Monitoring update
Between Rapid Appraisal of Riparian Condition (RARC) surveys, nighttime frog monitoring, quarterly piezometer (field instrument) maintenance and cows eating soil moisture sensors, the monitoring team has been kept very busy the past quarter. However, with the wettest period on record and Covid lockdown limiting our ability to access the field instruments, we’ve been concentrating on working with key partner HydroTerra to get our data management and reporting system operational for the Mulloon Rehydration Initiative.
Monument protecting a piezometer well that houses a sensor for measuring groundwater level, temperature and electrical conductivity.
Sentek soil moisture sensor logger and modem unit connected to laptop (via cable on right) for a maintenance check
DataStream is HydroTerra’s data management system that will house all data captured by field instruments, such as piezometer (measures ground water level and quality), soil moisture, stream gauge, climate stations, plus various flora and fauna data the Mulloon Institute collects as part of the Mulloon Rehydration Initiative. This is a rather significant task with some instruments recording data since 2007. It includes capturing information from more than 70 installed piezometers (borehole drill logs) that must be digitised, matched to the instrument data and uploaded. The system includes data from all instruments across the catchment to track and trace for data integrity. The data is managed spatially (Geofabric) which allows analysis and reporting at various scales, such as site, paddock, property, and catchment, or other management area of interest, i.e. floodplain soil and groundwater for plant growth. The ground-based data is very useful for correlating and analysing against satellite-based data, both spatially (specific area of interest) and temporally (matching time of ground data collection).
Another key partner of TMI’s, Cibo Labs provides landholders with access to satellite-based vegetation maps online that are updated every five days with the latest satellite data. Each year the landholders receive an updated report of vegetation changes for their respective properties that extends back to 1990. This provides them with fantastic information on what and where vegetation has changed due to management actions, or how quickly the country has responded when the extreme drought of 2017-20 broke.
An example of the data being collected is shown in graph above which indicates the amount of water (ML/day) measured by the stream gauge in the Lower Mulloon creek area (i.e. Palerang and Duralla boundary), plus rainfall received at the time. Keeping in mind there are times where rainfall has fallen in the upper catchment (Tallaganda National Park) and flowed down Mulloon Creek. The graph shows the first initial rainfall flow event in February and March 2020, a small pulse of water at the end of July followed by the major rainfall and flood event (1 in 50yr), followed by another good pulse of water in November 2020, and another major rainfall and flood event in March 2021. There are also numerous smaller pulses related to rainfall events in between these major events.
The Mulloon Rehydration Initiative is jointly funded through the Mulloon Institute and the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program. The initiative is also assisted by the NSW Government through its Environmental Trust.