Motueka-Riwaka Plains Groundwater Model 2019

Summary

The Motueka-Riwaka groundwater model has been developed to assist management of the water resource in the Motueka/Riwaka Plains area. system. This model has had development since 1999.

The model has been built with the following key features:

• Daily land surface recharge and irrigation pumping calculated using climate data, soil properties, irrigation recharge, and time-varying land use;
• Rivers, streams and drains;
• Wells (for community, domestic commercial and irrigation supplies);
• Coast and groundwater flow off shore; and
• Nitrogen transport.

The model has been used to assist water management by providing guidance on:

• Setting and adaptively reviewing zone water allocation limits;
• Testing sustainability of specific proposals, for new or proposed larger scale groundwater abstraction;
• Adjusting water rationing provisions in Council plans to  accommodate future land use and climate changes;
• Informing river gravel abstraction impacts below Woodman’s Bend;
• Providing potential for setting groundwater quality limits for the aquifer system in the future; and
• Testing scenarios for land and water use changes, which could feed in to land use planning.

Ongoing model development is proposed to ensure the model remains up to date for informing future water management decisions.

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Motueka Riwaka Plains Groundwater Model 2019 (pdf 51 MB)