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CRC PUBLICATIONS |
Predicting the Water Yield Impacts of Forest Disturbance in the Maroondah and Thomson Catchments using the Macaque Model
Murray Peel, Fred Watson, Rob Vertessy, Alex Lau, Ian Watson, Mike Sutton and Bruce Rhodes
Publication Type:
Technical Report
This is a publication of the current CRC for Catchment Hydrology
CRC Program:
Predicting Catchment Behaviour
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Publication Keywords:
Water Yield
Catchment Areas
Forestry
Modelling (Hydrological)
Age of Trees
Precipitation (Atmospheric)
Rainfall-Runoff Relationship
Decision Support Systems
Macaque
Forecasting
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Abstract / Summary:
Native forests provide many important social, economic and environmental values that need to be carefully managed along with the trees. A key one of these is water. Over the last decade, Melbourne Water and the Department of Natural Resources and Environment have jointly managed the Thomson catchment in a bid to maintain water values and sustainable levels of timber harvesting. Their management strategy has been based on two major studies examining the relative values of wood and water resources in this catchment. These studies used the best-available hydrological understanding for mountain ash forests. Since the publication of those studies, research by the Cooperative Research Centre for Catchment Hydrology (CRCCH) has improved our understanding of how forest harvesting affects water yield. This new knowledge is embedded in a process-based catchment model called Macaque, developed by Dr Fred Watson and his fellow CRCCH researchers.
This report describes Macaque and reports on recent improvements to the model and applications to the Maroondah and Thomson catchments. The authors show that Macaque can be used to improve current forecasts of how timber harvesting in the Thomson catchment affects catchment water yields. Such improved forecasts can signif icantly reduce uncertainty in the management of the catchment.
Note that this report is the product of long-standing collaboration between several CRCCH parties, including Melbourne Water, NRE, CSIRO and the University of Melbourne. It is my belief that such collaboration not only leads to a superior technical result but also to wider adoption of the findings.
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Centre Office:
CRC for Catchment Hydrology
Dept of Civil Engineering
Building 60
Monash University Vic 3800
Tel: +61 3 9905 2704
Fax: +61 3 9905 5033
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