2.7.2.2 Potentially impacted landscape groups

Of the 11 landscape groups that occur in the Galilee subregion, most (73%) of the zone of potential hydrological change supports ‘Dryland’ (8134 km²) or ‘Floodplain, non-wetland’ (2098 km²) landscape groups. These landscape groups depend on incident rainfall and localised runoff and as such are not considered to be water dependent for this assessment. Consequently, these two landscape groups are considered to be very unlikely to be impacted by changes in hydrology due to coal resource development.

Each of the nine remaining landscape groups is considered to be water dependent. By area or length, the major water-dependent landscape groups in the zone of potential hydrological change are ‘Floodplain, terrestrial GDE’ that covers 2433 km² (17% of the zone) and ‘Non-floodplain, terrestrial GDE’ that covers 1189 km² (8% of the zone). Groundwater-dependent streams in the zone are classified as ‘Streams, GDE’ and cover 2801 km (45% of streams in the zone). In comparison, streams that are not dependent on groundwater – ‘Streams, non-GDE’ – cover 3484 km (55% of streams in the zone) (Table 5). The ‘Streams, GDE’ and ‘Streams, non-GDE’ landscape groups were combined and are considered further here as the ‘Streams landscape group’.

Springs and their associated wetlands, although small in area, are considered here to be a major landscape group in the zone of potential hydrological change of the Galilee subregion. There are 200 springs and spring complexes within the zone.

The remaining four water-dependent landscape groups were not prioritised for qualitative mathematical modelling and receptor impact modelling given the logistical constraints of the workshops. These landscape groups are ‘Floodplain, disconnected wetland’ that covers about 19 km² (0.1% of the zone), ‘Floodplain, wetland GDE’ that covers about 153 km² (1% of the zone), ‘Non-floodplain, disconnected wetland’ that covers about 3.6 km² (0.02% of the zone) and ‘Non-floodplain, wetland GDE’ that covers 0.2 km² (<0.01% of the zone) (Table 5). These landscape groups cover very small areas within the zone of potential hydrological change, and are expected to respond consistently to the modelled landscape groups, though this obviously would need to be confirmed through more detailed assessment. These landscape groups are not reported separately in this product.

Table 5 lists the landscape groups that occur within the zone of potential hydrological change of the Galilee subregion. It also details whether qualitative mathematical models were built for that landscape group and whether one or more receptor impact models were built.

Table 5 Summary of landscape groups developed for the bioregional assessment of the Galilee subregion

^aExtent of each landscape group is either an area of land (km²), length of stream network (km) or number of springs (number).

GDE = groundwater-dependent ecosystem

Data: Bioregional Assessment Programme (Dataset 1)

In total, four receptor impact models were built, representing four landscape groups (’Floodplain, terrestrial GDE’, ‘Non-floodplain, terrestrial GDE’, ‘Streams, GDE’ and ‘Streams, non-GDE’). In addition, 12 qualitative mathematical models were built covering five landscape groups. One landscape group, ‘Springs’, had qualitative mathematical models built without having a receptor impact model (Table 5). Details of the qualitative mathematical models and receptor impact models are provided for each landscape group separately in Section 2.7.3, Section 2.7.4, Section 2.7.5 and Section 2.7.6, while the results from modelling the effects of coal resource development on landscape groups using these models are presented in Section 3.4 of companion product 3-4 for the Galilee subregion (Lewis et al., 2018).