TECHNICAL REPORT STRATEGIC APPROACH TO LOCATION OF LOW FLOW RELEASES IN THE MOUNT LOFTY RANGES – FEASIBILITY STUDY STRATEGIC APPROACH TO LOCATION OF LOW FLOW RELEASES IN THE MOUNT LOFTY RANGES – Feasibility Study Mark Alcorn, Kumar Savadamuthu, Lydia Cetin, Pragya Shrestha Science, Monitoring and Knowledge Branch Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources November 2013 Technical Report DEWNR 2013/21 Science, Monitoring and Knowledge Branch Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources 25 Grenfell Street, Adelaide GPO Box 1047, Adelaide SA 5001 Telephone National (08) 8463 6946 International +61 8 8463 6946 Fax National (08) 8463 6999 International +61 8 8463 6999 Website www.environment.sa.gov.au Disclaimer The Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources and its employees do not warrant or make any representation regarding the use, or results of the use, of the information contained herein as regards to its correctness, accuracy, reliability, currency or otherwise. The Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources and its employees expressly disclaims all liability or responsibility to any person using the information or advice. Information contained in this document is correct at the time of writing. © Crown in right of the State of South Australia, through the Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources 2013 This work is Copyright. Apart from any use permitted under the Copyright Act 1968 (Cwlth), no part may be reproduced by any process without prior written permission obtained from the Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources. Requests and enquiries concerning reproduction and rights should be directed to the Chief Executive, Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources, GPO Box 1047, Adelaide SA 5001. ISBN 978‐1‐922174‐31‐4 Preferred way to cite this publication Alcorn M.R., Savadamuthu K, Cetin L, Shrestha P, 2013, Strategic approach to location of Low Flow Releases in the Mount Lofty Ranges ‐ Feasibility Study, DEWNR Technical Report 2013/21, Government of South Australia, through Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources, Adelaide Download this document at: http://www.waterconnect.sa.gov.au/ FOREWORD The Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources (DEWNR) is responsible for the management of the State’s natural resources, ranging from policy leadership to on‐ground delivery in consultation with government, industry and communities. High‐quality science and effective monitoring provides the foundation for the successful management of our environment and natural resources. This is achieved through undertaking appropriate research, investigations, assessments, monitoring and evaluation. DEWNR’s strong partnerships with educational and research institutions, industries, government agencies, Natural Resources Management Boards and the community ensures that there is continual capacity building across the sector and that the best skills and expertise are used to inform decision making. Allan Holmes CHIEF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT, WATER AND NATURAL RESOURCES Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources | Technical Report DEWNR 2013/21 i Strategic approach to location of Low Flow Releases in the Mount Lofty Ranges – Feasibility Study Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources | Technical Report DEWNR 2013/21 ii Strategic approach to location of Low Flow Releases in the Mount Lofty Ranges – Feasibility Study ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors would like to acknowledge the following people and groups: The Steering Committee and Reference Groups for the “Restoring Low Flows in the Mount Lofty Ranges” initiative. The reference group assembled for this project (which has produced this report) included representatives from the Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges NRM Region (Martin Stokes and Steven Gatti) and the South Australian Murray‐Darling Basin NRM Region (Mardi van der Wielen). Dr Justin Costelloe, from the University of Melbourne, for review of both the Methodology and of the final report. Sinclair Knight Merz and the Department of Water WA for allowing the use of the Source IMS Farm Dam Plug‐in for this project. Joel Rahman (Flow Matters Pty Ltd.) for supporting the configuration and running of the Monte Carlo and Principal Component Analysis framework. Dr Matt Gibbs, Principal Hydrologist Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources, for review of the final report. Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources | Technical Report DEWNR 2013/21 iii Strategic approach to location of Low Flow Releases in the Mount Lofty Ranges – Feasibility Study CONTENTS STRATEGIC APPROACH TO LOCATION OF LOW FLOW RELEASES IN THE MOUNT LOFTY RANGES ....................................................................................................................... III – FEASIBILITY STUDY ...................................................................................................................... III FOREWORD ........................................................................................................................................... I ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................................................ III CONTENTS ........................................................................................................................................... IV LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................................................... V LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................................... VII EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...................................................................................................................... VIII 1. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 1 1.1. BACKGROUND ........................................................................................................................ 1 1.2. OBJECTIVES ............................................................................................................................. 1 1.3. PROJECT AREA ........................................................................................................................ 2 1.4. MOUNT LOFTY RANGES PRESCRIPTION AND LOW FLOW RELEASES ..................................... 2 1.5. BEST‐PRACTICE PROJECT ........................................................................................................ 3 1.6. PROJECT GOVERNANCE .......................................................................................................... 3 2. METHODOLOGY .......................................................................................................................... 6 2.1. PHASE 1 .................................................................................................................................. 7 2.2. PHASE 2 ................................................................................................................................ 21 3. RESULTS ................................................................................................................................... 22 3.1. PHASE 1 ................................................................................................................................ 22 3.2. PHASE 2 ................................................................................................................................ 38 4. CONCLUSIONS .......................................................................................................................... 43 APPENDICES ....................................................................................................................................... 46 A. DESCRIPTION OF TEST ZONES .............................................................................................. 46 B. MAPS SHOWING SCENARIO DEFINITION RESULTS .............................................................. 55 C. ZONE AR002: MONTE CARLO RESULTS FOR EACH SCENARIO ............................................. 60 UNITS OF MEASUREMENT .................................................................................................................. 72 GLOSSARY .......................................................................................................................................... 73 REFERENCES ....................................................................................................................................... 79 Department of Environment, Water and Natural Resources | Technical Report DEWNR 2013/21 iv Strategic approach to location of Low Flow Releases in the Mount Lofty Ranges – Feasibility Study CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Location map: WMLR, EMLR and MS PWRAs ........................................................................... 5 Figure 2. Flowchart showing project methodology ................................................................................. 6 Figure 3. Process for Phase 1 ................................................................................................................... 8 Figure 4. Delineating individual dam watersheds in Source IMS .......................................................... 13 Figure 5. Model window for parameter input ......................................................................................