www.environment.gov.

au/ssd

Integrating TLS data with a landform evolution

model to assess soil erosion on a rehabilitated
mine landform.
J Lowry1, A Beraldo1 & T Coulthard2
1
Supervising Scientist Division, Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities

2
Department of Geography, University of Hull, Hull United Kingdom

Supervising Scientist - working to protect the environment from the impacts of uranium mining
Talk outline

■ SSD background
■ Landform design and modelling process
– CAESAR model
■ Creation and collection of input data
■ Application of CAESAR to Trial Landform
■ Results
■ Concluding comments

Supervising Scientist Division 2

 Introduction / background on SSD

■ Protects the Alligator Rivers

Region from the effects of
uranium mining
■ Conducts environmental
research and monitoring,
environmental supervision,
audit and inspection.
■ Encourages best practice in
wetland conservation and
management.

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■ Ranger mine occurs
in catchment of
Magela creek
■ SSD undertakes
physical, chemical,
biological monitoring
of the Ranger mine
■ Ranger currently
largest producer of
Uranium oxide in
Australia
■ Production
scheduled to
continue until 2020

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 Trial landform ■ Constructed by
Energy Resources
of Australia (ERA)
during late 2008
and early 2009
■ Total area 8 ha
■ Constructed to test
landform design
and revegetation
strategies
– Use to develop
robust
rehabilitation
strategy
■ 4 erosion plots
(30m x 30m) built
in 2009
– 2 in area of waste
rock, 2 in laterite-
waste rock mix
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 CAESAR
■ CAESAR (Cellular Automaton Evolutionary Slope and
River) is a cellular landscape and river reach
evolution model.
■ Inputs are a DEM of a river catchment or reach,
water and sediment fluxes, and time series rainfall
data.
– For each grid cell in the DEM, further values are stored
representing hydrological parameters, grain size, water
discharge, vegetation levels, etc.
– For every model iteration, these are altered according to:
hydraulic routing; fluvial erosion and deposition; and slope
processes.
■ Modified to use rainfall recorded at 10-minute
intervals
■ Applied to 30m x30m erosion plot on trial landform

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 Application of CAESAR to Ranger trial landform – data
inputs

Three key inputs to model:

■ Rainfall data
■ DEM (of erosion plots)
■ Particle size distribution

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 Particle size distribution

ƒ Collected from in-situ measurements on erosion plots

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 Rainfall and discharge

ƒ Rainfall from 3/12/09 Æ 22/4/10 collected from trial

landform @ 10 minute intervals
ƒUsed to generate runoff
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 Digital Elevation Models
■ DEM generated from
Terrestrial Laser
Scanner
■ 25 scans across the
landform
– 13 outside erosion
plots at scan
resolution of 20cm
– 12 scans (3 per plot)
at scan resolution of 2
cm inside erosion
plots
– Erosion plot 30m x
30m

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 ■ Large quantity of data generated
– >7 GB data
■ Data extracted for each erosion plot

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 ■ Surface interpolated to horizontal resolution of
20 cm

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 ■ Data imported into ArcGIS environment.
■ Rotated 137o (ensure water flows west-east)
■ Hydrologically corrected & pit filled
– Remove data artefacts

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 Simulations
■ Two sets of simulations were carried out:
– the 2009-2010 wet season for Plot 2 .
– the rainfall data collected during the 2009-2010 wet
season was repeated sequentially 20 times and
applied to Plot 2
■ Only Plot 2 used as input data missing for other plots

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 Results

20 years simulation before (l) and after (r), Plot 2

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 Measured vs modelled discharge (runoff) for Plot 2

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 Modelled vs field measured bedload cumulative yield
for Plot 2

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 Modelled vs field suspended sediment cumulative yield
for Plot 2

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 Sediment yield / soil erosion rate for Plot 2

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 Concluding comments …
■ Model predicts long term erosion rate of 0.1-0.2 t ha-1 yr-1
(~ 0.01 mm yr-1 )
– similar to erosion rates determined by other methods once initial
period of disturbance and conditioning has occurred
■ Results to date show an excellent correspondence
between modelled and measured data – both in volumes
of bedload, suspended load and water fluxes as well as
in the timing of their delivery.
– Field plots and recording apparatus specifically constructed to
evaluate hydrology/ geomorphology post mining landscape
■ CAESAR is able to predict sediment fluxes under the
current conditions.

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 ■ Use of TLS enables detailed representation of surface
topography
– Influences flow paths / drainage network distribution
– Influences sediment transport rates
■ Model requires minimum of data to be run (DEM, rainfall,
PSD etc

■ Results are based on ‘idealised’ setting – will need to

factor in other parameters such as vegetation in the
future
■ Need to complete studies on other erosion plots, and
determine potential impact of other parameters eg slope

Supervising Scientist Division 22

 ■ Comparison with field data collected over successive
years will assist with evaluation of results of model data
■ Need to investigate if model would produce same results
at different spatial resolutions

Supervising Scientist Division 23

 Thank you!

Supervising Scientist Division 24