Lake Bryde Water Balance
31 Jul 2017
Lake Bryde is a high-value ecological wetland in the south west of Western Australia. The lake lies in the central wheatbelt near the town of Lake Grace, some 370 km south east of Perth. The catchment is located at the headwaters of the Lockhart River catchment which drains ultimately to the Avon River.
Lake Bryde is identified as a priority biodiversity asset. The lake bed is occupied by a threatened ecological community, dominated by Duma horrida subsp. abdita, and Tecticornia verrucosa.
Land clearing, largely since the 1960’s, has significantly altered the quantity and quality of water entering Lake Bryde with negative ramifications for the associated biodiversity values, in particular the lake bed vegetation.
The lake has been extensively studied over time. Monitoring for Lake Bryde and the broader catchment area has been undertaken by State Government organisations since 1979. A number of hydrological studies have been undertaken in the past, including the development of local and catchment-scale water balances and numerical models.
In this project, we developed a water balance model for the lake using Watbal. The Watbal model was developed originally by Adrian Peck. A version of Watbal has also been used to simulate the water and salt balance of Toolibin Lake. See our Tooliban Lake project description.