Sandra Hawthorne
Department of Forest and Ecosystem Science
The University of Melbourne, Parkville Campus
VIC, 3010, Australia
Email: s.hawthorne@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au
Degree
PhDThesis title
Prediction of the long term impact of thinning on water yield
Supervisors
Dr Patrick LaneAssoc Prof Leon Bren
s.hawthorne@pgrad.unimelb.edu.au
Project Description
Prediction of the long-term impact of thinning on water yield is important in the management of forested water catchments. The aim of this project is to extend the capability of distributed hydrological model to simulate the long term impact of thinning on water yield. This might be achieved by modelling the dynamics between vegetation structure in the thinned catchments and evapotranspiration (ET). The following research questions will be considered in the context of thinned catchments dominated by mountain ash (E. regnans):
- What is the persistence of the increases in water yield?
- What is the long-term structural response of the remaining vegetation to different thinning regimes, i.e. the amount of regeneration or emergence of understory?
- What is the ET pattern of this new system?
- Is there a difference in ET pattern of thinned and untreated catchments?
The interaction between vegetation and evapotranspiration in catchment modelling can be represented by leaf area index (LAI). One of the major challenges is to obtain LAI spatial distribution of the structurally complex thinned catchments, and link this to ET distribution. LAI distribution in the thinned and undisturbed catchments will be compared. The use of satellite and Lidar data to obtain LAI will also be explored in this study. The remotely sensed data is expected to enable efficient retrieval of LAI across the entire catchment.
Link to Postgraduate index page