Centre for Salinity Assessment and Management
We have established a Centre for Salinity Assessment and Management, an Australian first, to pool the expertise of staff in faculties of Agriculture, Science and Rural Management. The Centre's mission is to:
Increase our understanding and improve the transmission of knowledge and management of the processes of dryland, irrigation and urban salinity by:
- Producing land care and land use professionals who are well informed about the causes of salinity and who can recommend and apply remediation methods.
- Undertaking related both generic and applied research, in relation to specific problems in dryland, irrigation and urban salinity.
- Educating the wider community about the causes, impacts and requirements for remediation, and the costs involved in addressing the issues involved.
One of the research programs of the Centre is sub-catchment. Dryland salinity is on the increase in the upper catchments of the central and northern river valleys of New South Wales (Murray Darling Basin Ministerial Council-MDBC, 1999). The consequence of this is increased salinity in river water. This could adversely affect irrigated schemes downstream; as irrigation with moderate to highly saline water can lead to increased salinity in the root-zone, if there is insufficient leaching. In order to determine the potential impact and long-term sustainability of irrigated production we need to know the spatial distribution of soil and effects of water quality changes. Important also is the soil-water balance, which needs to be modeled in order to provide estimates of potential salinity accumulation and deep drainage as affected by the current quality of irrigation water. Worst-case scenarios can be applicable in this case.