Justin Hughes

An automated multi-step calibration procedure for a river system model

Predicted climate change impact on future water availability in the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) has highlighted the need for a whole of basin model that incorporates various physical and management characteristics for planning and operational purposes. Modelling platforms such as eWater Source Integrated Modelling System (Source) offer a useful framework in this regard, but at present lack automated calibration techniques to parameterise river system models.This paper presents an automated river system calibration procedure which is robust, repeatable, transparent and systematic. The procedure allows for river network calibration (as opposed to isolated reach by reach calibration), since this has more utility for basin planning and prediction. The calibration procedure routs upstream flow, estimates ungauged inputs via rainfall-runoff (RR) models, and estimates flow based split (distributary) functions and loss functions in complex river systems.This procedure was tested in the Northern Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) and results from the Border Rivers catchment are presented. The results from the Border Rivers case study demonstrate the applicability of the procedure with median calibration and evaluation NSE values of 0.88 and 0.79, respectively. The use of this procedure in the Border Rivers region has highlighted the likelihood of changing stream channel connections at higher flows in the lower reaches of the river network. A simple, robust auto-calibration/simulation procedure for river systems is presented.The model shows good predictive ability in the test catchment.The procedure has utility for detecting structural problems in conceptual model.

A Method for comprehensively Assessing Economic Trade-Offs of New Irrigation Developments

To meet the anticipated increase in global demand for food and fibre products, large areas of land around the world are being cleared and infrastructure constructed to enable irrigation, referred to herein as ‘greenfield irrigation’. One of the challenges in assessing the profitability of a greenfield irrigation development is understanding the impact of variability in climate and water availability and the trade-offs with scheme size, cost and the sensitivity of crop yield to water stress. For example, is it more profitable to irrigate a small area of land most years or a large area once every few years? And, is it more profitable to partially or fully water the crop? This paper presents a new method for efficiently linking a river system model and an agricultural production model to explore the financial trade-offs of different management choices, thereby enabling the optimal scheme area and most appropriate level of farmer risk to be identified. The method is demonstrated for a hypothetical but plausible greenfield irrigation development based around a large dam in the Flinders catchment, northern Australia. It was found that a dam and irrigation development paid for and operated by the same entity is not, under the conditions examined in this analysis, economically sustainable. The method could also be used to explore the impact of different management strategies on the agricultural production and profitability of existing irrigation schemes within a whole of river system context.