Advancing knowledge of groundwater in the Mount Lofty Ranges, Northern Adelaide Plains and Kangaroo Island
Mount Lofty Ranges, Northern Adelaide Plains and Kangaroo Island, South Australia
Total funding: $3.04 million with $1.52 million plus GST from the Australian Government and $1.52 million from the South Australian Government.
About the project
This project will improve the understanding of groundwater flows in fractured rock aquifers in the Mount Lofty Ranges, Northern Adelaide Plains and Kangaroo Island. By their nature, fractured rock groundwater systems are difficult to understand and this work will provider better knowledge of the storage, movement, recharge and interaction with surface water in the region.
Through innovative methods (including geophysical techniques, modelling and mapping coupled with fieldwork) information will be gathered on fractured rock groundwater systems that will build on existing scientific knowledge and provide a more complete picture of how to manage these systems locally, regionally and nationally. The project will also provide catchment level information about how to improve groundwater management across fractured rock areas.
Project benefits
The project will:
- improve understanding of groundwater flow mechanisms in fractured rock aquifers resulting in accelerated water resource management in the region
- improve understanding of surface water and groundwater interactions and implications for complementary use
- improve understanding of zones of influence of groundwater extraction in fractured rock aquifers and improve knowledge of resource behaviour in order to improve overall groundwater management
- improve understanding of groundwater movement and recharge across faults
- identify catchment scale groundwater processes in fractured rock environments to improve understanding and management of these areas
- help to maintain groundwater dependent ecosystems, and
- allow groundwater extraction in new areas and potentially increase extraction by up to 50 per cent in existing areas of low groundwater extraction.
This project will assist the South Australian Government to meet its groundwater assessment objectives under the National Water Initiative.
Progress to July 2008
A key achievement of the project to date has been the production of maps of groundwater flow directions and spatially associated geologic structures in the Mount Lofty Ranges.
Water Smart Australia projects are funded by the Australian Government's framework, Water for the Future.
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