GRAVITY 08

AquaWatch-AUK Edition

Harnessing ground-to-space monitoring to tackle the most pressing water quality issues.

A Special GRAVITY Round

AquaWatch-AUK Edition

  • As an extension of the AquaWatch-AUK program, co-funded by the Australian and UK Space Agencies, this round of the GRAVITY Challenge focuses on leveraging the power of ground-to-space monitoring capabilities to solve a range of water quality issues in both nations.

  • Droughts, algal blooms, sediment plumes, and invisible pollutants are no longer future threats, they’re present-day disruptors. Whether it’s the water we drink, the crops we grow, the seafood we eat, or the rivers we swim in, water quality touches every part of our lives and economy.

    And the pressure is rising. Climate extremes, outdated infrastructure, industrial pollution, and land use change are stretching water systems past their limits.

    Poor water quality is already costing us: in lost agricultural yield, fish kills, treatment costs, product recalls, and environmental damage.

  • All participating Innovator teams will be required to collaborate with relevant members of the AquaWatch-AUK program and explore how AquaWatch capabilities can support the development of their solutions.

    To facilitate this collaboration, the AquaWatch-AUK team will provide:

    • Webinars/Walkthrough Videos on AquaWatch capabilities, and relevant use cases

    • Access to Key Datasets relevant to water quality monitoring in applicable regions

    • Scientific Mentoring from water quality researchers and domain experts

    • Ongoing Technical and Strategic Support throughout the challenge

    This collaboration is aimed at encouraging innovative solutions and helping teams co-design impactful, real-world solutions to water-related challenges.

GRAVITY 08 Challenges

Innovators worked to solve the two water quality monitoring challenges below.

Watch the videos to learn about their problem statements and desired outcomes

Beyond the Bucket:

Reimagining Environmental Sampling from Space

Develop a scalable model that accurately classifies and predicts chlorophyll-a concentrations in diverse inland and coastal water bodies using EO, in-situ, and historical datasets.

  • This challenge aims to transform how chlorophyll-a, a key ecological indicator, is monitored across a wide variety of inland and coastal water bodies. Currently dependent on sparse, single-point field manual monthly sampling, the solution should integrate EO-derived parameters (e.g. chlorophyll, temperature from AquaWatch), historic sampling datasets, and sensor inputs to enable model-driven classification and forecasting. Innovators are expected to focus on enhancing spatial and temporal coverage particularly during the growing season when algal bloom activity peaks. The proposed methodology should be tested across a representative subset of large, socially significant water bodies and demonstrate alignment with regulatory reporting standards. The goal is to use EO data to complement field sampling and enable broader, more efficient ecological status reporting under a regulatory framework. While visualisation tools aren’t required, reproducibility, transparency, and Azure compatibility are desirable.

  • Must-Have:

    • Chlorophyll-a

    • Temperature

    • Historical bloom patterns

    Nice to have:

    • Phytoplankton abundance

    • Phytoplankton Functional Types (PFT)

    • Cyanobacteria / Blue-green algae

    • Total cell counts

    • Biovolume

    • Water transparency (e.g. Secchi Disk)

    • Turbidity

    • Vertical attenuation/Kd

    • Total Suspended Matter

    • Dissolved Oxygen

    • Water Surface Temperature

    • Water Column Depth (Bathymetry)

Tracking Pollutant Pathways & Water Quality Impact

From Catchment to Coast:

Build an integrated system to trace, model, understand and predict water quality degradation and pollutant risks (such as algal bloom and faecal microbes) in Port Phillip Bay by tracking storm-driven nutrient and sediment load pathways from catchments to the coast using EO and in-situ data.

  • This challenge seeks an integrated, data-driven system that maps how sediment and nutrient loads, particularly during major rainfall events, move from rivers and urban catchments into Port Phillip Bay. Innovators must integrate EO datasets with in-situ monitoring and predictive analytics to identify pollution sources such as the Western Treatment Plant, and the Werribee, Maribyrnong, Yarra and Patterson Rivers. Innovators must also model localised load dynamics and forecast pollutant risk onset and severity. Key outputs include early warnings, bloom classification (including toxicity risk), traceability to contributing catchments or discharge points, and a conceptual diagram of algal bloom trigger events. The solution must complement existing monitoring networks, with potential for integration into current systems.

  • Must-Have:

    • Nutrients

    • Sediments

    • Chlorophyll-a (toxicity)

    Nice to have:

    • Phycocyanin (cyanobacteria proxy)

    • Total Phosphorus

    • Total Inorganic Nitrogen (e.g. Nitrate-N)

    • Algal toxins

    • Dissolved Oxygen

    • Turbidity

    • Total Suspended Matter

    • Temperature

    • Pathogens

    • Organic micro-pollutants

    • Water surface height

    • Microplastics *

    • Salinity / Conductivity

    • Floating and submerged vegetation