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A comparison of 1980 monitoring well head levels to 2004 head levels for the productive aquifers of the Lower Namoi. White areas indicate no change or a rise and orange areas indicate a fall in head levels (draft information NSWDNR 2006a).
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... areas indicate no change or a rise and orange areas indicate a fall in head levels (draft information NSW DNR 2006a). 7 Figure 5. A comparison of 1980 monitoring well head levels to 2004 head levels for the productive aquifers of the Lower Namoi. ...
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... NSW DNR (2005) the major ion chemistry of the river water within the Namoi Catchment is graphed ( Fig. 5 http://www.dnr.nsw.gov.au/care/water/rural_water_mngmt/pdfs/wq_namoi_report_03-04.pdf ). Each river has a distinct cluster, reflecting the unique geology, flow path and chemical evolution of the water in each catchment. In particular samples from the Peel River and Cox's Creek do not overlap, while further down the system where the ...
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... details of the chemistry are discussed in Lavitt (1999). There is a much wider spread in the hydrochemical facies of the water chemistry from the alluvial sediments ( Figure 11) compared to the Mooki River water [shown in Figure 5 NSW DNR (2005) www.dnr.nsw.gov.au/water/pdf/wq_namoi_report_03-04.pdf ]. ...
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... the orange dots from Cox's Creek (refer Figure 5 in NSW DNR, 2005) to that of the groundwater at Hudson experimental site (Figure 14) clearly shows that the waters contact similar geology although they are in different catchments. Both waters have high HCO + CO and low SO . ...
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... Namoi aquifer major ion chemistry was investigated by McLean (2003) and the results are graphed in Figure 15. Great Artesian Basin water has a distinct chemistry high in Na + K and HCO + CO . ...
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... aquifer water in the far west has a high percentage of Na and Cl . mples in the Lower Namoi lot closer to those of the Namoi River water at Gunnedah in (refer Figure 5 in NSW DNR, It is interesting to note that McLean's ratio of major ions for river sa p 2005) than those samples from the Namoi River at Narrabri. These differences, major. ...
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... Changes to geochemical conditions in freshwater alluvial aquifers can be a result of both natural processes, such as recharge pathways, and anthropogenic processes, such as groundwater extraction (McLean, 2003;Lower Namoi Groundwater, 2008;Lamontagne et al., 2015, Iverach et al., 2017a. Increased drawdown of groundwater due to groundwater withdrawals, as well as the subsequent recovery of groundwater levels after cessation of pumping can affect the occurrence of both CH 4 and other biogeochemical indicators (Kelly et al., 2007;Smith et al., 2016). Additionally, recharge pathways to groundwater systems, such as surface infiltration or artesian discharge, can influence the distribution and transport of gas within the aquifer. ...
... There have been a series of regional scale water balance groundwater models for the lower Namoi (Williams et al., 1989, Merrick, 2000, CSIRO, 2007Kelly et al., 2007;Schlumberger, 2012;SANTOS, 2018). All these models have incorporated discharge from the GAB into the LNA. ...
Identifying the source of methane (CH4) in groundwater is often complicated due to various production, degradation and migration pathways, particularly in settings where there are multiple groundwater recharge pathways. This study demonstrates the ability to constrain the origin of CH4 within an alluvial aquifer that could be sourced from in situ microbiological production or underlying formations at depth. To characterise the hydrochemical and microbiological processes active within the alluvium, previously reported hydrochemical data (major ion chemistry and isotopic tracers (3H, 14C, 36Cl)) were interpreted in the context of CH4 and carbon dioxide (CO2) isotopic chemistry, and the microbial community composition in the groundwater. The rate of observed oxidation of CH4 within the aquifer was then characterised using a Rayleigh fractionation model. The stratification of the hydrochemical facies and microbiological community populations is interpreted to be a result of the gradational mixing of water from river leakage and floodwater recharge with water from basal artesian inflow. Within the aquifer there is a low abundance of methanogenic archaea indicating that there is limited biological potential for microbial CH4 production. Our results show that the resulting interconnection between hydrochemistry and microbial community composition affects the occurrence and oxidation of CH4 within the alluvial aquifer, constraining the source of CH4 in the groundwater to the geological formations beneath the alluvium.
... The CMA in Case 2 had a reputation for being centralised, with a bureaucratic organisational culture and an attitude of "here are the professionals" (2_10). The agency focused attention and funds on data collection, identifying knowledge gaps and commissioning research to address these gaps (Cork and Delaney, 2007;Ipsos-Eureka Social Research Institute, 2007;Kelly et al., 2007;Ecological Australia, 2011). This was aimed at facilitating better natural resource planning and more strategic investment, as well as understanding cumulative impacts of sectors such as mining and agriculture on biodiversity, soil quality and water use. ...
Australian natural resource governance has recently embarked on a new round of regional experimentation. One decade after regional natural resource management bodies were established in response to ideals of devolution and subsidiarity, political commitments to ‘localism’ have resulted in a paradoxical shift to bigger regional boundaries, and an apparent retreat from values of environmental conservation. A retreat from government funded public good natural resource management has seen a growth in ideals of market instruments and an economic paradigm of productivity and profit begin to dominate. A long held divide between conservation and production landscape values has seen community engagement emerge as the battleground of rural environmental policy.
... Groundwater use is not monitored as systematically as surface water. Gaps in monitoring and measurement lead to gaps in data required to develop and run models (Kelly et al., 2007). ...
Conjunctive water management involves the combined use of groundwater, surface water and/or additional sources of water to achieve public policy and management goals. Conjunctive water management enables greater water supply security and stability, helps adaptation to climate variation and uncertainty and reduces depletion and degradation of water resources. There are many opportunities to benefit from improved conjunctive water management if institutional and political barriers can be overcome. This article provides the first comprehensive assessments of progress towards conjunctive water management on a continental scale across the Australian States and Territories, and suggests an innovative approach towards overcoming barriers to integration. Conditions for the implementation of conjunctive water management have only been partially met by the Australian States. There has been progress towards integrated groundwater and surface water accounting and planning, but there is still little systematic attempt to plan and manage surface water and groundwater storage and use at a regional scale over time. Current policies effectively subsidise surface water storage and aquifer storage and recovery entitlements are not in place in some jurisdictions. A new paradigm of conjunctive water management is required involving systematic consideration of the beneficial integration of groundwater, surface water and other water sources in water plans and projects. Transition to conjunctive water management can be promoted by networks including change agents, bridging organisations and water management institutions supported by strong leadership from governments.
... This study focuses on the development of one of these earlier plans in a small upper catchment in the Namoi Valley, chosen because its surface water channels exhibit a number of points of high connectivity with the local groundwater system (SWS 2012, pp. vii, 103;Parsons et al. 2008, Kelly et al. 2007). The particular 'zone' is subject to the Water Sharing Plan for the Upper and Lower Namoi Groundwater Sources 2003 (covering 13 zones in total). ...
http://www.springer.com/us/book/9783319235752#aboutBook
... The Gwydir River catchment is ∼26,500 km² (Barrett 2009) and forms part of the Murray-Darling Basin. Samples were collected in the shallow unconfined aquifer of the lower Gwydir Valley (Narrabri Formation, 10-30 m depth; Milne-Home et al. 2007, Barrett 2009) around the town of Moree (lat 29°28'S, long 149°54'E, population 8083; ABS 2006; Fig. 1). The Gwydir River floodplain has been cleared and modified for agriculture, including cattle grazing, irrigated (e.g., cotton), and nonirrigated (e.g., cotton, sorghum) crop production. ...
... The region is semi-arid with an average winter minimum of 5°C and average summer maximum of 33°C (Bureau of Meteorology; http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/data/). Rainfall in the region is highly variable, summer dominant, and generally of high intensity (Milne-Home et al. 2007). ...
... The aquifer matrix is predominantly shale and sandstone with seams of clay, sand, and gravels (Barrett 2009). The major ions in natu-ral water of the Gwydir valley region are Na + , K + , Ca 2+ , Mg 2+ , Cl -, CO 3 2-, HCO 3 -, and SO 4 2- (Please et al. 2000, Milne-Home et al. 2007. The Gwydir River is the primary source of recharge for the shallow Narrabri formation aquifer (Barrett 2009, Carr andKelly 2010). ...
The distribution of biota in aquatic ecosystems, including aquifers, is collectively influenced by habitat structure, water quality, seasonality, and local variations in environmental conditions. However, little is known about the nature and relative influences of such factors in groundwater ecosystems. Our aims were to identify the key environmental variables influencing the distribution of biota within the Gwydir River alluvial aquifer in northwestern New South Wales, Australia, and to consider the relative importance of environmental variables, in terms of habitat structure, water quality, seasonality, and site attributes, to both microbial and invertebrate (stygofauna) assemblages. Stygofauna distribution was primarily influenced by habitat variables (predominantly sediment structure) followed by site variables (abundance of trees), with water quality and seasonality having relatively little influence. These results indicate that it is the aquifer conditions relating to habitat structure, water flow, and the supply of organic matter that are most important for determining stygofauna distribution. Microbial assemblage structure was not strongly correlated with habitat variables, possibly because habitat restraints do not exist because of their smaller size. Instead, seasonality and water-quality variables had the greatest influence on microbial assemblages. Microbes might respond to seasonal (particularly rainfall induced) changes in water quality more quickly than do stygofauna, which may explain the relatively greater importance of seasonality and water quality to microbial assemblages. Given that stygofauna are most influenced by habitat and site variables, and microbial assemblages are most influenced by seasonality and water quality, disturbance to any of these factors may threaten the stability and integrity of the groundwater ecosystem.
... In the lower Namoi, more than four decades of groundwater pumping have dropped the water levels, and in many places, rivers and streams (naturally) recharge groundwater [47], such that useful storage exists at a large scale. At the farm scale, while water may not physically stay within a farmer's land and, as such, is not physically stored, the system of surface and groundwater water rights means that injected or infiltrated water could, in principle, be allocated to the farm anyway, in a form of "regulatory storage" [22]. ...
Additional storage of water is a potential option to meet future water supply goals. Financial comparisons are needed to improve decision making about whether to store water in surface reservoirs or below ground, using managed aquifer recharge (MAR). In some places, the results of cost-benefit analysis show that MAR is financially superior to surface storage. However, uncertainty often exists as to whether MAR systems will remain operationally effective and profitable in the future, because the profitability of MAR is dependent on many uncertain technical and financial variables. This paper introduces a method to assess the financial feasibility of MAR under uncertainty. We assess such uncertainties by identification of cross-over points in break-even analysis. Cross-over points are the thresholds where MAR and surface storage have equal financial returns. Such thresholds can be interpreted as a set of minimum requirements beyond which an investment in MAR may no longer be worthwhile. Checking that these thresholds are satisfied can improve confidence in decision making. Our suggested approach can also be used to identify areas that may not be suitable for MAR, thereby avoiding expensive hydrogeological and geophysical investigations.
... The Namoi has been well studied in the past. Kelly et al. [14] present an extensive list of studies of groundwater alone, including both modelling and data analysis in the Namoi catchment, yet still concluded that more than 15 other projects could be conducted to further our scientific understanding of the groundwater in that catchment. In addition there have been social studies, [15] economic studies, [16] hydrological studies [17] and ecological studies [18]; and a recent report by Hartley et al. [19] demonstrates the complexity of the governance issues surrounding groundwater across the Namoi catchment, with variation in the scale and governing bodies at different locations. ...
The management of surface and groundwater can be regarded as presenting resource dilemmas. These are situations where multiple users share a common resource pool, and make contested claims about their rights to access the resource, and the best use and distribution of the resource among competing needs. Overshadowed by uncertainties caused by limited data and lack of scientific knowledge, resource dilemmas are challenging to manage, often leading to controversies and disputes about policy issues and outcomes. In the case of surface and groundwater management, the design of collective policies needs to be informed by a holistic understanding of different water uses and outcomes under different water availability and sharing scenarios. In this paper, we present an integrated modelling framework for assessing the combined impacts of changes in climate conditions and water allocation policies on surface and groundwater-dependent economic and ecological systems. We are implementing the framework in the Namoi catchment, Australia. However, the framework can be transferred and adapted for uses, including water planning, in other agricultural catchments.
... The hydrology of the shallow aquifers of both catchments is dominated by surface interactions with upwellings and outwellings of groundwater in channel beds and gravel bars (McLean 2003;Kelly et al. 2007;Barrett 2009;Kelly and Carr 2010;Kelly et al. 2012). Significant recharge pulses occur after major rain events (Barrett 2009;Kelly and Carr 2010). ...
Groundwater is essential to crop production in many parts of the world, and the provision of clean groundwater is dependent on healthy groundwater ecosystems. To understand better the functioning of groundwater ecosystems, it is necessary to understand how the biota responds to environmental factors, and so distinguish natural variation from human induced changes. This study compares the groundwater biota of the adjacent Gwydir and Namoi River alluvial aquifers, both in the heartland of Australia's cotton industry, and investigates the relative importance of environmental, anthropogenic, geological, and evolutionary processes on biotic distribution. Distinct differences in biotic assemblages were recorded between catchments at a community level. However, at a functional level (e.g. microbial activity, stygofauna abundances and richness) both ecosystems were similar. The distribution of biota in both catchments was influenced by similar environmental variables (e.g. geology, carbon availability, season, and land use). Broad trends in biotic distribution were evident: stygofauna responded most strongly to geological variables (reflecting habitat) and microbes to water quality and flow. Agricultural activities influenced biota in both catchments. Although possessing different taxa, the groundwater ecosystems of the two aquifers were functionally similar and responded to similar environmental conditions.
... Surface water and groundwater models are usually separate, there are few integrated models (Rassam et al 2008). Monitoring and measurement is incomplete leading to gaps in data required to develop and run models (Kelly et al 2007). Some phenomena are not usually accounted for in detail or at all in models or water balances, such as the effects surface water -groundwater interactions, and the impacts of farm dams, afforestation and irrigation recharge on groundwater recharge. ...
... Although the Namoi region benefits from good historical data on water inflows and groundwater levels, there are substantial gaps in data about groundwater surface water connectivity, groundwater inflows, recharge and discharge, evapotranspiration, and surface water storage losses (Kelly et al 2007). These information deficiencies suggest that the water use limits established under water allocation plans need to be flexible with scope for periodic adjustment during the life of the plan. ...
... Estimates of recharge, discharge, evapotranspiration and storage losses, irrigation returns to aquifers, interactions between groundwater and vegetation, and the effects of irrigation on salinity and water quality are imperfect. More work is needed on catchment water balances and integrated surface water and groundwater models (Kelly et al 2007. ...
Integrated water management helps adaption to variable rainfall by using more groundwater during dry years and more surface water during wet years. Integrated water management techniques including water banking, and aquifer storage and recovery are extensively practiced in other dry regions such as the western USA and Spain. Yet these techniques are not used in the Murray-Darling Basin. This thesis explores factors which have affected integrated water management in the Murray-Darling Basin, and in the states of Colorado and Idaho in the USA. The most important contribution of this research is that it sets out the advantages of integrated cyclical water management, and points to the opportunities for aquifer storage and recovery and water banking. Integrated surface water and groundwater storage is the missing link in Australia's otherwise comprehensive water reform. This thesis uses a narrative synthesis approach for analysing factors that have affected integrated water management. This approach relies on qualitative analysis of findings from existing studies and documentary evidence, supplemented and cross checked by interviews. It is proposed that integrated water management may be considered as a process taking place in a complex social and ecological system. Fourteen key variables that affect integrated water management were selected drawing on Ostrom's framework for the analysis of social ecological systems, relevant scientific literature and discussions with water managers and experts. The relationship between these variables and integrated water management were explored in two comparative case studies. The first case study enabled a broad assessment of factors that have affected integrated water management at a jurisdictional scale in the Murray-Darling Basin. The second case study enabled a more detailed exploration of the impact of water entitlements, operational rules and management organisation(s) on integrated water management in tributary catchments in New South Wales, Colorado and Idaho. The development of integrated surface water and groundwater management, especially in the Murray-Darling Basin has been constrained by the surface water centric development of water resources and institutions, gaps in knowledge about surface water and groundwater connectivity, the lack of a comprehensive, flexible and balanced system of water entitlements and rules, and implementation difficulties. Further development of integrated water management requires better knowledge and improved management capacity. Further research and development needs to be devoted to the integrated management of water stocks and storages - a missing link in Australian water reform. Further research is required to improve understanding about surface water - groundwater connectivity and to develop strategies for managing long-term impacts of groundwater use. Ongoing development of flexible systems of water entitlements and rules is needed to enable cyclical surface water and groundwater management. Finally the capacity for the implementation of integrated water management at local and regional scales needs to be improved together with collaboration between higher-level governments and local organisations and stakeholders. -- provided by Candidate.
Understanding the sustainability of current groundwater extractions is critical in the face of changing climate and anthropogenic conditions, but this proves challenging in areas with complex hydrogeology that is not well understood. A combination of unsupervised (self-organizing map, SOM) and supervised (long short-term memory, LSTM) models is demonstrated to effectively abstract prevalent patterns from a diverse set of groundwater monitoring time series in the dry and hydrogeologically complicated Namoi region, enabling predictions of water levels based on climate and anthropogenic conditions to be made using a set of regional deep-learning based neural networks. By drawing on shared pattern information from across the Namoi system, the SOM reduces the complexity of the multiple time series, shares information between sparse time series which could not be modelled with the LSTM individually, adds a logical spatial aspect to the LSTM analysis, and provides a valuable visual analysis that enhances communication and decision-making.
