Groundwater–Surface Water Interaction: Process Understanding, Conceptualization and Modelling  (Proceedings of Symposium HS1002 at IUGG2007, Perugia, July 2007). IAHS Publ. 321, 2008, 148-157.

 

Enhanced bio-physical data for an integrated systems model, Angas-Bremer Prescribed Wells Area, South Australia

 

RICHARD CRESSWELL1,2, TONY THOMSON3, ELOISE NATION4, kevin cahill5, ANDREW FITZPATRICK1,5 & RAMESH RAJA SEGARAN6

 

1          Co-operative Research Centre for Landscape Environments & Mineral Exploration

2          CSIRO Land & Water, 120 Meiers Rd, Indooroopilly, Queensland 4068, Australia

richard.cresswell@csiro.au

3          South Australia Department of Water, Land & Bio-diversity Conservation, 25 Grenfell St, Adelaide,
South Australia 5000, Australia

4          Bureau of Rural Sciences, GPO Box 858, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 2601, Australia

5          CSIRO Exploration & Mining, PO Box 1130, Bentley, Western Australia 6102, Australia

6          University of Adelaide, PMB 1, Glen Osmond, South Australia 5064, Australia

 

Abstract The premier wine-grape region of Langhorne Creek, in South Australia, has experienced the perils of over-exploiting groundwater resources and the vagaries of depending on surface waters, but it has continued to grow, with a 10-fold increase in irrigated vines over the past 20 years. Concerns over unsustainable water use and future expansion have driven research initiatives trying to understand the complex interactions between surface water and groundwater resources, as well as the potential for salinisation. Understanding surface water–groundwater interactions is critical in order to develop an integrated systems model that combines groundwater, surface water, aquifer recharge and socio-economic constraints. The model could be used to assess the drivers and levers for sustainable water management and also to provide a scenario-testing tool for resource managers. Airborne and ground geophysical surveying, coupled with groundwater bore and soil investigations and with temporal surface water modelling, have been used to provide a physical framework for such a model. The airborne geophysics provides a contiguous 3-D framework, using analyses from bores, streamgauges and soil samples as points of truth, and requiring multi-disciplinary, multi-agency collaboration.

 

Key words  airborne geophysics; conjunctive water use; multi-disciplinary; integrated systems model