Towards a general model of the impact of urban development on vegetation communities in wetlands

Abstract

Although the impacts of urban development on catchment hydrology are well established, the hydrological effect of urban development on receiving wetlands is less well understood. This paper describes an investigation into the impacts of urban development on a high value wetland. The objective of the investigation is to move towards generalisations about hydrological impacts that can be assessed without detailed modelling studies. The analyses indicate that urban development will have a significant impact on wetland hydrology at an annual and seasonal time scale leading to hydrological changes that will disadvantage emergent plant species and advantage other species, leading to long-term changes in vegetation community structure and habitat availability

Keywords:

• Rainfall-runoff modelling
• wetland hydrology
• wetland vegetation
• water level management

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Dominic M Blackham

Dominic Blackham is Principal Geomorphologist at Ecological Engineering. He has specialist skills in urban and water cycle management, particularly wetland design and analysis, stream rehabilitation, environmental flow allocation, and hydrological and hydraulic modelling.

Dominic was a member of the Co-operative Research Centre for Catchment Hydrology from 2000-2006, where he completed a Ph.D in stream geomorphology and flow management. He is currently an Honorary Research Fellow at the School of Anthropology, Geography and Environmental Studies at the University of Melbourne.

Dominic was previously a Senior Consultant at WS Atkins in the UK, where he was responsible for the hydro-ecological business and developed a number of novel applications of the PHABSIM environmental flows modelling approach.

In addition to his Ph.D, Dominic holds a M.Sc (Eng) in Water Resources Technology and Management from the University of Birmingham and a B.Sc (Hons) in Geography from the University of Leeds.

Peter F Breen

Peter Breen is a founding partner and director of Ecological Engineering. He has extensive experience in water resources management and the impact of landuse change on aquatic ecosystems. This experience has been gained in both the rural and urban environments with appointments in industry, academia, research and consulting.

Peter has published on aquatic botany, wetland, stream and lake ecology, stormwater and wastewater treatment, water quality management and restoration ecology and has authored or co-authored over a 100 papers and delivered numerous presentations. Peter’s research and design expertise has contributed to: urban stream ecology in Australia (Peter established and led the urban ecology group in the Cooperative Research Centre for Freshwater Ecology, Monash University from 1992-2001), best practice stormwater management objectives, and guidelines on constructed wetland design, waterway design, bioretention system design, lake design, vegetation design for constructed wetlands and bioretention systems.

Russell G Barrett

Russell Barrett is a Senior Project Manager in the Waterways and Wetlands Capital Delivery team at Melbourne Water.

Russell has extensive experience in project management of the design and construction of wetlands, retarding basins, drainage pipelines, and waterway rehabilitation works.

Russell has also had involvement in physico-chemical data collection on several major tasks of the Port Phillip Bay Environmental Study, a secondment to Western Australia to assist on the Perth Metropolitan Coastal Waters Study and a broad range of environmental projects within Melbourne Water’s drainage, water supply and sewerage areas of responsibility. Russell’s involvement in these projects enabled him to combine his passion for the environment with work. This also provided the opportunity to work closely with scientists utilising cutting edge technology in environmental research.

Russell holds a BSc in Biology, and a Certificate in Civil Engineering.