Territory Stories

Modelling dry season flows and predicting the impact of water extraction of flagship species

Details:

Title

Modelling dry season flows and predicting the impact of water extraction of flagship species

Creator

Georges, Aurthur; Webster, Ian; Guarino, Fiorenzo; Jolly, Peter; Thoms, Martin; Doody, Sean; CRC for Freshwater Ecology (Australia); University of Canberra. Applied Ecology Research Group

Collection

E-Publications; E-Books; PublicationNT; 57/2002; National River health program

Date

2002-11-20

Location

Daly River

Abstract

The aim of this project is to contribute to recommendations on environmental flows to ensure that they are consistent with maintaining the biota of the Daly River, given competing demands of agriculture, recreation and tourism, conservation and Aboriginal culture. Our focus is on flow, connectivity and water temperatures.

Notes

Made available by via Publications (Legal Deposit) Act 2004 (NT); Submitted to the Northern Territory. Department of Infrastructure Planning and Environment

Table of contents

1. Project Details -- 2. Executive Summary -- 3. Interpretation of the Brief -- 4. Variation of the Brief -- 5. Background -- 6. The Daly Drainage -- 7. The Pig-nosed turtle -- 8. Analysis of Historical Flow Data -- 9. Analysis of Contemporary Flow Data -- 10. Modelling Flow Reduction -- 11. Water Temperature Versus Flow -- 12. Impact on Flagship Species -- 13. References

Language

English

Subject

Environmental Flows; Modelling; Biota

Publisher name

Northern Territory Government

Place of publication

Palmerston

Edition

Final Report

Series

57/2002; National River health program

Format

75 pages ; 30 cm

File type

application/pdf

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/10070/885434

Citation address

https://hdl.handle.net/10070/885435

Page content

30 Figure 16. Actual versus predicted decline in dry-season flow (cumecs) for 2000 and 2001 at Dorisvale gauging station (G8140067) on the Daly River, Northern Territory. Data for 2001 are not available owing to equipment failure. Spatial Pattern of Low Flows Flow close to the boundary points of our study site, Dorisvale Gauging Station and Oolloo Crossing, are linked by the relationship (Figure 17) Foolloo = 3.74199 + 1.457 Fdorisvale R2 = 0.92 Nett input between Dorisvale and Oolloo depends on the level of flow. When the dry season flow is 10 cumecs, nett input between Dorisvale and Oolloo is 8.2 cumecs. Figure 17. Relationship between discharge at Dorisvale and Oolloo crossings (F1,52=599.95; P<0.0001; r2=0.92). The relationship expressed as Flow at Oolloo = 3.74199 + 1.457*Flow at Dorisvale. Flow is in cumecs. Input is not uniform with distance as you move down the Daly from Dorisvale Crossing to Oolloo Crossing (Table 4). On June 3, 2001, flow at Dorisvale Crossing was 27.39 cumecs and at Oolloo Crossing was 41.53 cumecs. There was a general base increase in flow of 0.12 cumec per km downstream from Dorisvale Crossing, punctuated by a much more substantial input of 1.0 cumec per km between control point 10 (Hot Spring) and 15 (Black Bull Yard). A total of 63% (8.98 cumecs) of the nett inflow to the Daly River in the 66.9 km between Dorisvale Crossing and Oolloo Crossing occurred in the 9.0 km between control points 10 and 15. This is adjacent to the Stray Creek development area.