Macquarie River floodplain flow modeling: implications for ecogeomorphology

This work presents preliminary results of implementing a quasi-2D hydrodynamic module (VMMHH 1.0) to simulate flows and flooding patterns throughout the Macquarie Marshes, south east Australia, in order to assess habitat requirements. The model uses an interconnected cell scheme that solves mass conservation and uses simplified versions of the momentum equations to represent flow between cells. This model has been used before to assess geo-morphological changes in large river floodplains and vegetation evolution in estuarine wetlands, showing results con-sistent with cases of gradual floodplain inundation following overbank flow. The simplified characteristics of the quasi-2D model allow for an adequate representation of hydrodynamic processes with similar performance of other higher dimensional models. Model results and computational times are compared with outputs from a conventional 1D/2D model (MIKE FLOOD) applied to the same domain showing that the VMMHH 1.0 is adequate for representation of floods in the Macquarie Marshes.