Perth Laboratory – Public Seminar Series 2010

Water yields and demands in south-west Western Australia

Dr Don McFarlane
CSIRO Land and Water
Water for a Healthy Country Flagship

Thursday 6 May 2010 at 3.30pm, CSIRO Auditorium

PowerPoint Presentation
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Web-streamed audio presentation
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Abstract:
CSIRO recently released the findings of the South-West Western Australia Sustainable Yields Project – the most comprehensive assessment of water yields and demands to 2030 ever undertaken for south-west Western Australia. The project reported on four major components: surface water, groundwater, environment, and yields and demands. This seminar will use results from the surface water and groundwater models under projected climates for 2030 to estimate future yields and compare these with estimates of demand to identify areas of potential surplus and deficit.

Because no-one knows what the future climate and levels of development will be, five estimates of future yields were compared with three estimates of future demands by the way of scenarios. Eight demand regions were broken into 45 areas so that the yield and demand for surface water and groundwater could be estimated on a catchment or groundwater management unit basis, or for all resources combined.

The recent decline in surface water yields is projected to continue until at least 2030 making these the most affected resources under any future climate that is drier than the one that we have had since 1975. Groundwater yields by comparison are much less affected, especially where the landuse is dryland agriculture, soils are sandy and the watertable is close to the surface. Projected water deficits are highest for groundwater near Perth and Bunbury and for surface water where irrigated agriculture is projected to grow. The project developed tools that may be used to assess other assumptions and scenarios if required.

About the speaker
Dr Don McFarlane led the water yields and demands component of the project and was overall leader for the South-West Western Australia Sustainable Yields (SWWASY) project. He is currently the WA Portfolio Coordinator for the Water for a Healthy Country Flagship. In addition to the SWWASY project, he co-leads the Urban Monitor project which is collecting high precision monitoring data for the area between Guilderton and Mandurah and is exploring the possibility of using treated wastewater to raise groundwater levels around wetlands such as Perry Lakes.

Dr McFarlane has degrees in geology, natural resource management and hydrogeology from the University of Western Australia where he is an Adjunct Senior Research Fellow. Before joining CSIRO he was a Director in the Water and Rivers Commission and Department of Environment. In 2004 he was awarded the CSIRO Chairman’s Medal for his work on monitoring and predicting the spread of dryland salinity in south-west WA.

This research was delivered through CSIRO’s Water for a Healthy Country Flagship.

This seminar is the last in a series of four to present the results of the South-West Western Australia Sustainable Yields Project. Other seminars in the series...

Thursday 15 April: Groundwater Yields by Dr Riasat Ali
Thursday 22 April: Surface Water Yields by Dr Richard Silberstein
Thursday 29 April: Environment by Dr Olga Barron

For seminar information email Perth Seminars or phone (08) 9333 6221
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