Land Management

Soil and land survey

Soil survey is an important component of Landloch’s material characterisation capabilities and form part of the requirements for mining and development proposals. Landloch’s land assessment specialist has over 30 years experience in the classification, description, and mapping of soils and land capability across Australia.

Design and implementation of rehabilitation monitoring

Landloch offers a range of methodologies for assessing success in rehabilitation of disturbed sites. Landloch tailors the monitoring program to individual sites, to ensure that the those factors influencing stability are monitored and that regulatory objectives are met. Landloch uses Ecosystem function analysis (EFA) to assess how well a rehabilitated ecosystem works as a biophysical system. For many constructed landforms, gullying is the dominant erosion process and Landloch’s Geomorphic Gully Assessment System (GGAS) was developed to assess gully activity and changes in activity through time. Digitial photogrammetry is used to quantify volume change of a surface due to erosion, or to measure gully volume. A range of geomorphic factors that increase the risk of future “failure” can also be monitored.

Monitoring erosion rates and trends

Erosion monitoring encompasses the mmonitoring of both actual erosion rates and trends in erosion. Landloch can apply a range of techniques to assist sites in monitoring erosion rates or trends to achieve compliance with regulatory requirements.

Rainfall simulation

Landloch regularly uses its rainfall simulators (based in Western Australia and Queensland) for field and laboratory characterisation of infiltration and erosion characteristics of a range of materials. Landloch’s rainfall simulators are highly mobile and have been used in Queensland, New South Wales, Western Australia, Northern Teritory, Africa and in the Pacific. They have been used to study a range of land management practices, including impacts of tillage management on compaction and infiltration in agricultural areas, testing the effectiveness of a range of hydromulch materials, and assessing potential for generation of polluted seepage and runoff flows from factory areas. Landloch can also provide research groups or organizations with access to rainfall simulator equipment and expertise in its use at a relatively small cost.

Managing land and water interactions

Land management is important not only for achievement of maximum personal or community benefit, but also for its potential impacts on adjoining areas and water resources. The range and complexity of land management issues encountered by Landloch is enormous, giving considerable scope for application of basic expertise in soil science, agronomy, and agriculture, allied with the inputs from a wide range of expert collaborators. For projects involving on-land effluent disposal, Landloch commonly uses the MEDLI model, currently considered the industry standard for planning effluent disposal in Queensland.