The PhD project is exploring the effect of wildfire on the hydrology of Sydney's water supply catchments using the summer of 2001/2002 as an exemplar wildfire. The geographic spread of the wildfire combined with Sydney Catchment Authority's (SCA) extensive network of water monitoring sites provides a valuable opportunity to explore the impacts of fire on multiple catchments. Both modelling, using the physical-based IHACRES water balance model, and statistical approaches, using BACI analyses, are being used to detect and quantify the effect of the fires.
As multiple catchments will be studied, the wildfire susceptibility of different catchments will be assessed enabling the possibility of SCA having catchment-specific wildfire management strategies.
