Professional Documents
Culture Documents
au/ssd
Supervising Scientist - working to protect the environment from the impacts of uranium mining
Presentation outline
SSD background and role Landform design process Creation and collection of input data
Geomorphometry
SSD background
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.
Production at Ranger scheduled to continue until 2020 Need to rehabilitate landform at cessation of mining
Landform design parameters developed ~2000 Relatively coarse (20m) DEM used to derive parameters Higher resolution data opportunity to revisit parameters Ensure landform design meets closure criteria
Environmental requirements for closure state that The company must rehabilitate the Ranger Project Area to establish an environment similar to the adjacent areas of Kakadu National Park such that, in the opinion of the Minister with the advice of the Supervising Scientist, the rehabilitated area could be incorporated into the Kakadu National Park.
Erosion assessment
Criteria: Cap thickness Slope/Gradient change Vegetation/ecosystem Radiation Hydrology Catchment impact
Stream sediment load, water quality radiation
Landform stability
Gullies, incision, Contaminant exposure sediment loss
Landform design
Environmental values of adjacent areas of Kakadu National park represented in the Georgetown analogue area.
Supervising Scientist Division 6
Environmental significance Affects overland and subsurface flow velocity and runoff rate, geomorphology Affects flow acceleration, erosion/deposition rate, geomorphology Affects converging / diverging flow, soil water content, soil characteristics. Affects erosion rates and sediment yield.
Plan Curvature
Contour curvature
Elevation
LS_Factor (erosion index)
Represents effect of slope length on Predicts areas of net erosion and net deposition erosion; ratio of soil loss from a areas given hillslope length and gradient to soil loss from a standard unit plot. Measure of erosive power that Affects erosion / sedimentation rate, nutrient predicts net erosion in convex areas supply, soil depth and texture, and net deposition in concave areas
Aspect
The direction or orientation Position of a site in relation to climatic elements (compass bearing) in which a slope (winds, sunlight) received. Affects vegetation faces composition and distribution
Absolute difference in elevation within a [300m] radius of a defined point Range in elevation within a defined radius of a point
Relief
Describes the distribution and extent Identifies areas/ zones of water concentration in of zones of saturation for runoff the landscape. Will affect vegetation composition generation and distribution through plant available water, 7
Why DEMs
Geomorphometry = quantative analysis of a land surface Multiple geomorphometric parameters may be generated from a single DEM:
slope, curvature, topographic wetness index aspect slope length plan / profile curvature etc
20m floodplain
10
11
ArcGIS spatial analyst, Whitebox, SAGA and Landserf software used for geomorphometric analysis
Good correspondence between different models used LiDAR DEM common input
Results
13
14
Concluding thoughts...
Geomorphometric parameters have been derived from the LiDAR DEM of the analogue with increased confidence and accuracy. Enables a more accurate assessment of stability of landform designs.
15
Questions?