Specifications

A Remote Automated Water Quality Stream Gauging System Design Page 1
1. INTRODUCTION
The Burdekin River has the second largest catchment (~130,000 km
2
) that drains into the
Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area (GBRWHA). Approximately 90% of the catchment is
used for cattle production. It delivers almost 4 million tonnes of fine sediment into the
GBRWHA (Furnas 2003) annually. This is the largest contribution of any catchment draining
into the GBRWHA and equates to about 26% percent of the total fine sediment exported into
the GBRWHA. Therefore, there is considerable interest in the ability to measure in-situ water
quality and collect water quality samples during flow events.
The average annual rainfall is variable ranging from below 400 mm in the western areas to
over 2 m closer to the coast. Most of the annual precipitation occurs during a pronounced
wet season, generally from November – April. Average annual temperatures range between
15 and 30 degrees Celsius. Streams are ephemeral in nature and generally flow only in
response to rainfall. This means that stream flow is episodic and has a high temporal
variability in frequency and duration. The duration of many flows can be measured in hours,
making it difficult to collect manual water samples for all but the largest events. During these
events access is restricted due to flooding and associated poor road conditions.
It is therefore necessary to have robust, reliable systems that are able to collect water quality
data and samples when these flow events occur.
Between 2000 and 2007 CSIRO Land and Water designed, constructed and deployed a
number of automated stream gauging stations within the Burdekin River catchment in North
Queensland, Australia (Fanning et al 2003, Hawkins et al 2004). An additional five stations
were designed and deployed in the Douglas Shire Council district (McJannet et al 2005).
During and after this period there has been a refinement of both components and system
operation that has culminated in the development of a reliable, standardised system for the
collection of water quality samples and data that has also been successfully deployed in
other tropical environments.
The following report details the standard water quality monitoring system developed and
implemented by CSIRO Land and Water.