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Project 3.7.4 - Wetlands and floodplain: connectivity and hydro-ecological function

Project Leader:  Dr Jim Wallace, CSIRO Land and Water 

The overall objective of Project 3.7.4 is to develop the capability to predict the impacts of changes in land use, management and climate on the flow and water quality regimes and ecological dynamics in the wetlands and floodplains of catchments adjacent to the Great Barrier Reef.  This will be achieved via the following key objectives:

  • Quantify how the flood regime affects the main sinks and sources of sediment and nutrient and their transport across floodplains;

  • Develop a model to predict how the hydrological response and connectivity of tropical floodplains are affected by land use, land and water management and climate; and

  • Develop models that link ecological structure (e.g. biodiversity, community patterns) and processes to the core floodplain hydrology model to quantify the consequences of changes in water body connectivity between freshwater and saline waterways for biodiversity, biological connectivity and proper ecological function.

Unique Zones - Coastal Wetlands and Floodplains

Project 3.7.4 Downloads

Project 3.7.4 CSIRO Wallace, J. (2008) June Milestone Report
A Draft progress report on the development and testing of hydro-dynamic modeling for use in floodplain sediment and nutrient transport and wetland connectivity. [pdf 55.8 kb]


Projects 3.7.3/3.7.4 CSIRO Wallace, J. (2007) Hydro-ecological modeling in coastal catchments: Connectivity and hydro-ecological function
Report from the MTSRF Projects 3.7.3 and 3.7.4 Workshop held at CSIRO Davies Laboratory, Townsville, 19-20 April 2007, which summarises the presentations, discussion and recommendations made. The key objective of the workshop was to initiate the development of an integrated package of conceptual and quantitative models, supported by field-based research, to predict the key hydro-ecological functions in Wet Tropics rivers, wetlands and floodplains. [pdf 647.1 kb]


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