Environmental Water Management in the Fitzroy River Valley Information Availability, Knowledge Gaps and Research Needs
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Environmental Water Management in the Fitzroy River Valley Information availability, knowledge gaps and research needs Bradley J. Pusey The University of Western Australia & Jarrod Kath Western Australian Department of Water i Executive Summary The Fitzroy River is the largest river in the Kimberley region of Western Australia and contains significant biological, conservation and geoheritage values. Socio/cultural values, especially Indigenous values, are significant also but are not considered here. Current land use is dominated by rangeland grazing and very limited irrigated agriculture. The water resources of the basin are significant and potentially available for expanded agricultural development but the impact on the environment of increased water use, especially of groundwater is largely unknown. The current report addresses the availability of information that could be used to guide the formation and implementation of management strategies aimed at maintaining existing values. Currently available information useful in this regard is highly limited. Moreover, available information was found to be rarely in a form (i.e. quantitative relationships between flow and environmental factors) that would enable a full assessment of the impacts of different water resource use scenarios to be undertaken. Similarly, there is limited information that could provide the basis for ongoing assessment (i.e. monitoring) of the efficacy of any imposed water management strategies. Significant knowledge gaps were identified relating to five major themes: 1. The nature of aquatic habitats in the basin and their relationship to the flow regime and groundwater and including identity, extent and distribution, connectivity and conservation value; 2. Responses of riparian, floodplain and groundwater dependent vegetation to changes in water regime; 3. Responses of individual biotic elements and assemblages to changes in water regime and habitat structure and ecological interactions between elements and within assemblages; 4. The nature of the foodweb sustaining assemblages in different water bodies and its relationship to the flow regime, habitat structure and dependency on ground water inputs during the dry season; and 5. The absence of information concerning interactions between flow dependent phenomena and other non-flow related factors that may either exacerbate flow related impacts or obscure changes in environmental values in response to water regime change and thus lessen the capacity to evaluate the efficacy of environmental water management plans. A significant research effort is needed to address these knowledge deficiencies and recommendations as to the nature of required investigations are made. A total of 22 distinct and separate research projects is proposed. Nine of the 22 projects are short-term in nature and are designed to make use of existing data to determine whether such data can provide useful guidance or specific flow ecology relationships. Long-term projects, in contrast, are field based and designed to gather new information which can be synthesised to provide quantitative flow ecology relationships. Each addresses one or more of the themes detailed above. ii Table of contents 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 1 2 Information related to flow/ecology relationships in the Fitzroy River ......................................... 4 3 Overview of the geomorphology, climate, hydrology and landuse of the Fitzroy River Valley ..... 7 3.1 Geomorphology ...................................................................................................................... 7 3.2 Climate .................................................................................................................................... 7 3.3 Hydrology ................................................................................................................................ 7 3.4 Land use – grazing and cropping ........................................................................................... 10 3.5 Catchment disturbance and condition in the Fitzroy River Valley........................................ 12 3.6 Current water use ................................................................................................................. 13 3.7 Water quality ........................................................................................................................ 15 4 Potential future water resource use for agriculture ..................................................................... 16 4.1 Focus areas for increased water demand and potential water sources ............................... 16 4.2 Impacts of future water use on the hydrograph .................................................................. 16 5 Hydrosystems and Protected Areas in the Fitzroy River Valley .................................................... 17 5.1 Hydrosystem definition ......................................................................................................... 17 5.1.1 The Fitzroy River estuary and associated King Sound ................................................... 17 5.1.2 Riverine hydrosystem ................................................................................................... 19 5.1.3 Palustrine hydrosystems ............................................................................................... 20 5.1.4 Subterranean hydrosystems ......................................................................................... 21 5.1.5 Artificial ......................................................................................................................... 21 5.2 Protected areas ..................................................................................................................... 22 6 Water dependent assemblages and processes ............................................................................ 23 6.1 Riparian and floodplain vegetation ....................................................................................... 23 6.1.1 Identifying the distribution of high value riparian and floodplain vegetation (including mapping of groundwater dependent communities) .................................................................... 23 6.1.2 A special type of riparian vegetation - Groundwater dependent vegetation .............. 25 6.1.3 Valuing riparian and floodplain vegetation .................................................................. 29 6.1.4 Ground water requirements for riparian and floodplain vegetation in the Fitzroy River Valley ....................................................................................................................................... 31 6.1.5 The importance of floods and surface waters for riparian and floodplain vegetation . 32 6.1.6 Transferability of previous DoW riparian vegetation studies ....................................... 34 iii 6.2 Aquatic plants and periphyton.............................................................................................. 37 6.2.1 Aquatic plants ............................................................................................................... 38 6.2.2 Periphyton ..................................................................................................................... 38 6.2.3 Water resource development impacts on primary production. ................................... 39 6.3 Macroinvertebrates .............................................................................................................. 40 6.3.1 AUSRIVAS and similar condition assessments .............................................................. 40 6.3.2 Macroinvertebrates in the Pilbara ................................................................................ 41 6.3.3 Macroinvertebrates of human significance .................................................................. 44 6.4 Subterranean fauna .............................................................................................................. 45 6.5 Riverine Fishes ...................................................................................................................... 49 6.5.1 Distribution of freshwater fishes .................................................................................. 49 6.5.2 Estuarine fishes ............................................................................................................. 51 6.5.3 Elasmobranch fishes of high conservation significance ................................................ 52 6.5.4 Relationships between fish populations and surface or groundwater ......................... 53 6.5.5 Connectivity and movement ......................................................................................... 55 6.6 Amphibians and reptiles ....................................................................................................... 58 6.6.1 Frogs .............................................................................................................................. 58 6.6.2 Turtles ........................................................................................................................... 59 6.6.3 Crocodiles and monitor lizards ..................................................................................... 60 6.7 Birds .....................................................................................................................................