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A Regionalisation of Tasmanian Catchments

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A Regionalisation of Tasmanian Catchments A Regionalisation of Tasmanian Catchments Donald Hine and Bryce Graham Water Assessment and Planning Branch Water Resources Division DPIWE Technical Report WRA 03/02 February 2003 Acknowledgments This study has been conducted under the Natural Heritage Trust as part of the project "Tasmanian Environmental Flows" (NRC13182) and has received funding from the Commonwealth Government and the Department of Primary Industries, Water and Environment. The authors would like to thank Martin Read, Ian Tye, Abbie Foley and David Fuller for their assistance and comments. Copyright Notice: Material contained in the report provided is subject to Australian copyright law. Other than in accordance with the Copyright Act 1968 of the Commonwealth Parliament, no part of this report may, in any form or by any means, be reproduced, transmitted or used. This report cannot be redistributed for any commercial purpose whatsoever, or distributed to a third party for such purpose, without prior written permission being sought from the Department of Primary Industries, Water and Environment, on behalf of the Crown in Right of the State of Tasmania. Disclaimer: Whilst DPIWE has made every attempt to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the information and data provided, it is the responsibility of the data user to make their own decisions about the accuracy, currency, reliability and correctness of information provided. The Department of Primary Industries, Water and Environment, its employees and agents, and the Crown in the Right of the State of Tasmania do not accept any liability for any damage caused by, or economic loss arising from, reliance on this information. Preferred Citation: Hine, D. and Graham, B. (2003) A Regionalisation of Tasmanian Catchments. Department of Primary Industries, Water and Environment, Hobart Technical Report No. WRA 03/02 ISBN: 07246 6964 7 ISSN: 1448-1626 The Department of Primary Industries, Water and Environment The Department of Primary Industries, Water and Environment provides leadership in the sustainable management and development of Tasmania’s resources. The Mission of the Department is to advance Tasmania’s prosperity through the sustainable development of our natural resources and the conservation of our natural and cultural heritage for the future. The Water Resources Division provides a focus for water management and water development in Tasmania through a diverse range of functions including the design of policy and regulatory frameworks to ensure sustainable use of the surface water and groundwater resources; monitoring, assessment and reporting on the condition of the State’s freshwater resources; facilitation of infrastructure development projects to ensure the efficient and sustainable supply of water; and implementation of the Water Management Act 1999 , related legislation and the State Water Development Plan. Table of contents SUMMARY................................................................................................................................................................. 1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................................................... 2 THE REGIONALISATION PROCESS .............................................................................................................................. 2 REVIEW OF PREVIOUS TASMANIAN STUDIES ............................................................................................................. 2 CURRENT STUDY.................................................................................................................................................... 3 METHODS .................................................................................................................................................................. 3 CATCHMENT SELECTION ........................................................................................................................................... 3 HYDROLOGICAL DATA .............................................................................................................................................. 4 BIOPHYSICAL DATA ................................................................................................................................................. 4 GROUPING ................................................................................................................................................................ 4 HYDROLOGICAL CLUSTERING ................................................................................................................................... 4 BIOPHYSICAL CLUSTERING ..................................................................................................................................... 14 DISCRIMINANT FUNCTION ANALYSIS ...................................................................................................................... 17 CLASSIFICATION MODELS ....................................................................................................................................... 25 ANDREWS CURVES .................................................................................................................................................. 26 DISCUSSION............................................................................................................................................................ 27 CURRENT STUDY RESULTS ...................................................................................................................................... 27 COMPARISON WITH PREVIOUS STUDY METHODS AND RESULTS ............................................................................... 30 CONCLUSIONS ......................................................................................................................................................... 38 BIBLIOGRAPHY..................................................................................................................................................... 39 APPENDICES........................................................................................................................................................... 40 A1: 52 STATIONS USED TO FORM INITIAL HYDROLOGICAL CLUSTERS .................................................................... 40 A2: K MEANS GROUPING OF 51 STATIONS BY HYDROLOGICAL VARIABLE AND CLASSIFICATIONS TRANSFERRED TO CATCHMENTS .......................................................................................................................................................... 42 A2 CONTINUED ....................................................................................................................................................... 43 A3: H YDROLOGICAL DATA . 52 STATIONS ............................................................................................................... 45 A3 CONTINUED ....................................................................................................................................................... 46 B1: 51 CATCHMENT CLUSTER MEMBERSHIP PROBABILITIES BY QUADRATIC DISCRIMINANT ANALYSIS ................... 47 B1 CONTINUED ........................................................................................................................................................ 48 B2: 74 CATCHMENTS FINAL CLASSIFICATION PROBABILITIES .................................................................................. 49 B2 CONTINUED ........................................................................................................................................................ 50 B3: B IOPHYSICAL DATA 74 CATCHMENTS .............................................................................................................. 51 B3 CONTINUED ........................................................................................................................................................ 52 C: C LUSTER METHODS , RESULTS COMPARISON ...................................................................................................... 53 C CONTINUED .......................................................................................................................................................... 54 D: H UGHES (1987,1989) HYDROLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION INDEXES ...................................................................... 55 E: A B RIEF EXPLANATION OF ANALYSIS METHODS . .............................................................................................. 56 Summary The project objective was to produce a broad classification model of Tasmanian catchments based on biophysical characteristics, describing a set of climatic, physical and vegetation conditions within catchments. The model can then be used to classify ungauged catchments into hydrologically similar catchment groups. Once a model of each group's hydrological behaviour has been developed it is expected that the assignment of ungauged catchments to one of these groups on the basis of biophysical similarity will provide a generalised description of the ungauged streams hydrological behaviour. Development of hydrological behaviour models for the groups was not undertaken for this study. Three hydrological groupings were derived from a hydrological data set of 52 gauged catchments using a complete linkage hierarchical cluster analysis and K means clustering. The classifications were then applied
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