Using E2 To Model The Impacts Of Bushfires On Water Quality In South-Eastern Australia

Digital elevation models (DEM) of the four catchments were imported into E2, and subcatchment boundaries were delineated. Rainfall surfaces derived from spatial interpolation of ground-based observation data onto a 5 km x 5 km grid was pre-processed to provide a weighted average daily rainfall for each sub-catchment. Data of long term mean monthly potential evapotranspiration (PET) was also used as inputs to the rainfall-runoff models. Model parameters were determined by calibration against observed flows at stream gauging stations. Digitised landuse layers were reclassified in E2 to form three functional units (FU’s); Forest, Agriculture and Other. A second digitised landuse layer incorporating the burnt areas was imported into the model to create a ‘burnt’ scenario.