Catchment Management Studies
Catchment management and hydrology
Catchment management involves understanding catchment processes and the response of these processes to changes. Many catchments have experienced substantial change as a result of land use change and other factors. For hydrology, these changes can affect flooding, water quality and catchment amenity.
All of us live and work in a catchment. And we all benefit from sound catchment management practices and sensible forward planning.
Catchment management studies involve integrated planning and resource management at a whole-of-catchment scale. Stormwater catchments frequently cross land title and jurisdiction boundaries. There are often many stakeholders involved and a range of land and water management issues that need to be considered. Accordingly, catchment management requires a holistic approach to planning and needs to be supported with sound technical studies.
What we do
We get involved typically in the technical aspects of water and land management. We help characterise erosion risk and landscape processes, cropping systems and the role of different land uses in the catchment hydrologic cycle. We work with rural, urban and industrial catchments, or any combination of land uses.
We use our hydrology expertise in this area, and also bring in GIS and landscape mapping and assessment tools. We use models that can assess catchment processes from a paddock and farm scale right up to the whole catchment.