Journal articles on the topic 'Groundwater South Australia Willunga Basin'

AbstractWater sampling at springs that are a part of the Freeling Spring Group, South Australia, was used along with electrical resistivity imaging (ERI) data to evaluate the sources and pathways for groundwater to the springs and to find evidence of mixing between the Great Artesian Basin (GAB) aquifer system (Algebuckina Sandstone, Cadna-owie Formation and lateral equivalents) and waters from the adjacent mountain block basement (MB) aquifer. Five springs and a well were used to evaluate spring chemistry; multi-electrode resistivity data were collected along three orientations over the Freeling Spring site. The resistivity data indicate three independent electrically conductive curvilinear features connected to the spring. These features are evidence of mixing at the spring vent similar to what would be predicted from traditional hydraulic flownets. The chemistry of the spring water samples indicates that the water emanating from the Freeling Spring Group is a mixture of waters from both the GAB and the MB aquifers, supporting the geophysical evidence. The data suggest mixing occurs along a fracture in the body of the MB and porous media flow in the GAB beds, but the system is dominated by the GAB flow, which provides approximately 90% of the discharge.

In semi-arid regions, groundwater resources play a crucial role in all economic, environmental, and social processes. However, the occurrence, movement, and recharge of these hidden and valuable resources vary from place to place. Therefore, better management practices and mapping of groundwater recharge potential zones are needed for the sustainable groundwater resources. For an example, groundwater resources in Willochra Basin are vitally important for drinking, irrigation, and stock use. This study shows the significance of the application of three decision-making approaches, including multi-influencing factor, analytical hierarchy process, and frequency ratio techniques in the identification of groundwater potential zones. A total of seven criteria, including lithology, slope, soil texture, land-use, rainfall, drainage density, and lineament density, were extracted from conventional and remote sensing data sources. The parameters and their assigned weights were integrated using Geographic Information System (GIS) software to generate recharge potential maps. The resultant maps were evaluated using the area under the curve method. The results showed that the southern regions of the Willochra Basin are more promising for groundwater recharge potential. The map produced using the frequency ratio model was the most efficient (84%), followed by the multi-influencing factor model (70%) and then the analytical hierarchy process technique (62%). The area under the curve method agreed when evaluated using published weights and rating values.

An approach of reporting long-term trends in groundwater extraction and baseflow impacts in the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) in south-eastern Australia was developed and tested. The principal aim of the framework was to provide early warning of any potential adverse impacts from groundwater extraction on environmental releases of surface water for baseflow, support adaptive management of these impacts, and highlight those areas which may benefit from conjunctive water management. The analysis showed that there is no current decadal trend in the annual aggregate groundwater extraction volumes or stream impact across the non-Victorian MDB, with much of the interannual variability being related to rainfall. Despite this, increasing volumes of environmental releases of water for baseflows in some river valleys are being required to replace the stream depletion caused by historical patterns of groundwater extraction established before 2003. Two valleys were identified for which there may be insufficient surface water storage to release water to substitute stream losses to groundwater and still support ecosystems during dry periods. The increasing trend in extraction since 2003 in one of the units has significantly increased the risk in that valley. The reporting framework was shown to be effective for alluvial groundwater systems connected to regulated rivers.

Hypotheses to explain the source of the 1011 tons of salt in groundwaters of the Murray Basin, south-eastern Australia, are evaluated; these are (a) mixing with original sea water, (b) dissolution of salt deposits, (c) weathering of aquifer minerals and (d) acquisition of solutes via rainfall. The total salinity and chemistry of many groundwater samples are similar to sea-water composition. However, their stable isotopic compositions (δ18O= –6.5 ‰; δ2H = –35) are typical of mean winter rainfall, indicating that all the original sea water has been flushed out of the aquifer. Br/Cl mass ratios are approximately the same as sea water (3.57 x 10-3) indicating that NaCl evaporites (which have Br/Cl<10-4) are not a significant contributor to Cl in the groundwater. Similarly, very low abundances of Cl in aquifer minerals preclude rock weathering as a significant source of Cl. About 1.5 million tons of new salt is deposited in the Murray–Darling Basin each year by rainfall.The groundwater chemistry has evolved by a combination of atmospheric fallout of marine and continentally derived solutes and removal of water by evapo-transpiration over tens of thousands of years of relative aridity. Carbonate dissolution/precipitation, cation exchange and reconstitution of secondary clay minerals in the aquifers results in a groundwater chemistry that retains a ‘sea-water-like’ character.

Improving irrigation efficiency (IE) is an approach used globally to help meet competing demands for water and facilitate reallocation of water between sectors. In the Murray–Darling Basin in Australia, the Australian government has invested heavily in IE projects to recover water for the environment. However, this approach has been seriously questioned, out of concerns that improved IE would reduce irrigation return flows to rivers and therefore offset water recovery. In this study, we use a water balance model to assess the impact of the IE projects on return flows and highlight sensitivities and uncertainties. The model enables the impact on return flows to be assessed on specific IE projects and regional characteristics. Overall, reductions in return flows are estimated to be less than 20% of the total proposed IE savings. The history of IE in the southern MDB has meant that most of the current reductions are in ground return flows. Our estimate is much lower than two previous studies, mainly due to different assumptions being used on groundwater connectivity between irrigation areas and major streams. While the IE projects significantly reduce seepage to groundwater (with off-farm and on-farm projects reducing seepage by 19% and 53% of total savings respectively), not all seepage reductions will translate to a reduction in ground return flows to rivers. A lower estimate is consistent with existing monitoring and groundwater modeling studies. In this paper, the study results are discussed in a broader context of impacts of IE projects on volumes and salinity of streams and groundwater resources.

Groundwater dependent ecosystems (GDEs) require access to groundwater to meet all or some of their water requirements to maintain community structure and function. The increasing demand of surface and groundwater resources has seen the NSW Government put in place management mechanisms to enable the sharing of water between irrigators, the environment, industry, towns and communities via water sharing plans. The groundwater sharing plans aim to provide adaptive management of GDEs by prioritising for protection those that are considered the most ecologically valuable within each plan area. The High Ecological Value Aquatic Ecosystems (HEVAE) framework has already been adopted to prioritise riverine ecosystems for management in surface water sharing plans. Here, we provide a method developed using the HEVAE framework to prioritise vegetation GDEs for management. The GDE HEVAE methods provide a derived ecological value dataset for identified groundwater dependent vegetation that is used to inform the planning and policy decisions in NSW. These decisions are required to manage and mitigate current and future risks caused by groundwater extraction. This is achieved via the identification of ecologically valuable assets to then use as the consequence component in a risk assessment for the groundwater sources, to provide vegetation GDE locations for setback distances for new groundwater production bores, and for the assessment of impacts due to current and potential future groundwater extraction. The GDE HEVAE method uses recorded and predicted spatial data to provide weighted scores for each attribute associated with the four HEVAE criteria (distinctiveness, diversity, vital habitat and naturalness). The combined scores categorise the ecological value of each groundwater dependent vegetation community (depicted as geographic information system (GIS) polygon features) from very high to very low. We apply the GDE HEVAE method to three catchments in order to demonstrate the method’s applicability across the Murray–Darling Basin with varying elevation and climate characteristics. The ecological value outcomes derived from the methods have been used to inform planning and policy decisions by NSW Government processes to allow for protection in not only areas that are currently at risk but to also manage for potential future risks from groundwater extraction.

Reliable estimates of groundwater recharge are required for effective evaluation of management options for salinity control and high water-tables in the Riverine Plain of south-eastern Australia. This paper provides a brief description of the integrated surface and groundwater modelling approach used to estimate regional recharge rates and presents the recharge rates estimated for the Campaspe River Basin. The integrated model is a powerful management tool as it can predict the relationship between rainfall, irrigation, recharge and rises in the water-table levels. The model predicted that approximately 15% of irrigation water recharges the shallow aquifer. Approximately 6% of rainfall contributes to recharge in the irrigated areas while 4 to 5% of rainfall becomes recharge in the dryland areas. Rainfall makes a greater contribution in the irrigation areas compared to the dryland areas because irrigation predisposes the soil to recharge from rainfall. The water-table levels in the irrigation areas are currently rising at approximately 0.14 m yr-1. This rate of rise will increase faster than the increase in irrigation applications.

Abstract. In the lower River Murray in Australia, a combination of a reduction in the frequency, duration and magnitude of natural floods, rising saline water tables in floodplains, and excessive evapotranspiration have led to an irrigation-induced groundwater mound forcing the naturally saline groundwater onto the floodplain. It is during the attenuation phase of floods that these large salt accumulations are likely to be mobilised and discharged into the river. This has been highlighted as the most significant risk in the Murray–Darling Basin and the South Australian Government and catchment management authorities have subsequently developed salt interception schemes (SIS). The aim of these schemes is to reduce the hydraulic gradient that drives the regional saline groundwater towards the River Murray. This paper investigates the interactions between a river (River Murray in South Australia) and a saline semi-arid floodplain (Clark's floodplain) that is significantly influenced by groundwater lowering due to a particular SIS. The results confirm that groundwater extraction maintains a lower water table and a higher amount of fresh river water flux to the saline floodplain aquifer. In terms of salinity, this may lead to less solute stored in the floodplain aquifer. This occurs through three mechanisms, namely extraction of the solute mass from the system, reducing the saline groundwater flux from the highland to the floodplain and changing the floodplain groundwater regime from a losing to a gaining one. It is shown that groundwater extraction is able to remove some of the solute stored in the unsaturated zone and this can mitigate the floodplain salinity risk. A conceptual model of the impact of groundwater extraction on floodplain salinization has been developed.

Abstract. Combination of reduction in the frequency, duration and magnitude of natural floods, rising saline water-table in floodplains and excessive evapotranspiration have led to an irrigation-induced groundwater mound forced the naturally saline groundwater onto the floodplain in the Lower River Murray. It is during the attenuation phase of floods that these large salt accumulations are likely to be mobilised and will discharge into the river. The Independent Audit Group for Salinity highlighted this as the most significant risk in the Murray–Darling Basin. South Australian government and catchment management authorities have developed salt interception schemes (SIS). This is to pump the highly saline groundwater from the floodplain aquifer to evaporation basins in order to reduce the hydraulic gradient that drives the regional saline groundwater towards the River Murray. This paper investigates the interactions between a river (River Murray in South Australia) and a saline semi-arid floodplain (Clarks Floodplain) significantly influenced by groundwater lowering (Bookpurnong SIS). Results confirm that groundwater extraction maintain a lower water-table and more fresh river water flux to the saline floodplain aquifer. In term of salinity, this may lead to less amount of solute stored in the floodplain aquifer. This occurs through two mechanisms; extracting some of the solute mass from the system and changing the floodplain groundwater regime from a losing to gaining one. Finally, it is shown that groundwater extraction is able to remove some amount of solute stored in the unsaturated zone and mitigate the floodplain salinity risk.

In south-western Australia (SWA) groundwater levels have been declining under the changing climate associated with a decline of rainfall. Possible future groundwater yields in SWA have been estimated under a range of climate change scenarios using a number of numerical groundwater models. For the Northern Perth Basin (NPB) in SWA, where no groundwater models were available, a relatively simple statistical method CDFM (Cumulative Deviation from Mean) has been applied using HARTT (Hydrograph Analysis and Rainfall Time Trends), an automated derivation of the CDFM. This study has evaluated the potential of the CDFM to project groundwater levels under various future climate scenarios in the NPB. Firstly, HARTT projections were validated by comparing with the modelled hydrographs in areas where numerical groundwater models were available. It was evident that HARTT may overestimate future declines or rises in groundwater levels depending on the time a new climate regime is imposed on the model. Secondly, HARTT was applied to suitable bores in the NPB under future climate scenarios. HARTT projected a slight decline under a drier future climate than under the historical future climate and a moderate or slight rise in groundwater levels under a wetter future climate. If historical climatic conditions continue until 2030, groundwater levels are expected to slightly rise in the NPB.

Exploring for the Future (EFTF) is an Australian Government initiative focused on gathering new data and information about potential mineral, energy and groundwater resources across Australia. The energy component of EFTF, initially focussed on northern Australia, aims to improve our understanding of the petroleum potential of frontier Australian basins. Building an understanding of geomechanical rock properties is key to understanding both conventional and unconventional petroleum systems as well as carbon storage and sedimentary geothermal systems. Under EFTF, Geoscience Australia has undertaken geomechanical work including stress modelling, shale brittleness studies and the acquisition of new rock property data through extensive testing on samples from the Paleo- to Mesoproterozoic South Nicholson region of Queensland and the Northern Territory, and the Paleozoic Kidson Sub-basin of Western Australia. Work in these regions demonstrates regional stress orientations in broad agreement with previously modelled, continent-scale stress orientations and stress magnitudes that vary through the basin with depth and by lithology. Rock testing highlights potentially brittle shales and demonstrates variable rock properties in line with lithology. These analyses are summarised herein. Providing baseline geomechanical data in frontier basins is essential as legacy data coverage can often be inadequate for making investment decisions, particularly where unconventional plays are a primary exploration target. As EFTF increases in scope, Geoscience Australia anticipates expanding these studies to encompass further underexplored regions throughout Australia, lowering the barrier to entry and encouraging greenfield exploration.

Abstract Recent surveys of Australian arid-zone groundwater ecosystems have uncovered considerable species diversity and extreme endemism for the oniscidean isopod genus Haloniscus Chilton, 1920. Phylogenetic and species delimitation analyses have recognised several distinct species from the Great Artesian Basin springs in South Australia, inspiring a morphological reassessment of the genus and examination of specimens from the iconic Lake Eyre and Dalhousie Springs. We present a revised diagnosis of Haloniscus, transfer the genus from the family Scyphacidae to Philosciidae and describe four new species, H. fontanus Stringer, King & Taiti n. sp., H. microphthalmus Stringer, King & Taiti n. sp., H. rotundus Stringer, King & Taiti n. sp., and H. yardiyaensis Stringer, King & Taiti n. sp., based on combined morphological and molecular evidence. We compare the results of molecular-based species delimitation analyses with morphological data, provide distribution information, and present a key to the described species of Haloniscus. Two species presently included in Andricophiloscia Vandel, 1973, A. stepheni (Nicholls & Barnes, 1926) and A. pedisetosa Taiti & Humphreys, 2001, from Western Australia are also transferred to Haloniscus.

Large sedimentary basins with multiple aquifer systems like the Great Artesian Basin and the Beetaloo Sub-Basin are associated with large time and spatial scales for regional groundwater flow and mixing effects from inter-aquifer exchange. This makes them difficult to study using traditional hydrogeological investigation techniques. In continental onshore Australia, such sedimentary aquifer systems can also be important freshwater resources. These resources have become increasingly stressed because of growing demand and use of groundwater by multiple industries (e.g. stock, irrigation, mining, oil and gas). The social licence to operate for extractive oil and gas industries increasingly requires robust and reliable scientific evidence on the degree to which the target formations are vertically and laterally hydraulically separated from the aquifers supplying fresh water for stock and agricultural use. The complexity of such groundwater interactions can only be interpreted by applying multiple lines of evidence including environmental isotopes, hydrochemistry, hydrogeological and geophysical observations. We present an overview of multi-tracer studies from coal seam gas areas (Queensland and New South Wales) or areas targeted for shale gas development (Northern Territory). The focus was to investigate recharge to surficial karst and deep confined aquifer systems before industrial extraction on time scales of decades up to one million years and aquifer inter-connectivity at the formation scale. A systematic and consistent methodology is applied for the different case study areas aimed at building robust conceptual hydrogeological models that inform groundwater management and groundwater modelling. The tracer studies provided (i) in all areas increased confidence around recharge estimates, (ii) evidence for a dual-porosity flow system in the Hutton Sandstone (Queensland) and (iii) new insights into the connectivity, or lack thereof, of flow systems.

Riverbed hydraulic conductivity (Kr) was measured along one river reach in four tributaries of the Murray–Darling Basin (MDB) in south-eastern Australia. Two techniques were trialled: in-river falling-head tests in high Kr sediments, and laboratory evaporation tests on intact riverbed cores for low Kr sediments. In-river falling-head tests were conducted using two types of permeameter: a steel-base permeameter or a stand-pipe permeameter. Kr was found to range from 10–10 to 10–3 m s–1, corresponding to a range in riverbed sediment textures from clay to silty gravels, respectively. Although the within-reach variability in Kr was also large, in general the river reaches could be divided in two groups, those with a low Kr (<10–8 m s–1) or a high Kr (>10–5 m s–1). The low Kr reach (Billabong Creek) was a clay-lined bed, whereas the others had silty sand or silty gravel beds. Thus, regional-scale assessments of Kr in the MDB could be made using a stratified sampling process in which reaches would be first classified into low or high Kr classes, and then Kr measurements made in a subsample of low and high Kr reaches. This would be an improvement over the current practice whereby riverbed Kr is estimated either from regional soil maps or through the calibration of groundwater models.

The production of coalbed methane, or coal seam gas (CSG) in Australia increased 250-fold since the 1990s to around 1502 petajoules in 2019 and continues to expand. Groundwater flow in the aquifers intersected by gas wells could potentially facilitate a transport pathway for migration of contaminants or poorer quality water from deeper formations. While regulatory and mitigation mechanisms are put in place to minimize the risks, quantitative environmental impact assessments are also undertaken. When many gas wells are drilled in a wide area where many potential receptors are also spatially distributed, potential source-receptor combinations are too numerous to undertake detailed contamination risk assessment using contaminant transport modelling. However, valuable information can be gleaned from the analysis of groundwater flow directions and velocities to inform and prioritise contamination risk assessment and can precede computationally challenging stochastic contaminant transport modelling. A probabilistic particle tracking approach was developed as a computationally efficient screening analysis of contamination pathways for a planned CSG development near Narrabri in northern New South Wales, Australia. Particle tracking was run iteratively with a numerical groundwater flow model across a range of plausible parameter sets to generate an ensemble of estimated flow paths through the main Great Artesian Basin aquifer in the area. Spatial patterns of path lines and spatial relationships with potential receptors including neighbouring groundwater extraction wells and hydrologically connected ecological systems were analysed. Particle velocities ranged from 0.5 to 11 m/year and trajectories indicated dedicated contaminant transport modeling would be ideally focused at the local scale where wells are near potential receptors. The results of this type of analysis can inform the design of monitoring strategies and direct new data collection to reduce uncertainty and improve the effectiveness of adaptive management strategies and early detection of impacts.

Abstract. Numerous basin aquifers in arid and semi-arid regions of the world derive a significant portion of their recharge from adjacent mountains. Such recharge can effectively occur through either stream infiltration in the mountain-front zone (mountain-front recharge, MFR) or subsurface flow from the mountain (mountain-block recharge, MBR). While a thorough understanding of recharge mechanisms is critical for conceptualizing and managing groundwater systems, distinguishing between MFR and MBR is difficult. We present an approach that uses hydraulic head, chloride and electrical conductivity (EC) data to distinguish between MFR and MBR. These variables are inexpensive to measure, and may be readily available from hydrogeological databases in many cases. Hydraulic heads can provide information on groundwater flow directions and stream–aquifer interactions, while chloride concentrations and EC values can be used to distinguish between different water sources if these have a distinct signature. Such information can provide evidence for the occurrence or absence of MFR and MBR. This approach is tested through application to the Adelaide Plains basin, South Australia. The recharge mechanisms of this basin have long been debated, in part due to difficulties in understanding the hydraulic role of faults. Both hydraulic head and chloride (equivalently, EC) data consistently suggest that streams are gaining in the adjacent Mount Lofty Ranges and losing when entering the basin. Moreover, the data indicate that not only the Quaternary aquifers but also the deeper Tertiary aquifers are recharged through MFR and not MBR. It is expected that this finding will have a significant impact on the management of water resources in the region. This study demonstrates the relevance of using hydraulic head, chloride and EC data to distinguish between MFR and MBR.

Coastal aquifers are subject to seawater intrusion. Therefore, managing freshwater aquifers in coastal areas remain challenging. At present, determining safe yields from the coastal aquifers to prevent seawater intrusion is primarily based on the use of numerical simulation-optimization models or by the use of analytical models based on the Ghyben-Herzberg principle. This study examines the cause and effects of seawater intrusion into a coastal aquifer, Lincoln Basin in southern Eyre Peninsula, South Australia and shows that application of simple techniques would have prevented seawater intrusion. Three freshwater lenses, Lincoln A, B, and C of the Lincoln Basin, located about 13 km southwest of Port Lincoln township, have been developed as a town water supply source in 1960. The capacity of the basin has been assessed by three long-term pumping tests. Based on pump tests results, three areas were developed to supply 2×106 m3 per year distributed across three lenses as lens A : four wells to supply 0.84×106 m3, lens B: four wells to supply 0.5×106 m3 and lens C: four wells to supply 0.66 ×106 m3. Neither recharge to the freshwater lenses nor a water balance had been assessed, and a precautionary approach to groundwater extraction was not followed. The apparent driver for managing the basin was demand for the township. In this study, we assessed the recharge using two methods; water-table fluctuation (WTF) and the conventional chloride mass balance (CMB) method. Total recharge to the freshwater lenses is estimated at 1.6×106 m3 per year which is less than the average annual groundwater extraction from the basin during the 1961-1977 periods (average 2.14×106 m3). As a result mining of the groundwater storage has occurred in the basin leading to saline intrusion, upconing and lateral flow of brackish water into wellfield areas. The total volume extracted from the basin was 35×106 m3, which exceeded the average recharge over the 15 year period, 24×106 m3. Using analytical methods, the seawater/freshwater interface movement from its original position was estimated to be 35 m in lens A, 337 m in lens B and 188 m in lens C. For each pumping well at maximum discharge rate, the transient interface location directly underneath the well was calculated. This results in interface rises under pumping wells in lens A of 3.8 m, lens B of 0.5 m, and in lens C about 0.7 m. According to the risk-based groundwater allocation method, maximum extraction would have been as a proportion of 25% of the annual recharge. Thus, maximum annual abstraction limits for lens A, B and C would have been 210×103 m3, 72×103 m3 and 130×103 m3, totaling 412×103 m3.

The water resources crisis facing countries of the Mediterranean Basin is reflected, in diminished form, in the semi-arid, “Mediterranean-climate” zone of Australia. Some creative solutions involving the collection, treatment, storage, retrieval and use of storm runoff to replace the component of mainssupplied water presently used for “second quality” purposes, are emerging in Adelaide, capital city of South Australia. The paper describes one initiative being taken to achieve source control of stormwater – quantity and quality – in mixed-density residential streets. The resulting streetscape is suitable for use in both “greenfields” and re-development projects. The paper explores the hydrological/hydraulic performance of the system and shows that it satisfies all theoretical- requirements for safety in the full range of flooding up to and including the “once in 100-years” event. The new streetscape holds the following advantages over conventional streetscapes : reduced peak outflows, greatly improved effluent water quality, aids “greening” of the landscape, potential for aquifer recharge where appropriate, aquiferretrieved groundwater can replace mains water used for irrigation, “nuisance” flows are fully contained (no surface appearance), major flows only occupy the swale, street residences are less flood prone and the streetscape fits more harmoniously into undulating terrain.

The Late Oligocene to Mid-Miocene (25–13 million years ago) brown coals of the Gippsland Basin in southern Victoria, Australia, were deposited in peat mega-swamps, unlike any in the world at the present day. The swamps preserve a rich botanical suite of macro- and microfossils, many of which can be identified with plant genera and families present today in Australia, New Caledonia, New Zealand and New Guinea. The peat-forming environments also preserve evidence of past burning in the form of micro-charcoal as well as macro-charcoal, the latter being evident as regional lenses or layers of fusinite, generally in coals of the darkest colour termed dark lithotypes. The presence of micro-charcoal in dark and some other lighter lithotypes indicated that fires also burnt locally, although they may have been extinguished before regional-scale burning occurred. It is also feasible that some peat mega-swamp plant communities dominated by rainforest angiosperm plants may have been fire excluders and prevented widespread fires from developing. Pollen and macrofossil evidence is presented of a distinctive southern conifer and angiosperm flora with an open canopy, primarily associated with the darkest coals that formed in the wettest parts of the peat-forming environment. Elsewhere, swamp forests with a large rainforest component grew on swamps raised appreciably above the regional groundwater table in a structural context akin to the ombrogenous peats of tropical coastal Sumatra and Sarawak. These vegetation types were not fire prone, but may have occasionally burnt at a local scale or at forest margins. Evidence is presented for the existence of seasonal climatic conditions that would appear to have facilitated a drying-out of the peat swamps in the warmest months of the year. A mesothermal climate was invoked where mean annual precipitation was at least 1500 mm, and possibly as much as 2000 mm, and mean annual temperatures were ~19°C.

Banking water in aquifers during wet years for long-term storage then recovering it in drought is an application of managed aquifer recharge (MAR) that minimises evaporation losses. This requires a suitable aquifer for long-term storage of banked water and occasional periods when entitlements to surface water are available and affordable. This has been widely practised in Arizona and California but thus far not in Australia, in spite of severe impacts on agriculture, society, and the environment during recent droughts in the Murray–Darling Basin. This preliminary study based on a simple area exclusion analysis using six variables, some on a 90 m grid, over the 1 million km2 basin produced a first estimate of the order of 2–4 × 109 m3 of additional aquifer storage potential in surficial aquifers close to rivers. For 6 of the 23 catchments evaluated, banking capacity exceeded an average water depth of 0.3 m for the irrigated area. At one prospective site in the Macquarie River catchment in New South Wales, water banking operations at various scales were simulated using 55 years of historical monthly hydrologic data, with recharge and recovery triggered by dam storage levels. This showed that the estimated 300 × 106 m3 additional local aquifer capacity could be fully utilised with a recharge and recovery capacity of 6 × 106 m3/month, and recharge occurred in 67% of months and recovery in 7% of months. A novel simulation of water banking with recharge and recovery triggered by water trading prices using 11 years of data gave a benefit cost ratio of ≈ 2. Data showed that water availability for recharge was a tighter constraint on water banking than aquifer storage capacity at this location. The analysis reveals that water banking merits further consideration in the Murray–Darling Basin. Firstly, management across hydrologically connected systems requires accounting for surface water and groundwater entitlements and allocations at the appropriate scale, as well as developing equitable economic and regulatory arrangements. Of course, site-specific assessment of water availability and hydrogeological suitability would be needed prior to construction of demonstration projects to support full-scale implementation.

As recently as two years ago, there were numerous proposals to develop coal seam gas projects across eastern Australia. Today the picture is very different. While significant coal seam gas development has occurred in the Surat Basin, Metgasco has surrendered their licences and AGL have indicated that they will not proceed in Gloucester. The only coal seam gas development that is still proceeding in NSW is Santos’s proposal in the Liverpool Plains (Namoi). However, recent developments in Australian Government policy to increase gas supply on the eastern seaboard means that the results of these assessments will inform future decisions. Research carried out as part of the Bioregional Assessment Programme (BAP) has shown some surprising results in the Richmond River (Clarence-Moreton bioregion) regarding the potential impacts of coal seam gas development on the water resources and water-dependent assets of that region. This study will show how we developed a groundwater and surface water cumulative impact model in the Clarence-Moreton bioregion, and present the key findings from that modelling. Similar cumulative impact assessments are currently underway in the Maranoa-Balonne-Condamine, Gloucester, Hunter, Galilee, and Namoi regions and we expect these to be published by late 2017. As part of a core tenet of transparency in the BAP, the data collected and models developed as part of these assessments will be freely available for Industry proponents, State regulators and other interested parties to access and utilise. The Surat cumulative management area in south-eastern Queensland has provided a structure for developing coal seam gas resources while protecting water resources via a cumulative approach to management. We propose that the models we have developed would provide the basis of a similar structure to assess and manage cumulative impacts in regions across Australia that may see coal seam gas or other forms of unconventional gas development.

Climate change induced sea-level rise (SLR) is on its increase globally. Regionally the lowlands of China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and islands of the Malaysian, Indonesian and Philippine archipelagos are among the world’s most threatened regions. Sea-level rise has major impacts on the ecosystems and society. It threatens coastal populations, economic activities, and fragile ecosystems as mangroves, coastal salt-marches and wetlands. This paper provides a summary of the current state of knowledge of sea level-rise and its effects on both human and natural ecosystems. The focus is on coastal urban areas and low lying deltas in South-East Asia and Vietnam, as one of the most threatened areas in the world. About 3 mm per year reflects the growing consensus on the average SLR worldwide. The trend speeds up during recent decades. The figures are subject to local, temporal and methodological variation. In Vietnam the average values of 3.3 mm per year during the 1993-2014 period are above the worldwide average. Although a basic conceptual understanding exists that the increasing global frequency of the strongest tropical cyclones is related with the increasing temperature and SLR, this relationship is insufficiently understood. Moreover the precise, complex environmental, economic, social, and health impacts are currently unclear. SLR, storms and changing precipitation patterns increase flood risks, in particular in urban areas. Part of the current scientific debate is on how urban agglomeration can be made more resilient to flood risks. Where originally mainly technical interventions dominated this discussion, it becomes increasingly clear that proactive special planning, flood defense, flood risk mitigation, flood preparation, and flood recovery are important, but costly instruments. Next to the main focus on SLR and its effects on resilience, the paper reviews main SLR associated impacts: Floods and inundation, salinization, shoreline change, and effects on mangroves and wetlands. The hazards of SLR related floods increase fastest in urban areas. This is related with both the increasing surface major cities are expected to occupy during the decades to come and the increasing coastal population. In particular Asia and its megacities in the southern part of the continent are increasingly at risk. The discussion points to complexity, inter-disciplinarity, and the related uncertainty, as core characteristics. An integrated combination of mitigation, adaptation and resilience measures is currently considered as the most indicated way to resist SLR today and in the near future.References Aerts J.C.J.H., Hassan A., Savenije H.H.G., Khan M.F., 2000. Using GIS tools and rapid assessment techniques for determining salt intrusion: Stream a river basin management instrument. 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Regulators require the gas industry to assess the risks of unintentional release of chemicals to the environment and implement measures to mitigate it. Industry standard models for contaminant transport in aquifers do not explicitly model processes in the unsaturated zone and groundwater models often require long run times to complete simulation of complex processes. We propose a stochastic numerical-analytical hybrid model to overcome these two shortcomings and demonstrate its application to assess the risks associated with onshore gas drilling in the Otway Basin, South Australia. The novel approach couples HYDRUS-1D to an analytical solution to model contaminant transport in the aquifer. Groundwater velocities and chemical trajectories were derived from a particle tracking analysis. The most influential parameters controlling solute delivery to the aquifer were the soil chemical degradation constant and the hydraulic conductivity of a throttle soil horizon. Only 18% of the flow paths intercepted environmental receptors within a 1-km radius from the source, 87% of which had concentrations of &lt;1% of the source. The proposed methodology assesses the risk to environmental assets and informs regulators to implement measures that mitigate risk down to an acceptable level.

AbstractFloods generate both risks and benefits. In Langhorne Creek, South Australia, a historically-embedded system of shared floodwater management exists among farmers, who rely on semi-regular flood inundations as part of the region’s hydrosocial terroir – a dynamic conjunction of water, landscape, social relations and agricultural practice. Unruly floods coexist with a heavily regulated and precisely measured system of modern water management for viticultural irrigation across the region. Since the mid-twentieth century, groundwater extraction and new pipeline schemes have linked Langhorne Creek to the Murray Darling Basin water management system, which has displaced flooding as the primary source of irrigation water. The associated modernist shift towards the rationalization of water as a measurable resource has acted to sideline flood irrigation. Yet, floods maintain important viticultural, ecological and social roles in Langhorne Creek, adding to the flexibility and resilience of the region in response to water management challenges. The system involves technological and infrastructural components, such as flood gates and channels, but also relies upon the cooperation and coordination of community members. Local vignerons suggest that flood irrigation is environmentally as well as economically beneficial, rejuvenating riparian wetlands along watercourses. A more formal acknowledgement of the specific regional experiences of water management in a wine region like Langhorne Creek helps to fill a gap between emplaced and hydrosocial understandings of flood irrigation and broader assumptions about flooding as wasteful and inefficient.