South East - Phase 1

Challenge

Sustainable water management in the South East of South Australia is supported by at least 18 natural resource management policies. These include the Lower Limestone Coast Water Allocation Plan and various programs that sit beneath the Upper South East Act, all of which require better knowledge about ecological responses to surface and ground water regimes and water quality. The interaction between these policies and their knowledge needs is complex and requires a well structured science program to align policy needs with research output.

Solution

To address the knowledge needs for the SE, a broad program of research activities has been scoped, which includes ecological and hydrological investigations, development of models to integrate ecological and hydrological data and the subsequent incorporation of these models into a decision support system. This project aims to (i) develop and apply a decision support framework that will draw on new decision science techniques that are not currently incorporated into any decision support frameworks used for water management in South Australia, and (ii) research the connectivity of surface and groundwater along drains of the SE, using a recently cut drain as a study site, by undertaking field work at two sites and conducting a reconnaissance assessment of the surface water-groundwater connection across the SE region.

Achievements

Field surveys have been planned and the infrastructure installiations required to conduct the field surveys have been completed.

Next Steps/Future Work

The DSS framework scoping report is one of the foci of quarter 2 of 2011-12. A final phase of regional sampling of drains took place in early October 2011, which included some further flow gauging and chemical sampling of drains for electrical conductivity and radon activity. Following analysis of data from this sampling trip, the final report will be prepared.

Additional tasks will be submitted for consideration of the Goyder Institute Research Advisory Committee and Board as part of the broader research plan for the South East (South East Phase 2), which will build upon the reconnaissance study and the two site specific studies conducted in the South East Phase 1 project, with the aim to provide a detailed assessment of surface water-groundwater interaction across the entire South East.