AGRICULTURAL USE OF RECYCLED WASTEWATER: HYDROGEOLOGICAL MODELLING

摘要

Recognition of the potential value of urban waste water to supply irrigated agriculture is increasing throughout Australia. Regulatory scrutiny of such proposals now embraces considerations of sustainability from the perspective of management of groundwater level and quality requiring reliable predictive groundwater models. What is important to successful assessments is adequate conceptualisation of the areas to be modelled prior to commencement of modelling; achievement of catchment-scale modelling rather than paddock scale modelling; and then the processing of the model outputs to spatially identify risk areas. This paper describes such assessment in two regions of South East Queensland., the Lockyer Valley near Bisbane and the Pioneer Valley near MacKay. Models predict that sustainability is possible subject to certain conditions.