Title: Managing Stormwater Erosion of Unpaved Sand Roads on Fraser Island, Queensland
Abstract: A network of unpaved sand roads exists on Fraser Island to provide access to the sand dunes, rainforests and lakes of the World Heritage listed natural wonderland. During rainstorm events significant overland flow can occur along sand roads causing severe rilling and gullying, and removal of sand by water erosion. Substantial effort and resources are required to maintain the roads to a useable condition. Continual degradation of the sand road network by water erosion from storm events may restrict long term access to the area. Water erosion modelling methods used for agriculture soil loss studies will be directly used to analyse the factors causing sand erosion by surface runoff. The data collected from water balance test plot studies can be used to design hydraulic structures to limit surface flow water velocities below threshold values for soil erosion, and deviate the water flow to vegetated areas having higher infiltration rates. The design and frequency of the hydraulic structures across the roads is in the form of rollover crossbanks with dimensions controlled by discharge rates of overland flow, threshold water velocities for erosion, and wheel-base dimensions of vehicles traversing the roads.
Publication Year: 2001
Publication Date: 2001-01-01
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 1
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