Groundwater systems of the upper Darling-Baaka River floodplain, New South Wales

<div><strong>Output Type: </strong>Exploring for the Future Extended Abstract</div><div><br></div><div><strong>Short Abstract: </strong>Communities and ecosystems along the Darling-Baaka River have been impacted by critical water shortages and water quality issues including high salinity, algal blooms, and fish kills due to declining surface water flows. The river is characterised by naturally highly variable flows and is the primary water source for the region, but extraction and a meteorological drying trend associated with climate change have caused declines in discharge of 53–73% since the advent of post-settlement agriculture and industry. Understanding of the spatial extent, quality, and useability of lower salinity groundwater within the surrounding Darling Alluvium, which could provide an alternative and potentially more sustainable water source, was previously limited. Here we present the findings of an integrated study combining modelled ground and airborne geophysical data, groundwater and surface water levels, hydrochemistry, lithology, and remote sensing data to delineate groundwater systems and understand the geological and hydrological controls on their occurrence. The resolution and breadth of datasets acquired and collated permit mapping of the key factors controlling occurrence and quality of groundwater aquifers, namely basement topography and hydrostratigraphy, groundwater-surface water dynamics, and inter-aquifer connectivity. On this basis the study area can be sub-divided into regions with distinctive aquifer distribution and quality, recharge mechanisms, and pressure gradients between aquifers. We also showed that the groundwater levels in the unconfined aquifer have declined, an expected outcome of the decline in discharge in the Darling-Baaka River which forms the primary recharge mechanism for the alluvial aquifers. These outputs have direct implications for key management questions including location and quantity of potentially useable groundwater, risk of saline groundwater up-coning or discharging to the river, and likelihood of groundwater extraction impacting river flows and groundwater dependent ecosystems.&nbsp;</div><div><br></div><div><strong>Citation: </strong>Buckerfield, S., McPherson, A., Tan, K.P., Walsh, C., Buchanan, S., Kilgour, P., Suckow, A., Raiber, M., Symington, N. & Pincus, J., 2024. Groundwater systems of the Upper Darling-Baaka River Floodplain. In: Czarnota, K. (ed.) Exploring for the Future: Extended Abstracts. Geoscience Australia, Canberra. https://doi.org/10.26186/149718</div>

Simple

Identification info

Date (Creation)
2024-07-05T12:00:00
Date (Publication)
2024-08-12T05:44:11
Citation identifier
Geoscience Australia Persistent Identifier/https://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/149718

Citation identifier
Digital Object Identifier/https://dx.doi.org/10.26186/149718

Cited responsible party
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Publisher

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

 Voice
Author

Buckerfield, S.

 Internal Contact
Author

McPherson, A.

 Internal Contact
Author

Tan, K.

 Internal Contact
Author

Walsh, C.

 Internal Contact
Author

Kilgour, P.

 Internal Contact
Author

Buchanan, S.

 External Contact
Author

Raiber, M.

 External Contact
Author

Suckow, A.

 External Contact
Author

Pincus, J.

 Internal Contact
Author

Symington, N.

 External Contact
Author

Peljo, M.

 Internal Contact
Author

Ray, A.

 Internal Contact
Author

Brodie, R.C.

 External Contact
Editor

Czarnota, K.

 Internal Contact
Purpose

EFTF Extended Abstract

Status
Completed
Point of contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Resource provider

Minerals, Energy and Groundwater Division

 External Contact
Point of contact

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

 Voice
Point of contact

Buckerfield, S.

 Internal Contact
Spatial representation type
Topic category
  • Geoscientific information

Extent

N
S
E
W


Maintenance and update frequency
As needed

Resource format

Title

Product data repository: Various Formats

Website

Data Store directory containing the digital product files

Data Store directory containing one or more files, possibly in a variety of formats, accessible to Geoscience Australia staff only for internal purposes

Project

  • EFTF – Exploring for the Future

Project

  • Darling-Curnamona-Delamerian

Keywords

  • groundwater systems

Keywords

  • upper darling

Keywords

  • Groundwater resource assessment

theme.ANZRC Fields of Research.rdf

  • Earth Sciences

Keywords

  • Published_External

Resource constraints

Title

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence

Alternate title

CC-BY

Edition

4.0

Website

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Addressee
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
User

Any
Use constraints
License
Use constraints
Other restrictions
Other constraints

© Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia) 2024

Resource constraints

Title

Australian Government Security Classification System

Edition date
2018-11-01T00:00:00
Website

https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

Classification
Unclassified
Classification system

Australian Government Security Classification System

Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8

Distribution Information

Distributor contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Distributor

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

 Voice facsimile
OnLine resource

Extended Abstract for download (pdf) [3.9 MB]

Extended Abstract for download (pdf) [3.9 MB]

Distribution format

  • pdf

    File decompression technique

    nil

Resource lineage

Statement

<div>This publication was produced as part of Geoscience Australia's Exploring for the Future Program. It was presented at the Exploring for the Future 2024 Showcase.</div>

Metadata constraints

Title

Australian Government Security Classification System

Edition date
2018-11-01T00:00:00
Website

https://www.protectivesecurity.gov.au/Pages/default.aspx

Classification
Unclassified

Metadata

Metadata identifier
urn:uuid/080001fd-9f33-4782-a0b7-155cb5674851

Title

GeoNetwork UUID

Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8
Contact
Role Organisation / Individual Name Details
Point of contact

Commonwealth of Australia (Geoscience Australia)

 Voice
Point of contact

Buckerfield, S.

 Internal Contact

Type of resource

Resource scope
Document
Name

GA Abstract / Fact Sheet

Alternative metadata reference

Title

Geoscience Australia - short identifier for metadata record with

uuid

Citation identifier
eCatId/149718

Metadata linkage

https://ecat.ga.gov.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/080001fd-9f33-4782-a0b7-155cb5674851

Date info (Creation)
2024-08-09T02:11:59
Date info (Revision)
2024-08-09T02:11:59

Metadata standard

Title

AU/NZS ISO 19115-1:2014

Metadata standard

Title

ISO 19115-1:2014

Metadata standard

Title

ISO 19115-3

Title

Geoscience Australia Community Metadata Profile of ISO 19115-1:2014

Edition

Version 2.0, September 2018

Citation identifier
http://pid.geoscience.gov.au/dataset/ga/122551

 
 

Spatial extent

N
S
E
W


Keywords

Darling-Curnamona-Delamerian EFTF – Exploring for the Future
theme.ANZRC Fields of Research.rdf
Earth Sciences

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