The application of spatial data processing to land use conflict resolution in the lal lal water catchment of the Ballarat growth corridor: a case study from chapter one of the Buninyong planning scheme

Land use conflict within the Lal Lal Water Catchment is between landowners, the Shire, the Water Board and those directing regional pressures for development. It is exacerbated by inconsistency in building permit appraisal outcomes. The deliberations involved would clearly have benefited from access to spatial data sets through use of a Geographical Information System (GIS) during applications appraisal, in that inconsistencies are most obvious when mapped in relation to the criteria applied. GIS methodologies would ensure that information of a high standard was produced. Three strategic points are identified for the implementation of GIS: at the planning scheme formulation stage; the permit application stage; and the formal conflict resolution stage. Reference to GIS at the first two stages presupposes the existence of a local government area (LGA) spatial data base and a GIS/LIS that can output overlay maps. Application of GIS at the third stage is somewhat ‘after the event’. This study suggests that without such a regional review of the spatial patterns of permit appraisal criteria (including overland flow modelling) each appeal or negotiation is likely to yield an outcome that is inconsistent in relation to other cases. An LGA planning office maintaining a GIS with all layers relating to these criteria will have assembled its spatial data according to the requirements of its planning scheme and will make most use of it in a GIS at the permit appraisal stage.     

Atmospheric CO2 variations at Barrow,Alaska, 1973–1982

The first 10 years (1973–1982) of atmospheric CO₂ measurements at Barrow, Alaska, by the NOAA/GMCC program are described. The paper updates and extends the Barrow CO₂ record presented in Tellus (1982). The data are given in final form, based on recent calibrations of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, with selected values identified as representative of large, spacescale conditions. Analyses of the data show: (1) a long-term CO₂ average increase of 1.3 ppm per year, but with large year-to-year variations in that growth rate; (2) a suggestion, not statistically significant, of a secular increase in the amplitude of the annual cycle, presumably a reflection of global-scale biospheric variability; and (3) good absolute agreement between the Barrow results and those from four neighboring high latitude sites between 50 and 82°N.     

Trends and Variability in Sea Ice and Icebergs off the Canadian East Coast

ABSTRACT

Seasonal time series of sea-ice area or extent in several regions along the east coast of Canada were compiled from several sources for the period 1901 to 2013 and compared with an index of ice extent off southwest Greenland, iceberg season length south of 48°N, air temperature, and other climate indices. Trends in winter ice area and iceberg season length are significant over the past 100 years and 30 years. Variability of winter ice area and iceberg season length is associated with a combination of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) indices superimposed on a negative trend. Thus, large declines in ice area and iceberg season length in the 1920s and 1990s can be attributed to a decreasing NAO index and a shift to the positive phase of the AMO at the end of these decades. Ice extent in southern areas such as the Scotian Shelf is more strongly correlated with the Western Atlantic index than with the NAO. Ice area trends (in percent per decade) are larger in magnitude and account for twice as much of the variance in ice area for summer than for winter, with summer trends significant over 30-, 60- and 100-year periods. Sea-ice variability is generally consistent with air temperature variability in the various regions; in the 1930s, during the early twentieth-century warming period, ice anomalies were higher and temperature anomalies were lower along the coast of eastern Canada than along the coast of southwestern Greenland.     

Comparison of airborne electromagnetic ice thickness data with NOAA/AVHRR and ERS‐1/SAR images

Abstract

Snow‐plus‐ice thickness and surface‐ice roughness data collected by a helicopter‐towed sensor package was used to identify surface‐ice properties in March 1992 AVHRR and SAR images for the land‐fast and mobile pack ice off the northern coast of Newfoundland. The sensor package consisted of an electromagnetic induction sensor and laser profilometer. Observed snow depths and ice thicknesses verified that snow‐plus‐ice thickness over undeformed ice can be obtained to an accuracy of ±10 cm. Snow‐plus‐ice thickness and surface roughness data for flight sections covering several hundred kilometres indicated the change in pack ice properties seen in images from thin, smooth coastal ice and open water conditions to thick, rough consolidated offshore pack ice. Ice charts covering the same area showed similar variations in ice conditions based on AVHRR and fixed‐wing reconnaissance data. In the ERS‐1 SAR image, low backscattering coefficients were associated with large, smooth coastal floes interspersed with areas of high backscatter indicating the presence of waves in open water areas. Backscattering coefficients were higher in the rubble areas near the inshore edge of the pack ice than in the interior of the pack ice itself. Distinguishing ice types on the basis of tone alone in SAR imagery was found to be problematic; however in combination with other remotely sensed data such as AVHRR data, SAR data will become more useful in distinguishing ice types.     

Evaluating groundwater discharge to tidal rivers based on a Rn-222 time-series approach

The natural flux of groundwater into coastal water bodies has recently been shown to contribute significant quantities of nutrients and trace metals to the coastal ocean. Groundwater discharge and hyporheic exchange to estuaries and rivers, however, is frequently overlooked though it often carries a distinctly different chemical signature than surface waters. Most studies that attempt to quantify this input to rivers use multiple geochemical tracers. However, these studies are often limited in their spatial and temporal extents because of the labor-intensive nature of integrating multiple measurement techniques. We describe here a method of using a single tracer, ²²²Rn, to rapidly characterize groundwater discharge into tidally-influenced rivers and streams. In less than one week of fieldwork, we determined that of six streams that empty into the Indian River Lagoon (IRL), Florida, three (Eau Gallie River, Turkey Creek, and Main Canal) did not receive substantial groundwater inputs, one canal (C-25 Canal) was dominated by groundwater exchange, and the remaining two (Sebastian River system and Crane Creek) fell somewhere in between. For more detailed discharge assessments, we focused on the Sebastian River system, a stratified tidal river estuary, during a relatively dry period (June) and a wet period (July) in 2008. Using time-series ²²²Rn and current velocity measurements we found that groundwater discharge into all three branches of the Sebastian River increased by 1–2 orders of magnitude during the wetter period. The estimated groundwater flow rates were higher than those reported into the adjacent IRL, suggesting that discharge into these rivers can be more important than direct discharge into the IRL. The techniques employed here should work equally well in other river/stream systems that experience significant groundwater discharge. Such assessments would allow area managers to quickly assess the distribution and magnitude of groundwater discharge nature into rivers over large spatial ranges.     

Drainage Network Modelling for Water-Sensitive Urban Design

While drainage network models may be relatively easy to assemble as a prerequisite to site selection for infrastructure supporting suburbanisation with Water-Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD), this is unlikely to be the case if the terrain is very subdued. Both ab initio and retro-fit WSUD implementation for such terrain refers, in the first instance, to a drainage network model that includes information on the scope for optimising residential space while conforming to: (1) statutory planning rules about the provision of public open space; and (2) WSUD drainage network design such that runoff waters are retained long enough to allow at least temporary storage. It is shown in this research that a technique applied to condition a LiDAR DEM can accurately model the drainage network of a basin at the land-parcel scale. The drainage network for ab initio WSUD is best defined using multi-flow modelling, with the relative significance of stream segments indicated by their stream order derived using the Strahler method. In contrast, when applying the retro-fit WSUD, the relative significance of segments given by the Shreve stream order method was found to be more useful. The approaches described in this article are designed to support the initial site planning stage and avoid the need for immediate and expensive detailed field survey. At the same time they can be deployed to show how much scope there is for WSUD retro-fit in established housing areas up-stream of an infill development area. Thus, basin-wide appraisal is facilitated and the need for earthmoving is minimised.     

Radon and radium isotopes as tracers of submarine groundwater discharge – Results from the Ubatuba,Brazil SGD assessment intercomparison

We determined groundwater flow rates shortly after the wet season into an embayment near Ubatuba, Brazil as part of an international intercomparison experiment for submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) assessment techniques. Our estimated rates were determined by the combined use of continuous radon measurements and assessment of radium isotope patterns. The spatial distribution of the short-lived radium isotopes (²²³Ra and ²²⁴Ra) provided the means for independent evaluations of radon losses by mixing and atmospheric evasion. We were thus able to construct a well-constrained mass balance for radon that included a groundwater flux term. Our results showed that the groundwater discharge into this embayment from the fractured crystalline rock aquifer is not steady-state but varies with tidal modulation and rain-induced forcing. Tidally modulated and rain-induced flow rates were comparable during this period. The SGD rates estimated from radon ranged from 1 cm/day to 29 cm/day (cm³/cm² day) with a mean and standard deviation of 13 ± 6 cm/day. These estimates were mostly similar to a dye-dilution automatic seepage meter (15 ± 19 cm/day) and were within the broad ranges estimated by manual and continuous heat seepage meters but lower than indicated by an artificial tracer test performed nearshore.     

Land-parcel land-use history as a key to site selection for documenting soil contamination risk: A case study from Australian Suburbia

In that orcharding in early-to-mid twentieth century southeastern Australia involved use of certain heavy metal and As compounds in regular pest-control spray procedures, some interest attaches to the possibility that these landparcels are underlain by’ soils with above-background Cu, Pb and As levels. Interpretation of Land-cover changes allowed land parcels previously occupied by orchards to be identified in the 1950s through time-series air-photos. A comparison of soil analysis results referring to soil samples from control sites, and from land parcels formerly occupied by orchardists, shows that contamination (above-background) levels of cations in the pesticides can be found in the top 6 cm of former orchard soils. It is clear that digital spatial data handling and culturally-informed air photo interpretation has a place in soil contamination studies, land-use planning (with particular reference to re-development) and in administration of public health.