Monitoring damage caused by urban salinity
Abstract
Dryland salinity is causing damage to natural and built assets in some urban and peri-urban areas of Bendigo in north central Victoria – including damage to buildings, roads, bridges, pipelines, cemeteries, public parks and gardens, lakes and waterways, as well as private homes and gardens. The extent and impacts of this damage however are largely unknown. To address this gap in knowledge, a project was undertaken for the North Central Dryland Salinity Management Plan to develop and implement a process for monitoring and reporting the impacts and expenditure on key infrastructure assets resulting from dryland salinity. The “Benchmarking Infrastructure Asset Condition” project had several important outputs for the City of Greater Bendigo and the North Central Catchment Management Authority including - a salinity hazard map for Bendigo; identification of salinity reference sites; an approach to infrastructure asset condition monitoring and reporting; and a reference guide and salinity training for local government asset managers. The project covered a broad range of common symptoms or ‘indicators’ of urban salinity in Bendigo, and while specifically applicable to that locale, its outputs and approach can be used to guide the identification of salinity and its impacts in other towns and cities across Australia.
Authors
Camille McGregor