Development and application of the Riparian Mapping Tool to identify priority rehabilitation areas for nitrogen removal in the Tully–Murray basin, Queensland, Australia

D. W. Rassam; D. Pagendam

doi:10.1071/MF08358

RESEARCH ARTICLE

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Development and application of the Riparian Mapping Tool to identify priority rehabilitation areas for nitrogen removal in the Tully–Murray basin, Queensland, Australia

D. W. Rassam ^A ^C and D. Pagendam ^B

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A CSIRO Land and Water, 120 Meiers Road, Indooroopilly, Qld 4068, Australia.

^B The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Qld 4067, Australia.

^C Corresponding author. Email: david.rassam@csiro.au

Marine and Freshwater Research 60(11) 1165-1175 https://doi.org/10.1071/MF08358
Submitted: 22 December 2008 Accepted: 22 May 2009 Published: 17 November 2009

Abstract

One feature of riparian zones is their ability to significantly reduce the nitrogen loads entering streams by removing nitrate from the groundwater. A novel GIS model was used to prioritise riparian rehabilitation in catchments. It is proposed that high-priority areas are those with a high potential for riparian denitrification and have nearby land uses that generate high nitrogen loads. For this purpose, we defined the Rehabilitation Index, which is the product of two other indices, the Nitrate Removal Index and the Nitrate Interception Index. The latter identifies the nitrate contamination potential for each raster cell in the riparian zone by examining the extent and proximity of agricultural urban land uses. The former is estimated using a conceptual model for surface–groundwater interactions in riparian zones associated with middle-order gaining perennial streams, where nitrate is removed via denitrification when the base flow interacts with the carbon-rich riparian sediments before discharging to the streams. Riparian zones that are relatively low in the landscape, have a flat topography, and have soils of medium hydraulic conductivity are most conducive to denitrification. In the present study, the model was implemented in the Tully–Murray basin, Queensland, Australia, to produce priority riparian rehabilitation area maps.

Additional keywords: denitrification, GIS, nitrate, stream aquifer interaction.

Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts. The development of the RMT was funded by the Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) for Catchment Hydrology and the CRC for Coastal Zone, Estuary and Waterway Management. The authors wish to thank research colleagues from the Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Water and Griffith University for their contributions. The constructive comments made by the reviewers, the journal editor and the guest editor have greatly improved the manuscript.

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