GEPL 311: CATCHMENT TO COAST

MODULE 1 CATCHMENT PROCESSES TOPIC 1 INTRODUCTION TO CATCHMENTS

WHAT IS A CATCHMENT?

The term catchment, as the name suggests, refers to the area of land that provides the source of water for a particular river or stream. In your reading you may find other terms used to refer to catchments, such as drainage basin, river basin, water basin or watershed; all are broadly analogous to a catchment. Catchments are important landscape units and are characterised by strong process links associated with the transfer of water, sediments and energy from areas of high to low elevation. The importance of these links is widely recognised in natural resource science and management. In the Australian context, this is reflected by the fact that catchments are the most common natural resource management unit at regional scales. Examples include Catchment Management Authorities in NSW and Victoria and Catchment Councils in Western Australia. In some instances, for example the Murray-Darling Basin Authority and the Lake Eyre Basin Intergovernmental Agreement, these management units even cross state jurisdictional boundaries. Catchment processes have a fundamental influence on natural systems, mediating soil moisture, water yields, and soil and water quality within the catchment. Moreover, the movement of water from high elevation to low elevation within catchments releases enormous amounts of kinetic energy. Thus, the movement of water through catchments is an extremely important process shaping the landscape through weathering, soil erosion and mass movement and in-channel sediment transport and deposition. 2 DEFINING A CATCHMENT

Catchments are generally defined with respect to a particular point in the landscape, usually situated on a stream or river. Thus, we usually refer to the catchment as being the area of land from which the water flowing in a river at a specific point is derived. If we are focused on the catchment for an entire river, the specific point will be the point where it flows into the sea or to a larger river of which it is a tributary. Figure 1 shows some examples the catchments of the Macleay River, which flows into the ocean near South West Rocks in NSW and the catchment of the Namoi River, which flows into the Darling River near Walgett.

Figure 1 The Macleay (left) and Namoi River Catchments (maps sourced from NSW Office of Environment and Heritage http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/ieo)

We can also refer to more specific portions of the catchment in reference to points along the stream or river, for example the catchment above a dam or weir or above the confluence with a tributary. This latter version of the catchment will be of importance for you in your field assignment, when you will be asked to define and describe the catchment for a section or reach of river that you choose. In this case you will be defining and describing a sub-catchment of that river or stream, that is, the portion of the catchment that contributes to the total flow of the river at your study site. Figure 2 shows an example of a sub-catchment. The stream shown is Dumaresq Creek, which is in the Macleay River Catchment in northern NSW. The full catchment of Dumaresq Creek includes the town of Armidale and the campus of the University of New England, however the red line delineates a portion of the Dumaresq catchment, that being the catchment for the Creek (Dumaresq Ck-1) that lies above its confluence (marked with an x) with Stream A, which flows from the west.

Figure 2 A sub-catchment of Dumaresq Creek. The sub-catchment (outlined in red) is defined as the area contributing flow to the Dumaresq Creek at its confluence with Stream A (marked with x).

The boundary of a catchment or subcatchment is defined by a drainage divide. In most instances this is a simple topographic divide marked by the high points in the landscape rain falling on one side of this divide will end up flowing downhill into the catchment, the rain falling on the other side of the divide will flow into the adjacent catchment (Figure 3). In some instances, this simple pattern may not hold where, due to underlying geology, water may flow underground to an adjacent catchment, having initially fallen as precipitation in an adjacent catchment. Drainage divides formed in this manner are known as Phreatic Divides (Figure 3)

Figure 3 Schematic diagram showing a topographic drainage divide defined by surface elevation and a phreatic drainage divide defined by an underlying geologic structure that allows water to flow underground from one surface drainage basin to another

Topographic divides are generally formed by ridgelines which can be identified on topographic maps by reference to elevation contours (Figure 4). Typically, valleys and ridgelines appear on topographic maps as a series of parallel peaks and troughs (
Figure 4).

Figure 4 Schematic topographic map showing ridgelines (in red) and a stream (in blue) determined by parallel peaks and troughs created by elevation contour lines

SUMMARY

Catchments are an important basic landscape unit linked by processes associated with the movement of water, derived from precipitation, from areas of high elevation to low elevation across the land surface, through soil and subsurface storage (groundwater). This movement of water releases large amounts of energy and thus facilitates the flux of other materials (principally sediments) through the catchment and by this means the creation and modification of land forms. Catchments are generally delineated by topographic divides, but these divides may be circumvented by sub-surface features that allow water to move from one catchment to adjacent catchments. In subsequent topics of this module we will examine the processes that drive the movement of water through catchments, beginning with an overview of the global water cycle and moving through the controls over the delivery of water from the atmosphere to the land surface (climate) and thence to the movement of water across the lands surface, through soil and subsurface, and finally into defined drainage networks and channels.