PAST RESEARCH PROGRAMS
Forest Hydrology Program
Program Leader: Dr Rob Vertessy, CSIRO
Land and Water
Core Projects
Publications
A complete list of publications and videos from this program
is available here.
Aim
To identify interactions between water, trees and soils
in forest catchments for predicting how forestry activities
will affect water yield and quality, providing resource
agencies and the forestry industry with more effective
strategies and techniques for sustainable catchment management.
Background
The CRC forest hydrology research began in 1992 with a
study of the hydrology of the mountain ash forest catchments
in Victoria that feed Melbourne Water's Maroondah Reservoir.
The research expanded to include forest-water interactions
across a range of catchments. Now concluded, the program
has produced many new insights and techniques that are
helping catchment managers utilise the nation’s timber
and water resources in a more sustainable way.
The initial research provided catchment managers with
an explanation for the observation that old-growth mountain
ash forests yield up to twice as much annual runoff
as regenerating forests, and are thus reliable sources
of water. This work on forest age/water yield relationships
was extended to a mixed-species forest in a drier catchment
(Yambulla, NSW). Field observations at this site have
revealed similar relationships to those noted in mountain
ash forests.
Within the same project (FO2), researchers developed
guidelines for sustainable agroforestry on farms. These
guidelines are now embodied in a book being published
by RIRDC, entitled 'Agroforestry Design Guidelines'.
In the last year of the initial CRC, the focus of the
research moved from hillslopes and sub-catchments to
larger areas and entire catchments. In one such study
- of the 26 000km2 Murrumbidgee Basin - the
CRC produced 'rule of thumb' prediction techniques for
managers to use over large areas, or areas lacking data
(also see current Predicting Catchment Behaviour Research
Program). This work has involved adapting a simple model
that relates land use to runoff. The model has been
used to predict the effects of reafforestation on runoff
and streamflow across the Basin. This has significant
implications nationally. State and Commonwealth governments
plan to treble the total plantation area in Australia
over the next 20 years, involving the loss of large
areas of grassland. However, as well as controlling
watertables and salinity, reafforestation may create
new problems associated with lower streamflows.
Researchers developed innovative computer models for
predicting changes to catchment water yield from logging,
tree planting, and bushfire. In Project FO5, that carried
over from the across initial CRC, one of these models,
Macaque, was applied to the 600km2 Thomson
River catchment in Victoria. Melbourne Water and DNRE
(Vic.) are trying to determine how timber harvesting
will affect long-term water yield from the catchment.
Macaque provides a sound biophysical basis for a comparative
economic analysis. The CRC’s success in developing
such modelling tools provided the foundation for the
new CRC Program - Predicting Catchment Behaviour.
During 1998-99, researchers focused on the technology
transfer aspects of their research. For example, the
research on erosion and sedimentation processes in forestry
areas (FO1) led to the development of draft design guidelines
for road drainage that reduce sediment contributions
from forest roads to streams. The EPA and State Forests
of NSW used findings from this research project to revise
conditions applying to the issue of pollution licences
to forest industry operators in 1997.
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