Murray Darling Basin River Health Monitoring - LiDAR

This $4.5m project successfully surveyed 1,610 transects in the 23 river catchments of the Murray Darling Basin and used the data to develop an objective and repeatable measure of the health of the rivers of the agricultural heartland of Australia.

The Murray Darling Basin covers one million square kilometres and includes more than 85,000 kilometres of rivers. Sampling the health of such an extensive network of rivers in the field would exceed the capacity of Australia’s field biologists and geomorphologists. RPS, in close consultation with the Murray Darling Basin Authority (MDBA), developed and implemented a completely new approach of using High Definition LiDAR to measure detailed stream and vegetation statisics. These in turn were processed by innovative GIS modeling routines to develop detailed environmental and ecological information about the rivers in a period of less than 12 months. 

This ambitious project successfully utilised new spatial technologies and developed and used innovative GIS modeling techniques to cost effectively and scientifically measure the health of the Basin’s rivers.