Assess the water quality benefits of on-ground projects

Estimating the impact of projects to inform project selection is a technical challenge, especially for non-modellers

The Queensland and Australian governments are investing close to $1.8 billion to 2030 to improve water quality across the catchments that flow to the Great Barrier Reef.

A range of on-ground projects are delivered by around 60 project delivery organisations such as Natural Resource Management bodies, conservation groups, Traditional Owners and agricultural industry bodies.

Projects are captured and reported back for subsequent modelling to inform the periodic public reporting of progress towards the Reef water quality targets.

Once the whole of system modelling was delivered it became apparent that the implemented on-ground projects were not as effective as anticipated. There were a range of factors not accounted for in initial project selections such as proximity to the coast, importance of local climate and soil types and general assumptions about the effectiveness of different practices.

The Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries approached Truii in 2017 to see if we could support project delivery organisations by conveying the likely water quality outcomes for agricultural practice change projects at the time of project design.

P2R Projector helps assess and refine planned projects as well as report the achievements of implemented projects

The Paddock to Reef Projector (P2R Projector) was released in 2018. The initial target audience were the six reef Regional Bodies. In 2024, the P2R Projector now has 60+ organisations and over 350 users actively using the application to design and report on on-ground projects in the reef region.

P2R Projector not only supports project design but is also the basis for collating all on-ground project information for modelling and reporting in the Reef Water Quality Report Card.

Additionally, P2R Projector includes a portal (Reef Investor) for investors from the Queensland and Australian governments to track the progress of investment programs.

P2R Projector includes the capacity to capture a range of project types that support water quality improvement:

• Sugarcane industry practice change
• Banana industry practice change
• Cropping industry practice change
• Grazing industry practice change
• Gully remediation and management
• Streambank remediation and management