Precipitation-groundwater interactions over eastern Australia: climate change impacts at multiple scales. Most surface water in the Murray-Darling Basin is used for agricultural activity, and groundwater extraction is accelerating. We cannot yet predict how these water resources will be affected by climate change, partly because Australian climate models do not represent key interactions between small and large scale rainfall changes, and interactions between ground water, the land surface and t ....Precipitation-groundwater interactions over eastern Australia: climate change impacts at multiple scales. Most surface water in the Murray-Darling Basin is used for agricultural activity, and groundwater extraction is accelerating. We cannot yet predict how these water resources will be affected by climate change, partly because Australian climate models do not represent key interactions between small and large scale rainfall changes, and interactions between ground water, the land surface and the atmosphere. This project will produce the first climate simulations that explicitly include these interactions. This will allow a better understanding of future changes to groundwater resources. This understanding will help us plan ahead, and enable new research to help Australia maintain food security in an uncertain future.Read moreRead less
Representing low-frequency variability in hydro-climatic simulations for water resources planning and management in a changing climate. Simulating local hydro-climatology under likely climate change allows risk assessment of existing and future water infrastructure, along with the planning protocols needed to adapt to the changes ahead. This study aims to develop the tools needed to simulate local hydro-climatology, providing a basis for securing water for the generations to come.
Integrated assessment of climate change, climate input errors and land-use change on soil-moisture and carbon-balance in a catchment simulation framework. Assessing soil moisture and carbon balance changes in a warmer climate is important for land-use and agricultural planning. A decision support tool is proposed that performs the assessment and allows us to develop plans that reduce adverse impacts. The tool consists of three parts. The first part models changes in rainfall accuracy to calibrat ....Integrated assessment of climate change, climate input errors and land-use change on soil-moisture and carbon-balance in a catchment simulation framework. Assessing soil moisture and carbon balance changes in a warmer climate is important for land-use and agricultural planning. A decision support tool is proposed that performs the assessment and allows us to develop plans that reduce adverse impacts. The tool consists of three parts. The first part models changes in rainfall accuracy to calibrate approaches for catchment simulation. The second part simulates rainfall under climate change conditions using stochastic downscaling. The third part simulates future soil moisture and carbon balance using downscaled climate inputs. The end result is a probabilistic simulation of the catchment hydrology under future climates.Read moreRead less
Testing climatic, physiological and hydrological assumptions underpinning water yield from montane forests. Water collected in dams and reservoirs remains the mainstay water resource for Australian cities, towns and industry. Overwhelmingly, that water is collected from forested catchments where the water balance of forest stands is dominated by the amount of water used by trees. Characterising tree water use, its response to changing climatic and nocturnal conditions, and other aspects of sta ....Testing climatic, physiological and hydrological assumptions underpinning water yield from montane forests. Water collected in dams and reservoirs remains the mainstay water resource for Australian cities, towns and industry. Overwhelmingly, that water is collected from forested catchments where the water balance of forest stands is dominated by the amount of water used by trees. Characterising tree water use, its response to changing climatic and nocturnal conditions, and other aspects of stand hydrology, are crucial to our ability to predict and model future water yields. Working in the Cotter catchment near Canberra and the upper Kiewa catchment in north-east Victoria, we aim to help the agencies responsible for water and catchment management to improve the security of their forecasts of water yield and their on-ground management. Read moreRead less
Derivation of long-term hydroclimatic sequences for water resources engineering, management and planning. This project aims to develop in-situ reconstructions of flood and drought occurrence in the Sydney Warragamba catchment. The unique approach will utilise two complementary methods to provide robust insights into historic variability at the location of interest. The derived sequences will be used to augment the instrumental record, the sole basis for current drought risk assessment. A key out ....Derivation of long-term hydroclimatic sequences for water resources engineering, management and planning. This project aims to develop in-situ reconstructions of flood and drought occurrence in the Sydney Warragamba catchment. The unique approach will utilise two complementary methods to provide robust insights into historic variability at the location of interest. The derived sequences will be used to augment the instrumental record, the sole basis for current drought risk assessment. A key outcome will be an accurate appreciation of long-term drought occurrence. This will also provide a stronger basis for utilising climate information in guiding day-to-day reservoir and water supply management. The proxy histories are of key importance in estimating future flood and drought risk assessments for water resources management and planning.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0883113
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$250,000.00
Summary
A stable-isotope mass spectrometer for novel determinations of past temperatures. Much of the Australian landscape is subject to a dry and evaporative climate, making it very difficult to use conventional geochemical techniques to estimate past temperatures, even on short timescales of tens to hundreds of years. The application of a new isotopic technique to preserved carbonate minerals (soil carbonate, shells in rivers, lakes and the ocean) avoids the difficulty of this variable evaporation, an ....A stable-isotope mass spectrometer for novel determinations of past temperatures. Much of the Australian landscape is subject to a dry and evaporative climate, making it very difficult to use conventional geochemical techniques to estimate past temperatures, even on short timescales of tens to hundreds of years. The application of a new isotopic technique to preserved carbonate minerals (soil carbonate, shells in rivers, lakes and the ocean) avoids the difficulty of this variable evaporation, and directly measures past temperatures. This will have a profound effect on our understanding of environmental changes on both short and long time scales, and permit a better understanding of the hydrological balances within the landscape.Read moreRead less
Water resource management of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme catchment and the Murray-Darling River system - a new perspective on system reliability from drought history reconstruction. The Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme assists in underwriting the production of $3 billion of agricultural products in the Murray-Darling Basin each year by providing a reliable source of water west of the Great Dividing Range, while Hydro-electric generation from the Scheme is worth annually severa ....Water resource management of the Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme catchment and the Murray-Darling River system - a new perspective on system reliability from drought history reconstruction. The Snowy Mountains Hydro-electric Scheme assists in underwriting the production of $3 billion of agricultural products in the Murray-Darling Basin each year by providing a reliable source of water west of the Great Dividing Range, while Hydro-electric generation from the Scheme is worth annually several hundred million dollars and provides 70% of the renewable energy supplied to the eastern mainland grid, thereby avoiding 5Mt of carbon dioxide emissions each year. This study will ensure the ongoing sustainable and efficient management of the Schemes water resources in response to predicted climate variability and most importantly, severe drought. Read moreRead less
Australia's variable rainfall - how dry or wet can it really get? Australia’s rainfall is extremely variable, which means existing weather records are too short to calculate the true risk posed by droughts and floods. This project aims to quantify how naturally variable the rainfall coming from the Indo-Pacific mid-latitudes is, allowing recent rainfall extremes and future projections to be assessed in a long-term context. This project expects to produce new estimates of atmospheric moisture bud ....Australia's variable rainfall - how dry or wet can it really get? Australia’s rainfall is extremely variable, which means existing weather records are too short to calculate the true risk posed by droughts and floods. This project aims to quantify how naturally variable the rainfall coming from the Indo-Pacific mid-latitudes is, allowing recent rainfall extremes and future projections to be assessed in a long-term context. This project expects to produce new estimates of atmospheric moisture budgets between Australia and Antarctica based on a novel, 1000-year length reconstruction of moisture-bearing southern Indian Ocean storms. This new information is critically needed by water managers so that they can properly calculate (and ultimately prepare for) the worst of Australia’s rainfall-related risks.Read moreRead less
A decadal to inter-decadal streamflow prediction system. This project will develop the first ever decadal streamflow prediction system for Australia, leading to predictions of streamflow for the next 10 years and beyond that take into account both natural climatic variability (driven by factors such as the El Nino Southern Oscillation) and changing greenhouse gas concentrations due to a warming planet.