Groundwater Management (2hrs)

• Objective: To be able to explain the functioning and management of artesian basins and aquifers.

Over to you …

• Watch the video carefully stopping it at key points and recording the most important information under the following headings

• Importance of water in central Australia

• 2 million years underground!

• From Gondwana to Australia

• The Geology – Clay and silt and Rivers and Sandstone.

• Permeable and Impermeable ‘the sponge test’ = Aquifer

• Total area of the basin & recharge

• Total amount of water in the basin

Use the handouts provided to for annotation purposes.

Terrestrial Pump

Simpson Desert, Birdsville sits over the Great Artesian Basin, which is 2032kms wide and 1450km's long, making it one of the largest underground water supplies on earth. With a surface temperature of 98 degrees Celsius, the water has to be cooled before being supplied for drinking and household use.

Management of GAB - AUS

• Make some revision notes based on the video on the previous slide.

• Include details of how water has been traditionally extracted from deep under the surface.

Recharge Rates

Case Study – GAB Consumers

• http://www.gabcc.org.au/tools/getFile.aspx?tbl=tblContentItem&id=107

Use the link to the PDF to describe one

case study usage of the GAB artesian basin.

Environmental Impacts

http://www.basinsustainabilityalliance.org/factsheets/factsheet1bsageneraloverviewjuly2010.pdf

Click on the link above. Read the information

carefully before highlighting the main

environmental impacts of groundwater

abstraction.

Groundwater Management