Predicting salinity impacts of land-use change: Groundwater modelling with airborne electromagnetics and field data, SE Queensland, Australia

Throughout Australia, there is concern that land use change is mobilizing salt stored in the landscape, causing salinity in soil and water resources. Salt in the landscape becomes a salinity risk only if it is mobilized by groundwater movement. A combination of modelled groundwater behaviour under various land uses with three-dimensional salt-load maps developed from airborne electromagnetic survey (AEM) provides a practical tool to assess potential salt movement.AEM survey of the country around St. George, SE Queensland, revealed a potential salinity threat: significant salt stores in the uplands adjacent to flood plains which support important irrigation developments and which drain to the Darling River system. A conceptual model of the regional hydrogeology was built upon three-dimensional AEM data, an investigation-drilling program, and direct field measurement of hydraulic conductivities. This information was incorporated in a Flowtube groundwater model and groundwater responses to five different land management options were tested over a 100-year period. Surface water storage on relatively permeable soils and continuous irrigated cotton both resulted in water tables reaching the soil surface; rain-fed wheat and pasture both resulted in a raised watertable, but both established a new equilibrium without the water table reaching the ground surface.