The use of baseflow turbidity to access catchment condition

A method is described for determining the state of health of a river basin in order to monitor any actual or predictive changes that may occur as a result of perturbations in certain key catchment variables. The mean annual baseflow and mean annual baseflow turbidity at chosen sites on the Latrobe River Basin are obtained by using a simple filter on the discharge and turbidity data in a time series. Six variables are used to calculate the factors influencing baseflow turbidity within the sub-catchments and mutiple regression is carried out on a matrix of the data. The resulting calculated turbidity contributions for each sub-catchment is compared to the observed values in order to determine the closeness of correlation. Suggestions for improving the model are provided.