Water is our future

Environmental Hydrology Associates offers personalised, specialist technical services to industry, government agencies, the engineering consulting profession and community groups with key focuses on sustainable water use and the interaction between surface water, groundwater and the environment.

Environmental Hydrology Associates places emphasis on numerical modelling of hydrological systems and embraces geographical information systems.

Our core activities include:

• Groundwater hydrology
• Surface water hydrology
• Hydrological & environmental impact assessment
• Innovative & alternative water supply schemes
• Water planning & management

Water in Perspective

Australia is the second driest continent on earth. Globally, freshwater resources constitute only a minute fraction of the earth’s water.

Australia has one of the most variable climates in the world with annual rainfall totals generally exhibiting marked variability from year to year. However over-printed on this annual variability there tends to be broader cycles. One way to look at these long-term cycles is to examine at rainfall mass residual curves.

The trend of rainfall mass residual curves is often strongly reflected in trends in groundwater levels and storage. A graph of groundwater levels on North Stradbroke Island compared with the mass residual curve emphasizes that the derived concept of drought / long-term rainfall trends is embedded in the hydrological data that can be extracted from monitoring the landscape.

Graphs of rainfall mass residual curves for Australia’s capital cities illustrate the longer-term trends in rainfall and the potential duration and severity of periods of generally below average rainfall that can be experienced. Whilst this historical data largely reflects natural climatic variability, it should be noted that there is potential for these cycles to become further over-printed with additional variability and trends associated with climate change.