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Name of Researcher:
Dale Watson
Research Program:
Doctoral (PhD)
Key Words:
Geographic Information Systems, Water Quality, Turbidity, Predictive modelling, Water
management
Project Aims:
This project will seek to investigate the spatial distribution of sustainable water
usage in Victoria. Geographic Information System (GIS) technology will be used to develop
maps of water availability, and the modelling capacity of the GIS will be applied to
derive a map, or maps, that represent the spatial distribution of water sustainability.
Project Summary:
In recent times much work has been undertaken to document the extent of
water resources in Australia. Extensive work has also been undertaken to further our
understanding of the complex ecological effects of our substantial resource
Assessment
of sustainability, however, requires the inclusion of ecological, social and economic
criteria. While much assessment of water availability has been, rightly, focused at a
catchment or basin level, important criteria that determine sustainability are related to
the regional context. Decisions by resource managers, consumers and government effect
water availability within the wider region and it is in this regional context that the
investigation will attempt to address four major questions:
1.
What is sustainability and how does the concept apply to water in Victoria?
2. What are appropriate
criteria for assessing sustainability of water resources?
3. What is the
distribution of water in Victoria?
4. What is the
distribution of sustainability of water in Victoria?
The
major output of this research will be a map or maps that represent the spatial
distribution of sustainable water resources in Victoria.
Project Collaboration:
1.
Colin Arrowsmith,
Senior Lecturer, Department of Geospatial Science, RMIT
2. Rob Goudey, Statistician, EPA, Victoria
Publications:
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Forthcoming:
D
Watson, R Goudey, C Arrowsmith, Mapping the spatial extent of environmental health: an
approach using stream turbidity, In: Tiezzi E., Brebbia C.A., Rubio J.L.
(eds.),
Ecosystems and Sustainable Development IV, Wit Press, 2003.
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