Case Study: Cairns Regional Council protects the Great Barrier Reef with AQUARIUS from Aquatic Informatics

Cairns Regional Council improves Great Barrier Reef water monitoring with AQUARIUS and $6.5 billion at stake

Cairns Regional Council faced the challenge of managing urban water runoff into the Great Barrier Reef lagoon. During storm events, multiple factors, including intense rainfall and emergency sewer overflows, impacted water quality. The council needed a way to measure and analyze this complex data to improve its stormwater infrastructure and treatment processes, ensuring the runoff would not harm the marine ecosystem.

Aquatic Informatics implemented its AQUARIUS solution to manage the council's real-time sensor and lab data. The cloud-based platform automated data uploads, provided public data sharing through a web portal, and sent alerts when water quality indicators reached critical levels. This enabled evidence-based decisions, improved community involvement, and allowed the council to calibrate stormwater and flood models to better manage its catchment.

Cairns Regional Council