Recent results from investigating annual rainfall-runoff relationship changes during the Millennium Drought in south-eastern Australia.

Name of the Speaker              Dr. Murray Peel

Title of the Seminar               Recent results from investigating annual rainfall-runoff relationship changes during the Millennium Drought in south-eastern Australia.

Date &Time                             Monday, May 29, 2023, 11:00 A.M (IST)

MS Teams link – MS Teams (link to the video of the seminar)

Abstract: The Millennium Drought in south-eastern Australia (1997-2009 ) was a 13-year extended dry period during which unusual catchment responses were observed. In just over half of the catchments investigated a statistically significant downward shift in long-term annual rainfall-runoff relationship was observed. In those shifted catchments, a given amount of rainfall resulted in less runoff than expected during the drought. Furthermore, later research demonstrated that many of the shifted catchments had not recovered several years after the drought ended and they were still producing less runoff than expected. Here I present a summary of recent results from our investigations into shifted rainfall-runoff relationships and modelling of runoff during the Millennium Drought. The Millennium Drought is an observed case study of a prolonged dry period, potentially indicative of future conditions in south-eastern Australia, which has significant implications for long-term streamflow behavior and modelling of climate change runoff projections.

About the Speaker: Dr Murray Peel is a Senior Lecturer and ARC Future Fellow in the Department of Infrastructure Engineering at the University of Melbourne. He has a Ph.D. (Geography) and BSc (Hons) from the University of Melbourne. His research interests include catchment hydrology; hydro-climatology; understanding the drivers of interannual variability of annual precipitation and runoff around the world; understanding and modelling the hydrologic impacts of land use change; understanding and modelling the hydrologic impacts of climate change and the uncertainty around those projections; improving hydrologic modelling under changing conditions; and drawing hydro-climatology insights from palaeoclimatology information. His research and consulting activities have produced over 120 publications, including 86 articles in international journals and 9book chapters.