(Sediment Transfer through the Fluvial System – Proceedings of a Symposium held in Moscow, August 2004 – IAHS Publication 288, 2004, pp. 245–252).
The Murray-Darling Basin in the southeast of Australia covers approx. 1 × 106 km2, equivalent to 14% of the country's total area. Accelerated erosion, primarily in upland regions, has greatly degraded river habitats over the past century. Here we describe the results from the basin-wide sediment modelling for this region using SedNet: a spatially distributed sediment routing model which predicts sediment loads, together with bed, flood plain and reservoir deposition. Comparisons are made between current (past 100 years) and natural (pre-European) conditions. The results demonstrate that the basin is one of sediment redistribution rather than net sediment export. The basin is estimated to have 18% of rivers with > 100 times natural loads. Erosion of gullies and riverbanks has also resulted in 11,000 km (13% of the total) to have historical accumulation of over 0.3 m of sand and gravel averaged over the river length.
Erosion, Murray-Darling Basin, Ausralia, Sediment Budget, Sediment load, Spatial model
