Author: Thomas Anderson
Anderson, Thomas, 2022 Catchment-scale saline groundwater interactions identified by environmental tracers and high resolution monitoring (Mt Lofty Ranges, South Australia), Flinders University, College of Science and Engineering
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The intricacies of hydrological processes at the catchment scale are still being uncovered, and recognising this is important for water management. This knowledge has emphasised the need for more in depth investigations of these interactions using multiple lines of evidence, including complimenting environmental tracer data and high resolution salinity and flow data. There has been a significant contribution to the knowledge and understanding of hydrogeological research of groundwater surface water interactions in the past few decades. There are still specific knowledge gaps in how different systems function and interact at different spatiotemporal scales and in different hydrogeological environments.
This Ph.D. thesis addresses some complexities of groundwater surface water interactions at the Scott Creek Catchment. This catchment is a hydrogeologically heterogenous, fractured rock catchment two dominant lithologies (sandy and clayey). The complexities addressed involve identifying different spatiotemporal scales and the investigation of number of the dominant controls (e. geology, relief, precipitation, land use changes, and vegetation) and how these affect the salinity and water quality of the catchment. Specifically, this work investigates: 1) the origin and extent of groundwater salinity anomalies, 2) the timeframe at which a catchment can reach a new salinity equilibrium after land clearing, and 3) the complexities of different spatiotemporal groundwater-surface water interactions on a catchment-scale during a drought.
Keywords: Groundwater, Hydrogeology, Salinity, Scott Creek Catchment, South Australia
Subject: Environmental Science thesis
Thesis type: Doctor of Philosophy
Completed: 2022
School: College of Science and Engineering
Supervisor: Erick Bestland