Summary: An assessment of impact of landscape...
URL: https://www.mdba.gov.au/sites/default/files/publications/an-assessment-of-impact-of-landscape-farm-dams-and-climate-change-on-catchment-runoff_0.pdf
Authors: David E. Robertson, Jorge L. Pena-Arancibia, Hongxing Zheng, Francis Chiew, Santosh Aryal, Martino E. Malerba, Nicholas Wright
Date of publication: December 2024
Farm dams are constructed to support agricultural activities, intercept catchment runoff and therefore reduce streamflow. However, the impact of farm dams on runoff projections has received little attention.
This study established datasets to assess farm dam development over time and used these datasets with hydrological modelling methods to estimate the impact of farm dams on runoff projections.
The following journal articles are referred to:
Authors: Jorge L. Pena-Arancibia, Martino E. Malerba, Nicholas Wright, David E. Robertson
Authors: David E. Robertson, Hongxing Zheng, Jorge L. Pena-Arancibia, Francis Chiew, Santosh Aryal, Martino E. Malerba, Nicholas Wright
Key findings / recommendations:
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Since 1990, the total volume of landscape farm dams is estimated to have grown from 500 GL to 2500 GL. The growth in the volume of farm dams slowed considerably after 2005 when state governments began to introduce policy controls.
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Using the new farm dam data improved the ability of hydrological models to simulate observed streamflow, compared to traditional approaches that do not consider farm dams.
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The current level (as at 2022) of farm dam development in the Murray–Darling Basin is estimated to reduce annual catchment runoff by 13% (in the range of 8%–19%) under the current climate across the 113 catchments investigated in this study.
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In a drier future climate, farm dams are likely to be empty for longer periods and intercept a greater proportion of catchment runoff.
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Under a future climate scenario with reduced rainfall, explicitly modelling farm dams produces reductions in mean annual catchment runoff that are on average 10% greater than estimates generated using traditional rainfall-runoff modelling.
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