Abstract
The River Murray in Australia drains an area of one million square kilometres, but in 1981 the mouth closed for some weeks. It is important that this be prevented, as the environmental consequences of permanent closure are severe. The size of the mouth is influenced by wind and wave activity at the mouth, and by the river flow, which is controlled by a system of weirs and barrages. We have been able to demonstrate using recursive estimation techniques that river flow is the most important explanatory variable for mouth size, so that the proper management of flow alone has the potential to prevent future closures.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
A. Close, in:The Impact of Man on the Natural Flow Regime, The Murray, Chapter 4, N. Mackay and D. Eastburn, eds., Murray Darling Basin Commission. Canberra, Australia, 1990.
N. Harvey, Coastal processes affecting management of the River Murray estuary, Australian Geographical Studies (1995, in press).
H.G. Oliver and W.M. Anderson,The River Murray Barrages at Mundoo, Boundary Creek, Ewe Island and Tauwitchere Channels, Engineering and Water Supply Document, Adelaide, 1940.
D.J. Walker, The role of river flows in the behaviour of the Murray Mouth, South Australian Geographical Journal (1990).
D. Lucic, R. Frick, D. Benfield and R. Bourman, Modelling the Murray Mouth, Technical Report No. 1995/12, School of Mathematics, University of South Australia, 1995.
G.M. Jenkins and D.G. Watts,Spectral Alaysis and its Applications, Holden-Day, 1968.
G.E.P. Box and G.M. Jenkins,Time Series Analysis: Forecasting and Control, Academic Press, 1988.
L. Ljung and T. Soderstrom,Theory and Practice of Recursive Identification, The MIT Press, 1983.
D. Graupe,Identification of Systems, van Nostrand, 1972.
R.A. Frick, R.P. Bourman, D. Lucic, D. Benfield, V. Nikulin, C. Elford, Modelling changes at the Murray Mouth,Proceedings of the Ocean and Atmosphere Pacific International Conference, Adelaide, 23–27 October, 1995 (in press). (Sponsored by the National Tidal Facility, Flinders University of South Australia.)
R.P. Bourman and E.J. Barnett, Impacts of river regulation on the terminal lakes and mouth of the River Murray, South Australia, Australian Geographical Studies 33 (1995) 101–114.
R.P. Bourman and N. Harvey, The Murray Mouth flood tidal delta, Australian Geographer 15 (1983) 403–406.
K. Edyvane and P. Carvalho,Proceedings of the Murray Mouth Biological Resources Assessment Workshop, South Australian Research and Development Institute (Aquatic Sciences), 1995.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Frick, R.A., Bourman, R.P. & Lucic, D. Towards a control model for the Murray Mouth. Environ Model Assess 1, 37–44 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01874845
Received:
Revised:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01874845