The Peel-Harvey estuary has two basins (the Peel Inlet and the Harvey Estuary) and includes the estuarine portions of the Serpentine, Murray and Harvey rivers. The estuary’s area is about 133 km2. It is connected to the Indian Ocean by the Mandurah Channel and the Dawesville Cut, both of which are artificial modifications and permanently open to the sea.
This study uses catchment-scale models to estimate the flows, as well as the loads and concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorus, to the Peel-Harvey estuary and the ocean.
We used the eWater Source modelling platform to develop the hydrological and nutrient models. These require meteorological and land-cover input data, and we calibrate them against data from flow and water quality monitoring sites (Carr & Podger 2012; Welsh et al. 2013). This modelling updates the work of Kelsey et al. (2011), but uses different models and methodology.
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