Water, land use change and ‘new forests’
Abstract
Land use has changed rapidly in south-west Victoria over the last decade and is expected to continue, albeit at a slower pace over the coming decades. One of those changes has been the development of ‘new forests’ - industrial and farm forestry plantations and environmental plantings using indigenous or other native species. This paper discusses some of the challenges that these land use changes pose for water and natural resource managers, drawing on results from the ‘Water and Land Use Change’ study.
Land use change is expected to substantially reduce potential water yield in four of the region’s seven drainage basins. Losses in potential water yield of 8- 20% are predicted for these basins and of 7-8% for the region as a whole. New forest development will be the major driver of the hydrologic change that is following land use change. While land use change is not expected to greatly influence water yield to the region’s major storages, it is expected to add considerably to the already high level of flow-related stress in the upper and middle reaches of the Lake Corangamite, Hopkins and Glenelg drainage basins.
Authors
Craig Clifton, Carl Daamen, Avril Horne & John Sherwood