The UNSW Water Research Laboratory (WRL) is at the cutting edge of the science and engineering of wetland restoration and rehabilitation. Over the past 20 years, we have undertaken on-ground projects to rehabilitate, repair and restore large wetlands across Australia.
What is wetland restoration?
We can provide a range of services to assess and restore both tidal and riverine wetlands. Our staff understand the environmental issues behind the observable problems and have a track record of developing tailored, on-ground solutions to stimulate functional wetland recovery. Read more…
Our research
Nature is complex. Endangered ecological communities embody this complexity, existing in a fine balance, though influenced by numerous factors including topography, geology and hydrology. Restoring this balance, to foster the genesis of an endangered ecological community, is a multi-disciplinary challenge. Bringing sound engineering principles to ecosystem restoration practice is a key strength of any environmental engineering project. Until recently, most large restoration projects have not incorporated principles of hydraulics, hydrodynamics and hydrology to concepts such as wetland channel design, shallow overland inundation, fish movement and wetland geomorphology. Read more…