Historical stream salinity trends and catchment salt balances in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia

Abstract

This paper summarizes the results from a study of historical stream salinity trends and catchment salt balances within the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia. A broad analysis of stream salinization was necessary to assist prediction of the increase in the effect and extent of dryland salinity across the basin. The sparseness of the water-quality data necessitated the development of an innovative statistical trend technique that also allowed for the high autocorrelation of the stream salinity data which was often present. Results showed the spatial distribution of stream salinization and identified regions of concern. The salinization characteristics of four distinct geographical regions were i..