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Water Resources

Australia experiences some of the most variable climate conditions on earth.  The availability of water can vary greatly from year to year, impacting urban and rural supply, cultural use and the environment.  Water availability and demand is also increasingly impacted by the greater extremes experienced under climate change.  Water resource planning has also become progressively more complex over recent years due to demand growth, demographic and irrigated culture change combined with greater use of alternate water sources such as recycled water, groundwater and desalinated supplies. 

In this environment, water resource planning and management decisions must be supported by trusted advice, arising from robust and defensible hydrology and water resource modelling. 

HARC has a long history of providing water resource management advice tailored to our clients’ needs.  Our water resources team has extensive experience in hydrological analysis and catchment modelling, short- and long-term water resource planning and drought response, forecasting and environmental flow analysis under current and future climate and demand conditions. 

We have established ourselves as a trusted partner to those who manage Australia’s catchments and water resources, and utilise the latest information and techniques in hydrology, modelling and climate science to provide the best outcomes for our clients.

Key Projects

Constraints Modelling for the Murray-Darling Basin

New South WalesSouth AustraliaVictoria

Regional Water Strategies - SOURCE models for the Ovens River system

Victoria

Review of Victoria’s Non-Urban Metering Policy

Victoria

Operation of Tar-Ru (Lake Victoria) – scoping study

New South WalesSouth AustraliaVictoria

River Murray System Environmental Water Delivery Services Review

Aust. Capital Territory

Review of historic flows and levels in the River Murray System

New South WalesVictoria

Publications

Beatty, R. (2022).
What can Australian Rainfall and Temperature Trends tell us about Climate Change (and what can’t they tell us)?
Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium 30 Nov. – 2 Dec. 2022, Engineers Australia, Brisbane, Australia.

Szabo, K., Finger, M., Austin, K. (2022).
Refined treatment of noise and negatives in flows derived by a water balance on storage.
Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium 30 Nov. – 2 Dec. 2022, Engineers Australia, Brisbane, Australia.

Guthrie, E., Razera, A., Beatty, R., Spry, J. (2022).
Challenges in Addressing Water Scarcity in Remote Communities with Demand Management.
AWA/WSAA Voices for the Bush  – Water for Regional, Rural and Remote Communities Conference 2022

Austin, K., Guthrie, E., Jordan, P., Pinto, R., Szabo, K. (2021).
Comparing suitability of two rainfall runoff models in a Victorian ephemeral catchment.
MODSIM 2021 Conference proceedings, 5-10 December, Sydney, Australia.

Jordan, P. (2020).
Impacts of bushfires and timber harvesting on water runoff from forested catchments.
River Basin Management Society and Water Research Australia Catchment Forum Webinar, May 2020.

Austin.K, & Szabo.K. (2019).
Non-climatic trends in gridded climate data.
The 23rd International Congress on Modelling and Simulation (MODSIM), Canberra, 1st-6th December,2019.

Beatty, R. (2019).
The water resource challenges for two indigenous communities in Australia and the pacific.
Ozwater 2019-Transforming Our World, Melbourne, 6-10th May, 2019.

Scorah, M., Jordan, P. W., Morden, R., Nathan, R. J., Lang, S., & Zhang, J. (2019).
Assessment of Uncertainty in Modelling Annual Impacts of Farm Dams for Victoria.
The 23rd International Congress on Modelling and Simulation (MODSIM), Canberra, 1st-6th December, 2019.

Jordan, P., Ahern, J., Northfield, A., Weeks, W., Jones, P., Nathan, R., & Russel, C. (2018).
Bruce Highway Link Flood Study.
Floodplain Management Australia National Conference. Gold Coast, May 29th-June 1st, 2018.

Szabo, K., & Lang, S. (2018).
Construction of a Rainfall – Runoff Model in Liberia , Africa.
39th Australian Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium. Melbourne, 3rd-6th December, 2018.

Jordan, P., & Scorah, M. (2018).
Flood risk for linear infrastructure: A tool for incorporating climate change using eWater Source.
NCCARF and EA Climate Adaptation Conference,  Melbourne, 8-10th May, 2018.

Jordan, P., Race, G., Morden, R., & Shepherd, D. (2018).
Trends in farm dam development over time in Victoria, 2000 – 2015.
39th Australian Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium. Melbourne, 3rd-6th December 2018.

Austin, K., & Pohlner, H. (2018).
Application of WaterGuide-a framework for improved water resource management in Jordan.
39th Australian Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium. Melbourne, 3rd-6th December, 2018.

Jordan, P., Latu, K., Shepherd, D., Weeks, W., & Nathan, R. (2017).
Advances in continuous flood simulation for design of linear infrastructure.
The 22nd International Congress on Modelling and Simulation (MODSIM), December 3rd-8th, 2017, Hobart, Tasmania.

Lang. S, Nathan, R, Ramchurn, A, Liu, B. (2017).
Bias correction for AWRA – L runoff data in Victoria.
The 22nd International Congress on Modelling and Simulation (MODSIM), Hobart , 3rd-8th December, 2017.

Beatty, R., & Jordan, P. (2017).
Towards a truly integrated approach to water supply and demand modelling.
EWater SOURCE Software Conference, Canberra, 21st-23rd November, 2017

Rahman, J., Jordan, P., Conland, C. (2016).
Web interfaces to models developed in eWater Source.
37th Australian Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium. 28 Nov – 2 December Queenstown New Zealand.