On-ground River Protection & Restoration

This subject has the following teaching availabilities in 2016:

170 hours total time commitment.

To enrol in this subject, you must be admitted in the Graduate Certificate in Catchment and Waterway Management (GC-CWMGT) or the Graduate Certificate in River Health Management (N17AA). This subject is not available for students admitted in any other courses.

For the purposes of considering requests for Reasonable Adjustments under the Disability Standards for Education (Commonwealth 2005), and Students Experiencing Academic Disadvantage Policy, academic requirements for this subject are articulated in the Subject Overview, Objectives, Assessment and Generic Skills sections of this entry.

It is University policy to take all reasonable steps to minimise the impact of disability upon academic study, and reasonable adjustments will be made to enhance a student's participation in the University's programs. Students who feel their disability may impact on meeting the requirements of this course are encouraged to discuss this matter with the Student Equity and Disability Support Team: http://www.services.unimelb.edu.au/disability/

This subject is concerned with demonstrating a series of principles that apply to the selection, design and implementation of on-ground river and water protection and restoration projects in rural and urban settings. The content will focus at an activity level and at a site scale. Subject material will present a range of techniques but will focus on understanding selection and applicability rather than providing prescriptive methodologies..

The selection and application of techniques will address principles such as:

• achieving balance,
• promoting stewardship,
• achieving landscape scale change,
• adaptive management,
• proactive management,
• flexible programs that are enabling not prescriptive.

Topics will include techniques in rural and urban settings for:

• managing quality and quantity of runoff
• managing riparian zones,
• controlling exotic species,
• providing instream habitat,
• providing fish passage
• achieving environmental flows
• managing stormwater
• providing for rainwater and stormwater reuse
• creating and/or managing wetlands
• floodplain management,
• reconnecting rivers and floodplains,
• managing sand and sediment,
• erosion control, and
• responding to floods, wildfires and other natural disasters.

The structured remote learning component will review available techniques and familiarise students with the selection and application of techniques as preparation for activity sessions during the four-day intensive component of the subject. Students will also work remotely on their project, which for this subject will involve the selection and application of a technique in response to a real catchment management issue. The four-day intensive face-to-face session will focus on the knowledge needed to select and apply particular techniques and use of the “Technical Guidelines for Waterway Management”. As the fulcrum of this session, students will select and apply techniques in real situations.

To develop in students an understanding of how to critically review, select and apply appropriate techniques to achieve catchment and waterway management objectives.

• Participation in remote learning forums by providing online contributions to discussion (5%)
• Participation in the reflective diary requirement by online contribution (500 words total) (5%)
• One hour written test on remote learning material (20%)
• Tutorial exercises, assignments and short tests during intensive (equivalent to 1000 words) (20%)
• Individual project report (4000 words) (50%)

A study guide and a book of readings is provided to students

This subject is not available as a breadth subject.