Hydrology and Risk Consulting

HARC is a consulting firm based in Blackburn, Melbourne. Our focus is water resources, hydrology and risk management. Our team provides specialist services to government and industry clients, and other consultants, from around Australia and overseas. Our vision is to be a trusted partner with those who manage Australia’s dams, catchments and water resources. Our mission is to provide valuable insights that are tailored to the needs of our clients. Our values include outstanding client service; technical excellence and innovation; integrity and transparency; and healthy relationships.

HARC has strong capability in two of the four water use domains identified in the Partnering Prospectus: Catchment and river basins, and Environmental water quantity and quality. For example, we are currently undertaking flood studies for the Swan and Helena River basins in WA, and for the Snowy River basin in NSW/Victoria. We also recently completed an assessment of how inflows to Lake Merrimu in Victoria have changed over time, and what the expected yield is under current climate conditions.

Our staff (e.g. Simon Lang) have been involved in developing the recommended methods for hydrology and hydraulic contributions to Victorian environmental flow studies. HARC also has recent experience overseas; in September we were asked to review the designed flood capacity for the rehabilitated Mount Coffee Hydropower Plant in Liberia. Our review led to cost savings for the client that were able to be reinvested in improving the safety of other plant components.

Organisational Capability

• Water resources modelling and management
• Statistical hydrology
• Environmental flow hydrology and hydraulics
• Catchment modelling
• Irrigation delivery efficiency assessments
• Flood hydrology modelling
• Dambreak modelling and consequence assessments
• Dam safety risk assessments
• 1D and 2D hydraulic modelling

Projects

Tropical Rivers Trial (2007)
David Stephens while working at SKM - This project was a pilot study for Land and Water Australia, and looked at development and application of a method for estimating water resources in ungauged tropical catchments. The project was completed on two trial river basins, and has since been rolled out across many NT and WA catchments. This work was funded by the National Water Commission as part of the Raising National Water Standards program. David Stephens took a key role in developing the proposal for the roll-out and helped manage stakeholders from across three states.
Determination of Sustainable Diversion Limits for the Winterfill Period (2007- 2009)
Simon Lang while working at SKM - Simon Lang conducted the technical analyses of regional streamflow data that informed the development of rules for site-specific wintefill Sustainable Diversion Limits (SDLs) in south-west Western Australia (http://www.water.wa.gov.au/water-topics/surface-water/sustainable-diversion-limits). Following on from this project, he helped developed the River Ecological Sustainable Yield Model, which the Department of Water use to assess how potential water allocation options influence the frequency of meeting environmental flow recommendations
Assessing Compliance with Environmental Flow Requirements – method development (2005/2008); Northern Region Sustainable Water Strategy (2007/08)
Simon Lang while working at SKM - coordinated a peer review workshop of the SKM-developed tools and methods used to assess compliance with environmental flow recommendations. Based on outcomes from the peer review workshop, he then updated the tools for modelling environmental water demand, and assessing compliance with environmental flow recommendations. He then calculated compliance with environmental flow recommendations for priority reaches in Victoria’s Northern Region, under current and climate change scenarios, and conducted flood frequency analysis of monthly flows in priority reaches to assess the impact of current and climate change scenarios on recommended wetland watering regimes.
Water Security for Wangaratta (2014)
Simon Lang while working at SKM - Simon's role in Phase 2 of the Water Security for Wangaratta project was to coordinate a multidisciplinary team from SKM/Jacobs to assess the costs and benefits of three additional water supply options: groundwater, enlarging Lake Buffalo, recycling waste water. Given the high profile of the project, and the focus given to it by the Minister, the Department was particularly keen for it to be delivered on time, on budget and to a high quality. Simon’s diligent project management helped the Department achieve all its objectives for the project. (http://www.depi.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/279822/No-Appendice-Options-Evaluation-and-Costings-Report-4-August-2014-.pdf)
Yield for Lake Merrimu (2015)
Western Water (WW) is considering purchasing from the Victorian Government the remaining unallocated share of Lake Merrimu’s inflow (10%) and storage (20%). The Government and WW were concerned that the long-term average was not the most appropriate representation of average inflows under current climate conditions. Therefore, HARC was engaged by DELWP with the support of WW to use an appropriate statistical test to determine the ‘breakpoint’ at which there was a step change reduction in inflows to Lake Merrimu; and calculate the average annual inflows to Lake Merrimu from the breakpoint onwards. The project was managed by Simon Lang.