Review of hydrological modelling in the Australian Alps: from rainfall-runoff to physically based models

ABSTRACT

In the context of global research in snow-affected regions, research in the Australian Alps has been steadily catching up to the more established research environments in other countries. One area that holds immense potential for growth is hydrological modelling. Future hydrological modelling could be used to support a range of management and planning issues, such as to better characterise the contribution of the Australian Alps to flows in the agriculturally important Murray-Darling Basin despite its seemingly small footprint. The lack of recent hydrological modelling work in the Australian Alps has catalysed this review, with the aim to summarise the current state and to provide future directions for hydrological modelling, based on advances in knowledge of the Australian Alps from adjacent disciplines and global developments in the field of hydrologic modelling. Future directions proffered here include moving beyond the previously applied conceptual models to more physically based models, supported by an increase in data collection in the region, and modelling efforts that consider non-stationarity of hydrological response, especially that resulting from climate change.

KEYWORDS:

• Review
• Australian Alps
• hydrological modelling
• snowmelt
• rainfall-runoff modelling

Acknowledgements

Natasha would like to acknowledge Dr Joseph Guillaume for assisting in the setup of the literature review. The authors would like to acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land on which this research was completed (Canberra and the Snowy Mountains), Ngunawal, Ngunnawal, Ngambri, Ngarigu and Walgal Country, and pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging. Many thanks to the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback on the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/13241583.2024.2343453

Notes

1. Schreider (1996) can be considered a preprint of Schreider et al. (1997c) (Sergei Schreider, pers comms., 6 July 2023).

Additional information

Funding

Natasha is supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program (RTP) Scholarship https://www.education.gov.au/research-block-grants/research-training-program/research-training-program-frequently-asked-questions-students.

Notes on contributors

Natasha Harvey

Natasha Harvey is a PhD student at The Fenner School of Environment & Society, ANU, having previously obtained a Bachelor of Environmental Systems (Hons) from The University of Sydney and a Master’s degree from The University of Colorado Boulder. Natasha’s research interests include hydrology and water modelling.

Saman Razavi

Dr Saman Razavi is an Associate Professor at the University of Saskatchewan. He holds a PhD in Civil Engineering with a focus on Hydrology and Water Resources from the University of Waterloo, and a Master’s degree in Hydraulic Engineering from Amirkabir University of Technology. His Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering is from Iran University of Science and Technology. His research interests include hydrology, water management, and methods to address uncertainty and sensitivity in environmental modeling.

Shane Bilish

Dr Shane Bilish is a Hydrologist at Snowy Hydro Limited. He completed a Bachelor’s and Master’s in Geophysics at The University of Auckland, followed by a PhD in Physical Geography and Hydrology at The University of Western Australia, focusing on snowpack dynamics in the Australian Alps.