A Review on Surface Enhanced Experimental Catchments to Improve Farm Water Security and Resilience in a Drying Climate in Southwestern Australia

Document Type : Case Study

Authors

1 Professor, Honorary Research Fellow, The Institute of Agriculture, The University of Western Australia, Crawley. 6001 Western Australia

2 Soil Conservation Specialist. Fremantle. Western Australia

3 Deputy General Manager, Risk Management Team, Korean Reinsurance Company, Seoul, South Korea

Abstract

In this paper, the evolution of runoff enhancement treatments on both natural and artificial (or roaded) catchments used for rainfall harvesting to supply small on-farm dams in south-western Australia is reviewed. Over the last seven decades, various experimental treatments and approaches to enhance water shedding or harvesting techniques have been tested and adapted across this region to account for variations in slope, soil type and rainfall distribution. These adaptations are vital to maintain water harvesting efficiency and water security in a drying climate and enable farmers to continue to produce crops and support livestock effectively while increasing their climate resilience. As such, water security is one of the most important components of any agricultural enterprise. The treatments or sealants evaluated, varied in their capacity, cost, durability or water shedding capability, to provide a robust response to changes experienced in rainfall patterns, their intensity and frequency due to climate change. This review has highlighted the potential to use various surface treatments to increase the water harvesting efficiency from different landscapes in semi-arid or dryland agricultural areas in southwestern Australia.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

Anderson, W. K., Stephens, D. and Siddique, K. H. M. (2016). Dryland Agriculture in Australia: Experiences and Innovations. In Innovations in Dryland Agriculture, edited by M. Farooq and K. H. M. Siddique, 299-319. Springer International Publishing.
Australia Bureau of Meteorology. (2020). Accessed Septmber, 2020. http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/change/index.s html#tabs=Tracker&tracker=timeseries http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/data/index.shtml
Baek, C. W. and Coles, N. A. (2011). Defining Reliability for Rainwater Harvesting Systems. International Congress on Modelling and Simulation (MODSIM 2011). 12-16th Dec 2011. Perth WA. Australia.
Baek, C. W. and Coles, N. A. (2013a). Artificial catchment rainfall-runoff collecting system: Design efficiency and reliability potential considering climate change in Western Australia. Agricultural Water Management, 121: 124–134.
Baek, C. W. and Coles, N. A. (2013b). The influence of antecedent soil moisture conditions on the rainfall–runoff threshold value of a roaded catchment used for water harvesting. Water Science and Technology Water Supply, 13(5): 1202-1208.
Coles, N. A., Baek, C. W. and Stanton, D. (2011). Potential of Artificial Catchment Rainwater Collecting Systems in the Arid and Semi-arid Area of Western Australia. 4th IWA-ASPIRE Conference. 4-6 th Oct. 2011. Tokyo. Japan.
Coles, N. A. (2012). Water harvesting in rural Western Australia- An historical perspective. Keynote Address. The 3rd IWA- WHM Conference and Exhibition. Goseong, South Korea, pp. 3.
Coles, N. A. and Baek, C. W. (2012). Impact of climate change on the design criteria for rainwater harvesting systems in Western Australia. Proc. of the 18th Congress of the Asia and Pacific Division of the International Association for Hydro- nvironment Engineering and Research. Jeju, South Korea, Volume 1: Pp 10.
Coles, N., Hauck, E. J., Simons J. A. and Laing, I. A. F. (2000). Farm water planning strategies for dryland agricultural areas: local and regional perspectives. Conference: Proceedings Vol. 1. XTH World Water Congress. International Water Resources Association. Melbourne, Victoria. Australia. 9 pp.
Deparment of Primary Industries and Regional Development. (2020). Accessed September 2020. https://www.agric.wa.gov.au/climatechange/climate-trends-western-australia
Department of Agriculture of Western Australia (DAWA). (1980). Newdegate Catchment Field Trials 1974-1980. Unpbulished Data.
He, Ch., Zhang, L., Zhang, X. and Eslamian, S. (2014). Water Security: Concept, Measurement, and Operationalization, in Handbook of Engineering Hydrology, Ch. 28, Vol. 3: Environmental Hydrology and Water Management, Ed. By Eslamian, S., Taylor and Francis, CRC Group, USA, 545-554.
Huang, J., Yu, H., Guan, X., Wang, G. and Guo, R. (2016). Accelerated dryland expansion under climate change. Nature Climate Change, 6(2): 166-171.
IPCC. (2019). Summary for Policymakers. In: Climate Change and Land: an IPCC special report on climate change, desertification, land degradation, sustainable land management, food security, and greenhouse gas fluxes in terrestrial ecosystems [P. R. Shukla, J. Skea, E. Calvo Buendia, V. Masson-Delmotte, et al. (eds.)]. Revised January 2020. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, ISBN 978-92-9169-154-8. www.ipcc.ch
IUCN. (2019). Drylands and climate change. Issues Brief. September. International Union for Conservation of Nature. Gland, Switzerland.
Laing, I. A. F. (1975). South Stirlings Runoff Trials 1971-75. Unpublished Data. Department of Agriculture, Perth. WA, Australia.
Laing, I. A. F. (1981). Evaluation of SmallCatchment Surface Treatments. Technical paper No. 61. Canberra, Department of National Development and Energy. Pp 120.
Lantzke, N. and Prince, J. (2004). Runoff enahncements with chemcial applications. Unpublished Interim Report. Department of Agriculture, Perth, WA, Australia.
Lantzke, N. and Stanton, D. (2005). Frankland roaded catchment survey. Unpublished Interim Report. Department of Agriculture, Perth. WA, Australia.
Mekdaschi Studer, R. and Liniger, H. (2013). Water Harvesting: Guidelines to Good Practice. Centre for Development and Environment (CDE), Bern, Switzerland; Rainwater Harvesting Implementation Network (RAIN), Amsterdam, Netherlands; MetaMeta, Wageningen, Netherlands; The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Rome. Italy. Geographica Bernensia, Bern, Switzerland.
Oweis, T. Y., Prinz, D. and Hachum, A. Y. (2012). Harvesting for Agriculture in the Dry Areas. London, CRC Press. UK.
Patle, G. T., Kumar, M. and Khanna, M. (2020). Climate-smart water technologies for sustainable agriculture: A review. Journal of Water and Climate Change, (4): 1455–1466. https://doi.org/10.2166/wcc.2019.257
Philpott, N., Coles, N. A., Cohen, B. and Short, R. (2007). Improving the efficiency of roaded catchments for water harvesting. SSEE Conference. Perth WA, 31-Oct-2 Nov. 2007.
Public Works Department (PWD). (1959). Roaded Catchments for Farm Water Supplies. Journal of Agriculture, 8(5): 667-679.
Short, R. and Lantzke, N. (2006). Increasing runoff from roaded catchments by chemical application. Final report to grape and wine research and development corporation. Project Number: RT 03/20-4.
Smith, A. (2020). Funding boost to water deficient regions. Farmers Weekly. Posted. 28 December, 2020. 9am. https://www.farmweekly.com.au/story/7067740/fun ding-boost-to-water-deficient-regions/
Stanton, D. (2005). Roaded catchments to improve reliability of farm dams. Bulletin 4636. Department of Agriculture, Western Australia, Australia.
Stroosnijder, L., Moore, D., Alharbi, A., Argaman, E., Biazin, B. and van den Elsen, E. (2012). "Improving water use efficiency in drylands." Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 4(5): 497-506.
UNEP (2011). Global Drylands: A UN system-wide response. United Nations Environment Management Group. Pp. 132. emg@unep.org.
Vohland, K. and Barry, B. (2009). A review of in situ rainwater harvesting (RWH) practices modifying landscape functions in African drylands. Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment, 131(3): 119-127.
Yao, J., Liu, H., Huang, J., Gao, Z., Wang, G., Li, D., Yu, H. and Chen, X. (2020). Accelerated dryland expansion regulates future variability in dryland gross primary production. Nature Communications, 11(1): 1665.
Yazar, A. and Ali, A. (2017). Water Harvesting in Dry Environments. Innovations in Dryland Agriculture. M. Farooq and K. H. M. Siddique, Springer International Publishing, 49-98.
Water Productivity Journal
Volume 1, Issue 3
2021
Pages 13-24

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics