Territory Stories

End of Wet Season Stream Flow Measurements, Roper River, May 2014

Details:

Title

End of Wet Season Stream Flow Measurements, Roper River, May 2014

Creator

Kerle, Errol; Waugh, Peter; Northern Territory. Department of Land Resource Management

Collection

E-Publications; E-Books; PublicationNT; Aug-14

Date

2014-06-01

Location

Roper River

Description

Early dry season snapshot measurements were taken on the Roper River to establish water quality and quantity conditions at commencement of baseflow conditions. The snapshot measurements are used to: 1. Refine and calibrate the hydrological model used to assess resource availability and allocations. 2. Better define aquifer recharge/discharge zones along the river, and 3. Provide a dataset of comparable flow and water quality measurements at identical periods in the annual water cycle.

Notes

Made available via the Publications (Legal Deposit) Act 2004 (NT)

Table of contents

Summary -- Aim -- Introduction -- Observations -- Discussion -- Conclusion -- Recommendations -- References

Language

English

Subject

End of Wet Season Stream Flow Measurement

Publisher name

Northern Territory Government

Place of publication

Palmerston

Series

Aug-14

Format

24 pages : illustrations, colour maps ; 30 cm.

File type

application/pdf

ISBN

1743500637; 9781743500637

Use

Attribution International 4.0 (CC BY 4.0)

Copyright owner

Northern Territory Government

License

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Parent handle

https://hdl.handle.net/10070/260106

Citation address

https://hdl.handle.net/10070/492338

Page content

9 Discussion Commencing in October 2013, the snapshot measurement program represents the first series of programmed, time-specific measurements taken in the Roper catchment. The May 2014 snapshot measurements are the first undertaken specifically at the commencement of the dry season. With the WAP snapshot program still in its infancy, little data exists to adequately compare past early dry season measurements. Ongoing snapshot measurement programs conducted at the same time of year will complement the current assessment of resource availability and provide essential information to support future management objectives. Rainfall Rainfall recorded in the Roper River region in the weeks prior to and during the snapshot measurements was insufficient to cause a rise in river levels therefore measurements conducted as part of the snapshot program are considered to represent baseflow only. Rainfall totals recorded for the 2013/14 wet season (December May) were slightly below average when compared to the long term rainfall records for each site. It is noted that the length of rainfall records vary from 3-years for G9030514 to 45-years for R8140021. As such, average wet season rainfall is observational only as no statistically relevant trend can be derived from the length of record at most sites. Figure 4 Total Wet Season Rainfall (December May)