Connecting the dots to save vulnerable coastal wetlands

Image: : Dr. Mahmood Sadat-Noori (JCU) and Associate Professor Martin Andersen (UNSW) sampling groundwater quality including dissolved carbon dioxide and methane in a restored coastal wetland.

Focussing on the connection between surface water and groundwater, Dr Mahmood Sadat Noori is investigating how these interactions can influence the quantity and quality of water in wetlands and estuaries.

Mahmood is a Senior Lecturer in Civil Engineering with expertise on the interface between hydrology, water quality and environmental restoration. Using a wide range of techniques and technologies, Mahmood investigates the role that surface water and groundwater hydrology plays in transporting solutes such as carbon and nitrogen from and to coastal wetlands. These processes can have profound implications for the restoration of coastal wetlands, and blue carbon sequestration. Blue carbon is carbon that is stored in coastal wetlands.  The results of this research will guide effective coastal wetland restoration and water quality management strategies.

Image: Illustration of tidal dynamics driving surface water and groundwater fluxes of carbon and nutrients in a coastal wetland affecting its water quality.

Mahmood recently led a successful coastal wetland restoration project at Koragang Island, NSW where a novel method was proposed to save vulnerable coastal wetlands from sea level rise. The part eco-engineering, part biomimicry work provides a nature-based solution to adaptively preserve existing coastal wetlands from sea level rise and restore wetlands already impacted by human actions. The novel method, if adapted, can save millions of hectares of Ramsar listed coastal wetlands of international importance worldwide.

Over the period of 2017 to 2023, with funding of $350,000, this project was a collaboration between the University of New South Wales, Newcastle Coal Infrastructure Group, the Port of Newcastle and the University of Newcastle.

Image: Monitoring wetland restoration progress over time via regular drone surveys and classification of target vegetation species.

Image: A digital elevation model of the wetland undergoing restoration. The gates showed in the bottom left, allow controlling the water elevation at a desired depth at the wetland.

Image: Saltmarsh vegetation development over time after restoration based on aerial imagery. (Red box in the left-hand side map indicates the area zoomed and illustrated over time.)

Image: Geochemical processes in the water column and sediments of a coastal wetland forming gas bubbles.

Contact details

Project Research Publications

• Coastal wetlands can be saved from sea level rise by recreating past tidal regimes.
• A comparison of radon, heat tracer and head gradient methods to quantify surface water-groundwater exchange in a tidal wetland (Kooragang Island, Newcastle, Australia)
• Porewater exchange drives trace metal, dissolved organic carbon and total dissolved nitrogen export from a temperate mangrove wetland.
• Innovative tidal control successfully promotes saltmarsh restoration
• Blue carbon ecosystem monitoring using remote sensing reveals wetland restoration pathways