Zoe Bainbridge
Water Quality Scientist
Email: zoe.bainbridge@jcu.edu.au
Phone: 07 4781 4595
Location: DB19 118
Zoe is a research scientist studying water quality in the Great Barrier Reef catchment and marine environment. Since being employed at ACTFR, Zoe has coordinated the Burdekin Water Quality Monitoring Program for the Burdekin Dry Tropics NRM group, and has established an extensive network of community volunteers (over 30 graziers and canegrowers) to monitor sediment and nutrients from the sub-catchments of the Burdekin River during wet season event conditions, as well as plume sampling during large flow events from the Burdekin River and the lower Burdekin coastal areas. Zoe has also managed the establishment of a similar water quality monitoring project for the Townsville Thuringowa region, which included the monitoring of the catchments within the coastal plain and adjacent marine environment during event plume conditions. Through collaborative linkages with the Mackay Whitsunday NRM Group, Zoe has developed sampling procedures and risk assessment protocols for the volunteer networks in the Burdekin, Tully, Townsville Thuringowa and Mackay Whitsunday NRM regions, and has been involved in a state-wide initiative to establish Sampling Method Protocols for monitoring across the GBR catchment area.
Zoe has been involved in water quality information synthesis and issue identification tasks for both the Burdekin and Tully regions Water Quality Improvement Plans, and has used monitoring data from the Burdekin Region to validate modelling outputs (SedNet and ANNEX models) to better determine end-of-catchment sediment and nutrient loads. More recently Zoe’s research efforts have built on the existing monitoring project in the Burdekin to trace the source of sediments and nutrients from catchment to reef.
Link to Burdekin Water Quality Event Monitoring Program
