Key sites for hydrology and salinity measurement and model validation

The 'Key Sites' project will allow land managers to better understand salinity
Summary
The project will improve knowledge to allow Catchment Management Authorities (CMAs) and land managers to undertake land use change to provide salinity and water quality outcomes.
There are eight sites located around NSW that have been instrumented to measure the key components of the water balance and salt mobilisation. These sites will continue to be monitored using consistent techniques at point, paddock and catchment scale. This will allow understanding of the processes that control and mitigate the expression of dryland salinity in the landscape, and the key data required to parameterise and validate hydrological and salt mobilisation models. It will provide knowledge to quantify the effect of land uses in regard to cropping, herbaceous and woody perennials on the expression of salinity in the landscape and ensure improved confidence and reliability in models and decision support tools for catchment planning.
Find out more about Key sites
Leader
David Mitchell
Orange Agricultural Institute