Effects of Land Use on Evapotranspiration and Recharge in the Daly River Catchment

D. Wilson, P. Cook, L. Hutley, S. J. Tickell and P. Jolly
Department of Natural Resources the Environment and the Arts

This project measures components of the water balance under native savannah vegetation and cleared land within the Daly catchment. In particular, the project provides preliminary estimates of evapotranspiration and groundwater recharge beneath these different land uses. A comparison of drainage rates under native and cleared conditions was made using two techniques: (i) a surface water balance, (ii) subsurface water chemistry.

The results of this study must be treated as preliminary, only. This report indicates potentially significant consequences of land clearing. Further work is required to develop and test hypotheses using several years’ of data. Additionally, further work should incorporate a dynamic model of surface and subsurface hydrology to better understand the workings of the system.