Track 2-4-1: Water Harvesting, Watershed Management, Water Use Efficiency and Eco-Hydrology
Description
Bare, scalded semi-arid areas in western New South Wales Australia are being transformed into biodiverse native pastures, thanks to the waterponding technique which is returning clear profit to the landholder and benefits to the environment. Waterponding is a land rehabilitation technique used on duplex scalded soils in the semi-arid rangelands. Waterponding is the holding of water on the scald in surveyed horseshoe-shaped banks, each covering 0.4 ha. The ponded water leaches the soluble salts from the scalded surface. This improves the remaining soil structure, inducing surface cracking, better water penetration and entrapment of wind-blown seed. In the 1960s, it was estimated that tens of thousands of square kilometres of sites on duplex soil in the rangelands of New South Wales had been denuded and were moderate or severely bare or „scalded‟ as a result of wind erosion of their sandy top soils. (A „duplex soil has sandy loam topsoil and clayey subsoil) (Cunningham, 1987). This was a consequence of past severe droughts and overgrazing of the native vegetation, allowing wind and water to erode the sandy loam topsoil. This left bare and relatively impermeable subsoil which prevents water penetration and is very difficult for plants to colonize.
Included in
Waterponding the Rangelands
Bare, scalded semi-arid areas in western New South Wales Australia are being transformed into biodiverse native pastures, thanks to the waterponding technique which is returning clear profit to the landholder and benefits to the environment. Waterponding is a land rehabilitation technique used on duplex scalded soils in the semi-arid rangelands. Waterponding is the holding of water on the scald in surveyed horseshoe-shaped banks, each covering 0.4 ha. The ponded water leaches the soluble salts from the scalded surface. This improves the remaining soil structure, inducing surface cracking, better water penetration and entrapment of wind-blown seed. In the 1960s, it was estimated that tens of thousands of square kilometres of sites on duplex soil in the rangelands of New South Wales had been denuded and were moderate or severely bare or „scalded‟ as a result of wind erosion of their sandy top soils. (A „duplex soil has sandy loam topsoil and clayey subsoil) (Cunningham, 1987). This was a consequence of past severe droughts and overgrazing of the native vegetation, allowing wind and water to erode the sandy loam topsoil. This left bare and relatively impermeable subsoil which prevents water penetration and is very difficult for plants to colonize.
