Information
Level 2 Detail of experimental conditions (what might be found in a journal paper or project brief in Hydstra)
Description of study
What?
Two modelling strategies were used to examine the impact of clearing on runoff.
When and Where?
The Comet River is an upstream tributary in the Fitzroy Basin in Central Queensland. Mean annual rainfall in the catchment is 660mm, average maximum temperature is 28oC with a minimum of 15oC.
Prior to clearing in the mid-1960s vegetation throughout the catchment comprised of forest communities dominated by Brigalow (Acacia harpophylla) and mixed Eucalyptus sp.
How?
Rainfall-runoff models were calibrated for the period before land clearing and were used along with observed rainfall data to reconstitute catchment yield after clearing, as if no change in the catchment condition had occurred between pre and post-clearing periods. Effects due to land clearing were then estimated by comparing the simulated and observed flows in the post-clearing period.
The results of the reverse process of calibrating a model on the post-clearing period were also tested and used to estimate what the runoff in the pre-clearing period would have been had the catchment been cleared at that time.
Project administration
Site identifier code: N/A
Principal investigator: Siriwardena L
Principal data manager: N/A
Principal organizations: The University of Melbourne
Data custodian: Queensland Department of Natural Resources, Mines and Energy
Key co-operators: N/A
Data access policy: Research has been published but base data is not archived
Planned pathway for data: completed study, no evidence of formal database records.
Data warehousing: for ongoing studies N/A
Planned data upload frequency: for ongoing studies N/A
Key references and sources of this data synthesis
These data summaries have been extracted from:
- Siriwardena L, Finlayson BL, McMahon TA. (2006). The impact of land use change on catchment hydrology in large catchments: The Comet River, Central Queensland, Australia. Journal of Hydrology 326: 199 – 214.
Keywords:
Land use change, deforestation, catchment hydrology, vegetation change