farm water security and resilience in Victoria's Lake Corangamite region. The region has experienced declining surface water runoff and water table levels in recent decades, mostly from reduced rainfall. Managing water resources and balancing competing needs for farm water supplies and the water requirements of the lakes have become priorities for the region.

To support this, CeRDI have developed a tool giving farmers access to vital information including drainage lines, watershed areas and surface water flow directions. These are used to estimate the rainfall-runoff into farm dams. The farmers will be able to get information about their water budgets, that is, how much water does their farm use at the moment and how much less water are they going to collect in the future.

The information provides insights about how the groundwater flows and water levels contribute to the lakes at different periods of the year, enabling changes in climate to be mapped across years. Climate information including rain, evaporation and temperatures have been sourced for the project from the latest CSIRO modelling. In particular, the LiDAR model, created by CeRDI Research Associate Rick Pope, “can reveal detail that can't be seen with the eye.” Those that have had their bores sampled also have information about the water quality, what they can use that for, and whether the water source to their bores is more likely to be local or distant.

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  With this information, farmers can plan how they will adapt to a drying climate and assist them to improve the security of supply and inform best farm water management practices. "What we wanted to do was to make farmers aware of the fact that we're facing a drying climate, and in that drying climate, there's going to be great competition for water between agriculture, urban water and environmental water. We're trying to arm the landholders with evidence and data. If the farmers have water budgets and have the ability to understand what's going on, they'll be on the front foot," CeRDI Principal Research Fellow Associate Professor Peter Dahlhaus said. "The work that CeRDI’s Rick Pope has done has given farmers something that's really useful to plan on their farm - and not with just water necessarily - but to have the terrain models and the contours gives them an opportunity for their whole farm planning to have more useful data."

  CeRDI partnered with the Lismore Land Protection Group, Cundare-Duverney Landcare and Leslie Manor Landcare groups on the project. The work is also helping to protect internationally significant Western District Lakes wetlands sites where migratory shorebirds and threatened species of flora and fauna can be found.

  Landholders in the area can access the data on the Natural Resource Management portal, giving them extensive digital tools for their land and the region, including seasonal predictions through to 2044.

  This project was supported by the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment, through funding from Australian Government’s National Landcare Program Smart Farms Small Grants program. The project is managed by the Lismore Land Protection Group.

  Story adapted from the following Federation University news story: federation.edu.au/news/articles/improving-water-security-for-farms-and-lakes

  Additional reading:

      • Improving water security for farms and lakes in the northern Lake Corangamite area
      • Understanding the Big role of small farm dams
      • Unlocking the potential of farm data

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Piggery effluent - waste or valuable resource?

Piggeries can give rise to substantial amounts of waste materials. The producer-owned pork industry body, Australian Pork Limited (APL), has a strong focus on sustainability and was interested in exploring the use of piggery effluent as an agricultural resource. APL asked CeRDI to look at the use of effluent as a fertiliser for farming soils in Australia. They were particularly interested in understanding whether effluent was beneficial for the health of farms soils and the views of Australian pork producers on the use and management of effluent.

CeRDI researchers, collaborating with Federation University Future Regions Research Centre and University of Melbourne School of Agriculture, Food and Ecosystem Sciences, found:  

     •   Current state of knowledge

A review of published literature found that pig effluent can significantly improve a range of biological, chemical and physical properties of soil, including increasing soil organic carbon and improved soil carbon balance.

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  On the other hand, the excess accumulation of pig effluent in farm soils can be of environmental concern if not managed. For example, the build-up of heavy metals or excess levels of nutrients could result in negative health or environmental impacts.

       •   Australian pork producer point of view

  Australian pork producers were invited to share their thoughts and experiences on using effluent. Overall, the producers recognised the potential for effluent as a valuable resource, but identified some issues associated with its use.

  The reported benefits included: helping to manage effluent storage; improving crops, pastures and soil health; and improving economic sustainability by reducing the need for other fertilisers.

  On the other hand, the challenges were: the cost of equipment needed to sustainably apply this practice in the long-term; effluent might not be suitable for all crops as some crop species produced large yields that that made harvesting difficult; it can be harder to handle and apply than synthetic fertiliser and more difficult to find a suitable time and type of application; it can be difficult to obtain appropriate permits and to meet EPA regulations. The producers felt there was also a need for improvements in methods of applying the effluent and for better advice on managing the resource.

       •   Effect on soil health

  In collaboration with Precision Agriculture Pty Ltd, soil samples were taken from four properties where pig effluent had been used. It was found that sites treated with effluent had greater nutrient and micronutrient concentrations, without consistent increase in heavy metals of concern. There was a general increase in acidity, and while an increase in salinity was also reported, the soils were rarely classified as saline. There was an apparent increase in soil carbon content in some paddocks and soil structure was not negatively impacted by effluent use, although it was suggested that long term application may lead to structural decline.

  In summary, this work suggested that the controlled use of pig effluent fertilisers can have significant benefits to both soil and plant health in agroecosystems. While further investment and research is required to understand the impact of long-term implementation, current indications are positive. In addition, more work is needed on improvements and access to newly emerging storage and application techniques for this method to become more economically sustainable. The findings of this research suggest that if pig effluent fertiliser practices follow all state and territory regulations, are regularly monitored and appropriately applied to the soil, piggery effluent can become a valuable resource for agricultural soils within Australia.

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Supporting data sharing for improved food security

CeRDI has commenced work on a new project to develop and promote data sharing initiatives to support Australia’s food security. The project, entitled ‘Food Security Data Challenges: Data Sharing Initiatives’ is supported by the Australian Research Data Commons Food Security Data Challenges program.

The project comprises a series of activities that include the promotion of the National Farmers’ Federation’s (NFF) Farm Data Code and certification, and development and digitisation of a publicly accessible Data Sharing Agreement template. Training will also be provided to support the implementation and uptake of these products by the industry.

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  The agreement has been developed by Tier 1 law firm Minter Ellison in line with the NFF’s Farm Data Code to ensure the agreement is meeting food producers’ requirements in managing their farm data. The agreement will be digitised for ease of use and access. Digitisation of the agreement will allow users to customise the agreement for their contexts such as research and private enterprises.

  Delivery of training sessions will assist in facilitating industry awareness and uptake of the Farm Data Code, certification, and agreement. Training will provide practical insights and examples for using the agreement and providing advice and information about data management practices that can facilitate industry certification.

  The anticipated benefits of this project are two-fold. For providers, use of the Farm Data Code, certification, and the Data Sharing Agreement template, will demonstrate willingness to provide food producers with transparency and control over their data. For food producers, they will have confidence in providers doing the right thing with farm data. The goal is that food producers will be more willing to share their data, and the benefits of greater data availability will be more innovation for the industry.

  CeRDI’s Data Policy Manager Gabi Ceregra is leading the project, with Associate Professor Helen Thompson chairing the project’s steering committee.

  This project involves collaboration with partners from The National Farmers Federation and Food Agility CRC. 

  Read the ARDC co-investment announcement: ardc.edu.au/article/3-6-million-to-address-australias-food-security-data-challenges/

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Online Farm Trials

Online Farm Trials (OFT) is a web portal that provides access to data collected from on-farm and field-based cropping research trials. The portal is a collaboration between the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC), who are funding the portal, and Federation University’s Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation (CeRDI).

As part of the development of this resource, research is also conducted to understand the role and impact of digital platforms such as OFT on decision making and practice change. The findings of this research have provided direction for ongoing development of the portal, identifying and guiding latest trends and developments in data and information provision to industry stakeholders while retaining core functionality and mechanisms that are part of the system’s genesis.

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  A round of consultation with industry stakeholders was conducted in March and April this year, and identified the benefits associated with the portal, and areas for the portal’s expansion in the future.

  It was found that OFT is a valued repository for Australian grains trials research data and information. It’s a unique portal facilitating access to national trials data and information. Access to such data reduces research duplications and directs future research. The platform usability and access to data, including legacy data, is widely valued.

  Additionally, it was felt that there is the potential for the expansion of the portal’s content, and the incorporation of new software and technology options. Further promotion across the grains industry was considered important for increased portal awareness and uptake.

  These preliminary research findings offer initial insights about the portal. Coding and thematic analysis of the interview data is continuing and documented in a report and developed as manuscript for publication in an industry journal.

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Visualising Australasia’s Soils

Visualising Australasia’s Soils (VAS) is providing farmers, agronomy practitioners, agricultural researchers and agribusinesses with place-based information via an online platform access to data, information and knowledge on Australasian soils. The VAS web portal facilitates the discovery and sharing of soils information, activities and research from Australia and New Zealand.

Recent activities associated with the second phase (2022-2023) of VAS are well underway.

Technical developments: In March, substantial updates were made to the VAS portal, including its capability for delivering comprehensive soil profile data for contributors and regions. Extensive work was also undertaken on the website and the system build. The VAS application programming interface (API) has undergone a substantial restructure to ensure that the portal can support the breadth of data from contributors. The latest enhancements will improve the accessibility and convenience of the portal for data contributors as they upload data to the site and access the facilities and options through VAS. The interface for the portal has also been updated to improve visualisation and user-interactions. The CeRDI team have reviewed and tested each of the changes to ensure the VAS system is optimised for users. Technical developments will continue to be incrementally released over coming months.

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  New data and features: Additional data has been included on the VAS portal, including public datasets that are held at Federation University. Improvements in the visibility of data has been applied to individual data sets. Enhanced data options will improve visibility by streamlining complex data in VAS. These enhancements will be available for all datasets ensuring the portal continues to effectively accommodate complex data. Substantial work has also been conducted to code the user interface to accept and accommodate various and multiple combinations of different data from contributors. 

  VAS team and the Soil Science Conference - Darwin 25-30 June 2023: CeRDI staff will be presenting at the Soil Science Conference in Darwin on 25-30 June 2023. This includes presentations linked to the VAS project:

       •   A/Prof. Peter Dahlhaus; Presentation title: Assessing the impacts of creating a soil data and dissemination system.
       •   Andrew Macleod; Presentation title: Unearthing the benefits of FAIR soils data – is it worth the effort?
       •   Dr Megan Wong; Presentation title: Controlled vocabularies for improving soil data utility in a web-enabled world

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Scholarship Opportunity 

Federation University is partnering with Department of Environment, Environment and Climate Action and RMIT to offer a PhD scholarship in Environmental Management and Monitoring. The supervisors for this project are Dr Birgita Hansen (Principal), Dr Nick Schultz and Dr Jackie Myers, RMIT (Associate and Co-supervisors). The project will investigate the influence of litter on birdlife in the Greater Melbourne / Port Phillip region. It will be conducted in a staged manner using both desktop and field-based research:

Project title: An investigation into the risk of macro litter on birdlife in the Greater Melbourne and Port Phillip region

Litter pollution is a matter of international, national and local concern, and links to several of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

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  Litter pollution in the Port Phillip and Greater Melbourne region is a focal point for policy and management by the Victorian Government Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP) and by Melbourne Water (Greater Melbourne’s water authority). Reducing litter loads to Port Phillip Bay is a key strategy of DELWP’s Environmental Management Plan 2017-2027. Marine debris (including plastic pollution) is listed as a key threatening process under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. The impact of macro litter (>5mm) on wildlife has been identified as a threat with insufficient data to assess impacts. The Melbourne Water Healthy Waterway Strategy (HWS) 2018 identifies litter as a key threat affecting water quality, impacting aquatic and marine life, and reducing amenity. The HWS also identified nine key values of which one is birdlife. Research by RMIT indicates that that there may be linkages between macro litter pollution and birdlife health, and habitat and food resources, which requires further investigation. Overall, there is a lack of information and data to undertake any risk assessment of these impacts, and a lack of knowledge about the magnitude and nature of the litter-birdlife problem.

  A desktop-based literature and data review will identify the types of impacts of macro litter on birdlife (e.g. ingestion, entanglement, loss of nesting or roosting areas). This will be complemented with observational / survey-based field research to determine if there are relationships between birdlife and certain litter types and densities at key urban wetland and riverine sites. A risk assessment will be undertaken based on the findings from these surveys and evidence of litter types that appear to pose greater risks than others to birdlife. Finally, the investigation will test if high risk litter types are associated with certain land uses, and what monitoring and management interventions might be most appropriate to understand and reduce the risk of macro litter on birds.
   

  The successful candidate will commence in second semester 2023.

  For further information about this scholarship visit: federation.edu.au/research/graduate-research-school/hdr-scholarships/industry-and-project-specific-scholarships

  Staff contact: Dr Birgita Hansen, Senior Research Fellow: b.hansen@federation.edu.au

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Staff Profile: Kelly Hartwig, Research Centre Coordinator

Kelly Hartwig, Research Centre Coordinator

Kelly recently joined CeRDI on secondment from her role as Library Frontline Service Supervisor, Ballarat and Wimmera Campuses, at Federation University. While at CeRDI, Kelly is the Research Centre Coordinator. In this role it is her responsibility to support the operations of CeRDI. This includes acting as the Executive Officer in leadership meetings, assisting in the processing of research funding applications, providing administrative and financial support to research operations, in addition to other tasks required by the Director.

Kelly has an Honours degree from University of Ballarat and a Master of History from University of New England. Her Honours thesis was titled "American guns, Indonesian soldiers: a neorealist analysis of the United States complicity in the 1975 Indonesian invasion of East Timor”. This research investigated the extent the global rise of communism influenced the 1975 Indonesian invasion of East Timor, and the subsequent support Indonesia was given by the Ford era United States government.

Kelly has been employed at Federation University since 2019, commencing as a casual Client Services Officer at the Mt Helen Library. This, and her subsequent roles with the Library allowed her to utilise the skills she learned as a student to assist others in their studies. In her role as Frontline Service Supervisor, she managed a multi-campus team of fifteen staff which specialised in providing excellent customer service and support to students throughout the student lifecycle.

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News snippets

Staff updates: Welcome to Kelly Hartwig who was recently appointed to the role of Research Centre Coordinator in CeRDI. We also welcome Dave Ryan, CeRDI Research Associate, who is working closely with the Visualising Australasia’s Soils project to establish subcontracts to the project. We farewell Dr Angela Neyland who is leaving CeRDI to take on new study and career pursuits.
 

Irrigation Australia article: A recent news story in the journal examining digital maturity in Australian Agriculture references the work of CeRDI in big data in the agriculture space. The article ‘Digital maturity in Australian Agriculture’ explores the opportunities for farmers to use technology to improve and enhance efficiencies in on-farm food production initiatives. This article is linked to the collaborative research published in Crop and Pasture Science in 2022:

Hansen B. D., Leonard E., Mitchell M. C., Easton J., Shariati N., Mortlock M. Y., Schaefer M., Lamb D.W. (2023). Current status of and future opportunities for digital agriculture in Australia. Crop & Pasture Science, 74, 524-537. doi.org/10.1071/CP21594

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  Publications: Dr Birgita Hansen and colleagues recently published a dataset on woodland birds in northern Victoria. The dataset was published on Federation Figshare and is available at: doi.org/10.25955/22358200.v1
   

  Recent journal publications by CeRDI staff:

  Bonney, P.R., Hansen, B.D., & Baldwin, C. (2023). Citizen Science and Natural Resource Management: A Social Network Analysis of Two Community-Based Water Monitoring Programs. Society & Natural Resources, DOI: 10.1080/08941920.2023.2183445

  Nodi, S.S., Paul, M., Robinson, N., Wang, L., & Rehman, S (2023). Determination of Munsell Soil Colour Using Smartphones. Sensors, 23(6), 3181. doi.org/10.3390/s23063181 

  Ollerenshaw, A., & Camilleri, M (2023). A health justice partnership for young people: Strategies for program promotion to young people and youth workers. Australian Journal of Primary Health. doi.org/10.1071/PY22266

  Robinson, N., & Benke, K. (2023). Analysis of Uncertainty in the Depth Profile of Soil Organic Carbon. Environments, 10(2), 29. doi.org/10.3390/environments10020029

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Higher Degrees by Research news

CeRDI welcomes two new higher degrees by research candidates. Pramod Gautam (PhD) and Simon Christie (MSc) recently commenced their research journeys in CeRDI. We will provide further details about their areas of research in an upcoming issue of the newsletter.

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About CeRDI

The Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation (CeRDI) is a research centre at Federation University Australia focused on:

• the application of information and communications technology (ICT) and the development of innovative, world class knowledge management systems;
• significantly advancing the digital literacy and knowledge management capabilities of partner organisations;
• fostering partnerships for the development and implementation of eResearch with industry, government and academia; and
• measuring the impact of eResearch and digital innovation through longitudinal research.

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Contact CeRDI

For further details about CeRDI’s diverse portfolio of research please visit our website: www.cerdi.edu.au, or contact Director, Associate Professor Helen Thompson: h.thompson@federation.edu.au

Mailing Address

Centre for eResearch and Digital Innovation
Federation University Australia
PO Box 691
Ballarat Vic 3353

Office Location

Suite 15, Greenhill Enterprise Centre
Ballarat Technology Park
University Drive
Mount Helen Vic 3350

Phone: +61 3 5327 9314
Email: support@cerdi.edu.au

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