Going with the flow nets researchers Eureka Prize

A team of ANU researchers and a colleague from the University of Melbourne have won one of the nation's most prestigious science prizes - an Australian Museum Eureka Prize. Professors Quentin Grafton and Tom Kompas and Hoang Long Chu from the Crawford School of Economics and Government have taken out the water and innovation category in the 2011 prizes. The award recognises the dynamic river flow model which the team developed with Associate Professor Michael Stewardson from the University of Melbourne. The model, a world first, will help maintain the resilience and health of river systems. Project team leader Professor Grafton said the model can be used in real-time by decision-makers to determine how much water irrigators should be allowed to extract from river systems and how much should be released into the environment at the start of each irrigation season. "The team is very pleased to win this year's Eureka prize," said Professor Grafton. "We are especially proud that this model can be applied to any river system in the world and is not limited to Australia." The model works by taking into account the level of water in storage, current and past weather and the time since the last flooding and its effect on the environment.