Why did you do it? –
Two objectives of Stage 1A of the Victorian Constraints Measures Program (VCMP) in the Murray-Darling Basin were:
- to better understand how relaxing operational constraints may change the flow behaviour along the Goulburn and Murray rivers, under a range of climate conditions
- to improve confidence in the information available to assess and communicate to the community and government agencies the changes to inundation depths and extents expected under regulated flow conditions when constraints are relaxed
What did you do? –
To meet these objectives, hydrology and hydraulic models were applied to simulate a large range of potential future scenarios.
The modelling assumptions, inputs and outputs had to be coordinated across river systems and state boundaries, and the outcomes communicated to technical and non-technical audiences.
What have you learned? –
This presentation will summarise lessons learnt from the hydrology and hydraulic modelling component for Stage 1A of the VCMP including:
- the benefits of doing simplified modelling before starting detailed modelling
- the trade-offs between model detail and extent, and the time taken to simulate scenarios
- what appeared to work well and what didn’t when communicating the modelling outcomes to a wide variety of stakeholders
Why does it matter? –
Lessons learnt from the hydrology and hydraulic modelling component for Stage 1A of the VCMP are likely to be useful in subsequent stages of the VCMP, and for other basin-scale stream management projects that involve a hydrology or hydraulic modelling component.