Development of a Catchment Contaminant Cycle Model for Stakeholder Use

Catchment contaminant cycle model – a computer program that predicts the generation, movement and fate of pollutants within a catchment mediated by particular catchment management actions.

Project motivation

There is a need to focus Australian contaminant modelling on a limited set of approaches to reduce duplication of effort, promote integration and to reduce confusion amongst stakeholders in need of modelling support.

There is also a need to increase stakeholder influence in, and ownership of, the catchment contaminant modelling process. For contaminant models to inform public debate and management action, they need to be transparent, underpinned by strong visualization features, and possessing of scenario modelling features incorporating common catchment management action such as land use change, flow regulation, point source loading and riparian remediation.

Project objective

This project focuses on the development of a catchment contaminant model, accessible to stakeholder groups, for application in large river catchments. The contaminant model will estimate fluxes of various contaminants such as sediments and nutrients. A key innovation of the contaminant model will be the linking of land, hydrologic and river based modelling approaches in a coherent modelling framework.

Basis

This project builds upon several related and ongoing research and development activities in the partner organizations including the development of the Environmental Management Support System (EMSS) at CSIRO Land and Water and the development of the Catchment Scale Management of Diffuse Sources (CatchMODS) model at ANU.
Technical input from several other Land and Water Australia National River Contaminants Program projects will be incorporated into the catchment contaminant model.

Model application

Prototypes of the modelling system will be developed for the Murrumbidgee and Brisbane River catchments.

Stakeholder role

Stakeholders will be consulted throughout the course of the project to ensure that their modelling needs are met and to build ownership in the modelling system arising from the project.

To assist the project team understand current stakeholder needs a survey has been prepared that seeks information to guide the model design process and to ensure uptake and ownership of the resulting product. The online survey explores a range of issues associated with the development of the model. Input is sought on which pollutants should be modelled, which ecological and habitat indicators are of interest and how results should be presented to stakeholders.

Preliminary survey results @ 28 October 2003 (PDF, 2 MB)

Funding

This project is funded through the National River Contaminants Program of Land & Water Australia and is supported in-kind by CSIRO, the Australian National University and the CRC for Catchment Hydrology.

Key project dates

• November 2003: identification and prioritisation of contaminant issues
• May 2004 - technical model specifications prepared and prototype underway
• November 2004 - prototype out for review and preliminary modelling results for focus catchments
• May 2005 - revised version out for review and final modelling results
• December 31 2005 - project ends

Links

• Land & Water Australia National River Contaminants Program
• Murray Darling Basin Commission
• Cooperative Research Centre for Catchment Hydrology
• The Australian National University
• Water Quality Online

Further information

Lachlan Newham
Integrated Catchment Assessment and Management Centre
The Australian National University
Canberra ACT 0200
Phone 61 2 6125 8129
Fax 61 2 6125 Email lachlan.newham@anu.edu.au

Contacts

Principal Investigator: Kit Rutherford
Researcher: Lachlan Newham
Stakeholder involvement: Susan Cuddy
Software development: John Coleman