Modeling agricultural non-point source pollution at catchment scale: application, novel calibration and model advancement

PhD by Publication


Rafiei, Vahid. 2022. Modeling agricultural non-point source pollution at catchment scale: application, novel calibration and model advancement. PhD by Publication Doctor of Philosophy. University of Southern Queensland. https://doi.org/10.26192/q7v4q
Title

Modeling agricultural non-point source pollution at catchment scale: application, novel calibration and model advancement

TypePhD by Publication
Authors
AuthorRafiei, Vahid
Supervisor
1. FirstProf Shahbaz Mushtaq
2. SecondA. Pouyan Nejadhashemi
2. SecondDr Duc-Anh An-Vo
Institution of OriginUniversity of Southern Queensland
Qualification NameDoctor of Philosophy
Number of Pages158
Year2022
PublisherUniversity of Southern Queensland
Place of PublicationAustralia
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.26192/q7v4q
Abstract

Agricultural non-point source pollution is the primary cause of water quality impairment around the world, with far-reaching ecological impacts on aquatic ecosystems and toxicological consequences for humans and living organisms. Especially the Great Barrier Reef (GBR)– the world's largest coral reef– is severely affected by increased sediment and nutrient loads due to agricultural intensification in its coastal catchments. Reducing pollution discharge to the reef is critically essential for reversing the decline of the reef ecosystem and maintaining its economic benefits. However, due to the heterogeneity of natural systems and anthropogenic activities, reducing the pollution discharge to the reef requires developing on-farm and off-farm strategic planning at various scales. Previous studies have investigated and documented the effectiveness of on-farm management strategies. However, on-farm management practices have not been widely adopted by landholders. Modeling studies in the region also indicate that even if all the on-farm management practices were adopted, it would still be inefficient to meet reduction targets under future climate change and land use change scenarios. Therefore, off-farm management practices, including reforestation and wetland restoration/creation, have been recently proposed as supplementary solutions for reducing pollution to the reef, but their effectiveness in reducing pollution needs to be quantified for the catchment scale implementation. My aim in this research is to investigate the impact of reforestation and wetland restoration/ creation on reducing sediment and nutrient loads to the GBR at the catchment scale. I addressed this goal by 1) quantifying the impact of reforestation on the spatiotemporal sources of sediment and soil erosion, 2) quantifying the role of groundwater and surface water in nitrate cycling necessary for implementing effective management practices, and 3) quantifying the role of wetlands restoration and creation in reducing nutrient loads to the GBR. The research also contributes to 1) developing an effective calibration technique to overcome the high dimensionality of complex hydrogeochemical models, 2) advancing a widely known hydrogeochemical model to simulate groundwater-wetland interactions in terms of exchanging flow and nitrate loads.

KeywordsGroundwater, Surface water, Wetland creation, SWAT-MODFLOW-RT3D, Calibration, Great Barrier Reef
Related Output
Has partModelling hydrological processes and identifying soil erosion sources in a tropical catchment of the Great Barrier Reef using SWAT
Has partAn improved calibration technique to address high dimensionality and non-linearity in integrated groundwater and surface water models
Has partGroundwater-surface water interactions at wetland interface: Advancement in catchment system modeling
ANZSRC Field of Research 2020370701. Contaminant hydrology
300201. Agricultural hydrology
370703. Groundwater hydrology
410503. Groundwater quality processes and contaminated land assessment
370704. Surface water hydrology
Public Notes

File reproduced in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher/author.

Byline AffiliationsCentre for Applied Climate Sciences
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Related outputs

Groundwater-surface water interactions at wetland interface: Advancement in catchment system modeling
Rafiei, Vahid, Nejadhashemi, A. Pouyan, Mushtaq, Shahbaz, Bailey, Ryan T. and An-Vo, Duc-Anh. 2022. "Groundwater-surface water interactions at wetland interface: Advancement in catchment system modeling." Environmental Modelling and Software. 152, pp. 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2022.105407
An improved calibration technique to address high dimensionality and non-linearity in integrated groundwater and surface water models
Rafiei, Vahid, Nejadhashemi, A. Pouyan, Mushtaq, Shahbaz, Bailey, Ryan T. and An-Vo, Duc-Anh. 2022. "An improved calibration technique to address high dimensionality and non-linearity in integrated groundwater and surface water models." Environmental Modelling and Software. 149, pp. 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2022.105312
Overview of Modeling, Applications, and Knowledge Gaps for Integrated Large-Scale PFAS Modeling
Raschke, Anna, Nejadhashemi, A. Pouyan and Rafiei, Vahid. 2022. "Overview of Modeling, Applications, and Knowledge Gaps for Integrated Large-Scale PFAS Modeling." Journal of Environmental Engineering. 148 (9). https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)EE.1943-7870.0002033
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Rafiei, Vahid, Ghahramani, Afshin, An-Vo, Duc-Anh and Mushtaq, Shahbaz. 2020. "Modelling hydrological processes and identifying soil erosion sources in a tropical catchment of the Great Barrier Reef using SWAT." Water: an open access journal. 12 (8), pp. 2179-2206. https://doi.org/10.3390/w12082179
Win-win: Improved irrigation management saves water and increases yield for robusta coffee farms in Vietnam
Byrareddy, Vivekananda, Kouadio, Louis, Kath, Jarrod, Mushtaq, Shahbaz, Rafiei, Vahid, Scobie, Michael and Stone, Roger. 2020. "Win-win: Improved irrigation management saves water and increases yield for robusta coffee farms in Vietnam." Agricultural Water Management. 241, pp. 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2020.106350