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LANDSCAN: Managing Landscapes - matching soils, climate and enterprises

Acidity, salinity, nutrient deline, erosion have major production and environmental impacts in NSW. An estimated 16-20m hectares in the state are affected to water erosion and 200,000 hectares are affected by salinity.

Salinity management practice guidelines

Managing root-zone salinity for irrigated horticultural crops in winter rainfall zones of Australia

A better understanding of plant requirements and the highly efficient management of water has led irrigators to apply water to accurately meet crop needs. This has meant a considerable reduction in the amount of water flushing through the root-zone. As a result, soil salinity levels have risen. Current drought conditions and low water allocations are likely to result in even less water being used to flush salts from the root-zone. The declining quality of water resources means that actively removing (more)...

Investigating lake/groundwater interactions at Lake Tutchewop

Salinity is an on-going environmental concern that causes damage to agricultural land, downstream water users, aquatic ecosystems and biodiversity, as well as to regional and urban infrastructure. One strategy to manage increasing salinity in the Murray Darling Basin is the construction of 13 major salt interception schemes that divert 550,000 tonnes of salt away from the Murray River each year (Figure 1). The Barr Creek Drainage Disposal Scheme is one of these schemes diverting saline water into (more)...

Irrigation Update Volume 9

Irrigation and the Rootzone

In this issue:

  • Investigating the Salt of the Earth
  • Digging deep and the quest for super soils
  • Linking irrigator experience with measured data
  • NPSI News

Coordinating Deep Drainage Research in the Northern Darling Basin - Final Report

A key issue identified by the research community working with the cotton industry was the lack of understanding and acceptance of the concept of deep drainage. Deep drainage is defined as the part of the water (applied to the surface and as rainfall or irrigation) that moves past the rootzone. In general the existing paradigm was “cotton soils don’t leak”. However, the research community related to the Australian Cotton CRC (ACCRC) (more)...

Root Zone Salinity Risks in the Lower Murray Districts

As a result of improved irrigation management and systems, growers in the Lower Murray (Riverland-Sunraysia) horticultural region have improved their water use efficiency (WUE) over the past two decades from about 50% to about 80%. However a negative consequence of this achievement is the emerging risk of salinity build-up in the root zone, threatening the sustainability of the region (Biswas et al. 2005a; Biswas et al. 2005b). The amount of irrigation applied must account for (more)...

Salinity Impact on Lower Murray Horticulture

Project Objectives

  • Determine/update the crop salinity relationships
  • Determine the variability of EC (soil water) and leaching efficiency in the field
  • Simulate different scenarios of River Murray salinity at Morgan
  • Input to the MDB Salinity Strategy and Integrated Catchment Management Plan

Salinity Workplan

This work plan was developed in consultation with the National Coordinating Committee for Salinity and is consistent with it’s the terms of reference. It addresses the reporting requirements from this committee to the National Land & Water Resources Audit. The NLWRA’s objectives that will be met by this work plan include: Development and agreement of national indicators of Salinity. Appropriate data (more)...

ASIP brochure

The Australian Salinity Information Project (ASIP) aims to facilitate periodic national assessments of salinity coordinated by the National Land & Water Resources Audit (NLWRA) based on systematic and consistent salinity data.

Indicator protocols: location, size and intensity of salt-affected areas

Areas Threatened by Shallow or Rising Water Tables

Salinisation occurs where soils and vegetation are degraded by the discharge and evaporative concentration of saline groundwater. This commences when the water table either reaches the root zone or where it can be evaporatively concentrated (commonly within two metres of the ground surface). Monitoring the expansion or contraction and intensity of salt affected areas provides an effective tool for assessing changes in salinity status over time. It can also aid in determining risk and (more)...