As part of a strategy to address pollution by agrochemicals in the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), the Australian and Queensland governments initiated the Paddock to Reef (P2R) Integrated Monitoring Modeling and Reporting program. The program combined plot, paddock and catchment scale monitoring with a modeling program. Offsite pesticide loss at a paddock scale has been modeled using the deterministic HowLeaky pesticide model which runs on a daily time step. Experimental datasets provided locally relevant parameters for herbicide dissipation, partitioning and wash-off from crop residues. Farm trials in the GBR catchment provided opportunity for validation of the management scenarios being modeled. Good agreement was found between model predictions and measured data for herbicide runoff from these farm trials. The paddock scale modeling has been linked to a catchment scale model, Source Catchments, to predict the impact of farm management decisions on water quality entering the GBR. This linked paddock-catchment modelling approach to quantifying the water quality benefits associated with adoption of selective herbicide application practices, has been applied to the Mackay Whitsunday region of the GBR catchment as an example.

Combined monitoring and modeling at paddock and catchment scales to predict the effects of herbicide management on water quality entering the Great Barrier Reef

248th National Meeting (2014)

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