Introducing the tool for the ‘Development and review of environmental flows’ (Dr Eflow). This stems from the challenge faced by flow planners in regulated systems, where they need to balance flow characteristics that support waterway ecological and ecosystem values whilst ensuring irrigation and intervalley deliveries are made. A challenge increasingly difficult with uncertain rainfall patterns. The development of yearly, seasonally, monthly and daily flow regimes requires constant adjustments to planned irrigation and environmental flow releases.
To support the regulated flow planning process, Streamology developed the tool in partnership with the Goulburn Broken CMA. The web-based application assists flow planners in creating, editing, and assessing flow plans for both fresh and base flows. Using this tool, the user can create a library of naturalised hydrographs for regulated floods and variable baseflow releases, depending on flow statistics (e.g. maximum discharge, duration). Additionally, the application allows the user to rapidly assess and compare flow plans and historical discharge records using state-of-the-art flow metrics and data visualisation. This software has helped the Environmental flow planners at GBCMA rapidly iterate on their flow plans and design flow releases that meet the needs of irrigators, while providing a naturalised, variable hydrograph that maintains ecological values, riverbank stability and ecosystem health in an increasingly demanding environment of competing demands.