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Recent sub-surface studies of the Gummy Gas Field have resulted in a significant upgrade of its gas and liquids resource potential. Previous interpretations had ascribed little resource potential to the field. Shell drilled Gummy-1 in 1990, a Golden Beach (GB) Subgroup gas/liquids discovery in the eastern Gippsland Basin. The GB Subgroup was previously described as a stacked, grading to generally thin, isolated sandstone reservoir hosting limited gas volumes. In 2022, a new study integrated the interpretation of the CGG Gippsland Multi-Client 3D seismic survey dataset with a re-look at the reservoir characterisation, petrophysical properties and reservoir pressures and found that reservoir quality is better than previously thought. The improved reservoir quality is interpreted to be the result of depositional reworking, which also increases confidence that the sandstones are laterally extensive. Consideration of the impact of regional pressure depletion due to nearby production from the GBJV fields has improved the understanding of the hydrocarbon columns encountered at Gummy-1. Increased hydrocarbon column heights are interpreted, which are consistent with wireline log evaluation and regional saturation-height data. Confidence that the seal at Gummy is working as effectively or better than offset fields and reservoirs is high. The new interpretation has also significantly improved the exploration potential for underlying gas reservoirs within the middle and lower GB Subgroup. Gummy-1 reached a total depth of 3530 m MDRT in a gas sandstone reservoir with an interpreted main gas column up to 185 m. Potential exists for additional gas in reservoir quality sandstones to be discovered in deeper exploration targets – the Gummy Deep exploration prospect. Combined with the adjacent Manta Gas Field, this demonstrates the enhanced potential for future commercial development in the area.

As the measurement of soil hydraulic properties is time-consuming and expensive, they are often computed from easily measurable soil properties via pedotransfer functions (PTFs). There are plenty of existing PTFs which were mainly derived for specific regions or catchments.In our study, new PTF’s for Austrian soils were developed to estimate soil hydraulic properties such as field capacity or permanent wilting point. The PTFs were built by applying the random forest method, including prediction of uncertainty measures.The used database includes soil physical data from different project and monitoring campaigns all over Austria and represents many different landscapes and soil types within the country. It consists of 2300 samples from 518 agricultural sampling locations.For the derivation of new PTF’s, several inputs were available. Since the model is to be applied to standard data from official Austrian soil mapping, we focused on the therein existing data as input variables. We tested four possible combinations for each target property, with particle size distribution and depth as fixed variables. Bulk density and soil organic matter were added in different compositions.To ensure the applicability of the newly derived PTF’s, the available data set was randomly divided into two subsets. A fraction of 80 % of the samples were contained in training data set for the derivation of the prediction models, the validation set includes 20 % of the data for determining statistical parameters and for comparison with other PTFs. This comparison showed good applicability of the new PTFs in relation to the previous models with R² ranging from 0,73 to 0,83 per target variable.Due to the fact that each prediction contains uncertainties, uncertainty maps for all agricultural areas in Austria were created. Therefore the 25% and 75% percentile and the respective interquartile range (IQR) of our predicted properties were determined. The results show mean values for the IQR between 6,8 % for field capacity at 60 hPa and 5,7 % for permanent wilting point.As main outcome, new models for hydraulic properties of Austrian soils were produced. The comparison with established PTFs showed higher accuracy for the prediction of soil properties in Austrian soils than other established PTFs. With the implemented prediction of uncertainty, areas with good predictions can be identified as well as areas with high uncertainties.

The rainfall-runoff process transforms a precipitation input to a catchment into runoff output and is an important indicator for river water quality and quantity. Since runoff events are comprised of precipitation event water and stored pre-event water of the catchment, exploring the event and pre-event components of runoff events using the stable isotopes of water (δ18O, δ2H) and two-component and ensemble isotopic hydrograph separation may further our insights into overall catchment behaviour and the origin of water. The aim of this study is to investigate the origin of water for different streamflow gauges in a small agricultural catchment that represent different runoff generation mechanisms. The analysis is performed at the Hydrological Open Air Laboratory (HOAL) in Austria, which is a 66 ha experimental catchment dominated by agricultural land use. One of the main features of this research catchment is that several tributaries of the catchment representing different runoff generation mechanisms are gauged. Two-component and ensemble isotopic hydrograph separations (for both δ18O and δ2H) are conducted for three streamflow gauges (the catchment’s inlet and outlet and a tile drainage system) for multiple events in the warm periods of 2013-2018. The results of the two methods are compared and discussed for different runoff generation mechanisms.

Determining the processes that drive streamflow generation and catchment-scale transport of nutrients and pollutants by water is one of the challenges of modern hydrology. In the last decades, substantial knowledge has been gained from high-frequency and high-resolution measurements of tracers to track water movements within a hydrological system. For example, the stable isotopes of oxygen (d18O) and hydrogen (d2H) have been widely used to disentangle the contributions of different runoff generation mechanisms by modeling water travel and residence times. However, quantifying the effects of catchment internal factors for similar or different transit time distributions, particularly in characteristically complex and heterogeneous catchments, remains a challenge. Here we test different shapes for age selection functions (StorAge Selection) of individual distinct storage components (e.g., the root zone, groundwater) of the agricultural Hydrological Open Air Laboratory (HOAL) catchment in Petzenkirchen, Austria. The HOAL has a variety of runoff generation mechanisms, including overland flow, wetlands, and tile drains, as well as high-resolution tracer and hydrological data that allows for broad storage-discharge relationship testing. The main goal of this study is to estimate the transit time distributions associated with varying fluxes from these components (e.g., overland flow, groundwater recharge) to learn about catchment internal streamflow generation processes. Water flow is modeled with a water age balance model and are replaced by selecting the appropriate transfer functions. Testing different age selection functions for various storage components of the catchment will provide a better understanding of catchment dynamics under different environmental conditions, allowing for better calibration of catchment-scale water and nutrient transport models.

Water contaminated with human and animal enteric pathogens puts public health at serious risk. All countries and regions of the world require highly robust and effective water management and treatment systems to guarantee safe water and protect public health. To this end, we need accurate predictions of the origin of pathogens , how they move through the environment and where they end up.This study is part of a four-year project and aims to develop new bacterial overland transport - BOT models to provide answers to the above questions. The project takes a holistic, quantitative approach to transfer BOT model parameters onto large scales. Small-scale precipitation experiments are conducted in the laboratory and larger-scale experiments are conducted using a rainfall simulation under real environmental conditions. The state-of-the-art combination of quantitative, microbiological, and molecular methods and parameters will provide the scientific basis for more accurate predictions of BOT, which eventually may be extended to viruses and protozoa in the future.

A few low-frequent but extreme rainfall events generate substantial erosion amounts and, as a result, land degradation negatively affects soil health and agricultural productivity. Determining rainfall erosivity (from small to extreme events) that drive soil erosion will improve our knowledge and understanding of extreme erosion processes and our ability to develop and adapt adequate soil protection strategies. This study aims to analyze rainfall erosivity characteristics across Austria‘s main agricultural production zones using long-term (from 27 to 82 years) with high-resolution (5-minutes) rainfall data from 27 rain gauges. Erosive rainfall characteristics such as rainfall amount, event duration, and the maximum 30-minute intensity were investigated, and typical rainfall types were assessed through a clustering approach based on the k-means algorithm. Results identified three dominant types (clusters) of erosive rainfalls across Austria's agricultural areas. Seasonal distribution analysis showed that the predominant erosive events, characterized by short duration and high intensities, occur during the summer months from June to August. In contrast, the long-duration and low rainfall-intensity events are evenly distributed throughout the year. The spatial distribution of rainfalls related to the largest rainfall erosivities showed a pronounced occurrence in the southeastern pre-alpine areas. Knowledge of the occurrence of erosive rainfall events in space and time eventually supports the implementation of locally adapted Soil Conservation (SC) practices in Austria.

In our ACRP funded project EROS-A we aim at a comprehensive analysis of the erosive energy of rainfall, estimated soil loss, and reported damage using statistical and process-based methods. In this particular study, we evaluate the return periods of erosive rainfall events at 26 meteorological stations in Austria. The main focus is on daily cumulative rainfall and the maximum 30-min rainfall intensity (I30) as these were identified as key parameters for rainfall erosivity assessment. The extreme value series were obtained using both the Annual Maxima Series (AMS) and Peak Over Threshold (POT) approach, in order to assess which of the methods will be most accurate. The assumptions of stationarity and independence of the extreme value series were carefully checked using statistical trend and independence tests and no significant deviations were found.Generalized extreme value (GEV) and generalized Pareto (GPD) probability distributions were fitted using L-moment and maximum likelihood procedures. The GEV distribution is suited for AMS or block maxima data, whereas the GPD is suited for the POT series. For the obtained GEV and GPD models we examined extreme events with return periods of 2, 5, 10, 25, 50, and 100 years. We found that threshold selection is crucial for the POT, with diagnostic tools (such as mean residual life plots) not being fully decisive. Finally sensitivity analysis was performed where convergence of the fitted GPD to the GEV (AMS approach) helped determining robust thresholds for the GPD. The results show that the POT approach for daily cumulative precipitation is the most accurate in 69% of the cases and the AMS approach in 8% of the cases (different return periods and stations), while they have similar performance in 23% of the cases. Similar results are obtained for I30, were the success rates are 80% for the POT, 8% for the AMS and 12% for similar performance. In the next step, we will extend frequency analysis to a regional context, in order to map extreme rainfall erosivity across main agricultural production zones in Austria.

Inter rows in vineyards provide several functions, which may compete with each other. Thus, different strategies for maintaining inter rows are commonly applied, particularly in vineyards. On the one hand, greening in vineyard inter rows, with no or occasional tillage operations, improves soil structure and health through a range of effects from erosion protection to carbon sequestration. On the other hand, tillage of inter rows is applied to fulfil diverse functions ranging from weed and pest control to the prevention of water competition and water loss during episodes of droughts. However, this may affect soil health and structure parameters regulating essential soil functions.This study investigated the effects of tillage intensity and green cover on soil organic carbon content and particular soil physical health parameters. 16 vineyards at eight sites in eastern Austria were sampled for bulk density, pore size distribution, percolation stability and soil hydraulic parameters in topsoil samples from 3 to 8 cm. For each site, the parameters were compared for a vineyard with high and a vineyard with low intensive managed inter rows.Comparing high and low intensive managed inter rows showed that soil health parameters were generally better in vineyards with low intense management and green covers. In particular, soil organic carbon and percolation stability were significantly higher under low intensive soil management with a green cover. Soil bulk density and macropore flow were significantly higher under intensive tillage. However, no significant effects were measured for saturated hydraulic conductivity and pore size distribution.

Particle size distribution in soil, or texture, is a property essential for understanding processes driving soil water dynamics, fertility and conservation. However, soil texture mapping, using traditional soil sampling and analytical techniques, is labor intensive, time consuming and hence expensive. Having a more rapid and low-cost proximal sensing technique to accurately map soil texture would be a big step forward, in particular at a sufficiently detailed spatial scale for providing advice on soil management at field scale.For the development of such proximal sensing techniques assisting in soil texture monitoring, a study was carried out by the Joint FAO/IAEA Centre at the Petzenkirchen catchment of the Hydrological Open-Air Laboratory (HOAL), located 100 km west from Vienna in Lower Austria. As sensing technique for determining texture, with emphasis on the topsoil (0-30 cm), Gamma-Ray Sensor (GRS) technology was selected. A Medusa MS-350 portable GRS was used to measure the spatial activity concentrations (Bq.kg-1) of 40K (potassium), 238U (uranium), and 232Th (thorium) over 20 points across the studied catchment. These activity concentrations were then linked with soil texture parameters of interest, such as silt, clay, and sand, at the same positions. In total 200 soil samples (10 soil samples for each of the 20 points) were taken for soil texture determination.Preliminary results showed the best correlation between 40K radionuclide concentrations and clay (R2 = 0.51), and silt (R2 = 0.46). Thus, spatial monitoring of 40K with mobile GRS shows potential for the monitoring of clay and silt. However, correlations with other radionuclides concentrations such as 238U and 232Th were weak with R2 coefficients less than 0.16.Further studies are now required to assess ways to improve 40K based predictability of soil texture and validate the applicability of this approach in a more generic way, i.e. a wide range of soil textures. This validation will then enable the further development of this nuclear technology for effective and efficient ground based and air-borne soil texture determination.

Sponge-city sites for urban trees based on the model of Stockholm promise to improve the chances of trees surrounded by sealed or condensed surfaces for root growth and therefore vital tree development tremendously. The system furthermore helps to conquer the urban heat island effect, aids in stormwater management as an underground retention basin saving soil water for transpiration and hence supports the ambition to approach a (more) natural hydrologic cycle. The actual capacity of the system to fulfil these services is determined by a variety of design criteria which need to be optimized based on detailed knowledge about the hydrological functionality of the different elements of the system. The aim of several monitoring and modelling studies in Austria is to gain such knowledge to ensure a proper performance of the system in terms of tree growth and rainwater retention.First of all, the substructure construction consists of unconsolidated fine substrate flushed into the voids of edged stones that serve as load-bearing structure, assuring root-favouring pore distribution. Technical components like an inlet and surface water distribution system accompany the substrate. Further influencing parameters are e.g. properties of the existing substrate underneath, design of urban surface as well as origin and treatment of fed surface water. Based on monitoring sites in the shape of lysimeters, field scale projects in real urban settings, and laboratory experiments, modelling approaches for the hydrological functionality of the sponge-city systems are generated. Crucial system elements and target values for design properties are derived from these simulations. In the longer term, the results should serve as a supportive planning tool for engineering projects in urban environments.

Under a climate change scenario combining droughts and high intensity rainfall periods, with water erosion damages are becoming more important. So, farmers and land managers must be aware of the consequences of erosion and prevent it, where possible, or at least mitigate their effects. However, evaluation of water erosion risk is usually model-based and complex and therefore not appealing to end users who demand simple, and easy to understand tools to acquire knowledge and adapt farm management and agricultural practices. Paradoxically, some of the key information to understand and predict the effect of soil management can only be properly identified at farm scale with help from practitioners. This suggests that there is scope for tools that allow the appraisal of water erosion risk by practitioners at farm level. There are successful examples of this approach, for instance Millgroom et al. (2006, 2007) who developed a field tool for organic olive growers. This based field tool was based on a simplified version of the RUSLE (Renard et al., 1997), to assess water erosion risk in organic olive groves at farm scale in Southern Spain. Its approach consisted of four steps: 1) to divide the farm into homogenous zones according to soil types, topography and management practices; 2) to complete an evaluation of the general erosion risk on each previously defined area taking into consideration, crop typology, management practices and topography; 3) to conduct an on-farm check for the visual symptoms of soil erosion on the different defined areas of the farm to account for effects of specific soil type and climate; 4) to combine the general erosion risk (Appraisal 1) and the on-farm check (Appraisal 2) to assess the overall erosion risk. Although this tool proved successful among practitioners and it showed its potential, in its original form it is confined to a specific niche. Clearly, there is the need to expand this approach for a more general use. This communication presents a preliminary, in progress, version of a field tool for appraising water erosion risk in woody crops valid in multiple environments and crops, developed in the context of the EU/China TUdi project and the EIP-Agri Operational Group BIOLIVAR. It will combine a dual approach combining erosion risk estimation, from basic farm and management features based on simplified RUSLE factors, with erosion symptoms. Its design is based for a hybrid use, and is available either in a paper form (which remains the most operational one in many field conditions) or in a web-based tool. With this approach this tool aims to achieve these objectives: 1- To provide a standardize tool valid across multiple environments and crops to evaluate water erosion risk in woody crops. 2- To develop an educational tool to provide training on prevention water erosion. 3-To reinforce international cooperation among Chinese and European teams, in cooperation with practitioners. Acknowledgements: This work is supported projects TUdi (Horizon 2020, GA 101000224), PID2019-105793RB-I00 (Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation) and GOPO-SE-20-0002 (EIP-Agri).

Rising demand for functionality of green infrastructure in urban environments led to the development of combined systems for stormwater retention and infiltration together with urban trees. Frequently, a special type of substrate is used based on coarse gravel or cobbles (ca. 5 – 20 cm) as structure element ensuring load bearing capacity as well as stable pore volume and combine it with a fine growing substrate with a certain storage capacity for water and nutrients. These systems got different names in different parts of the world. They are called structural soils in the US and Singapore, Stockholm systems in Northern and parts of Central Europe, as well as sponge city substrates for urban trees in Austria. Despite progress in technical knowledge about Dos and Don´ts in the installation of structural soils and their stormwater retention functionality, there are no standard lab methods for their hydrological characterization by now.The main goal was to develop a lab method to determine the retention capacities at different matric potential states and the respective hydraulic conductivity of structural soil substrates. A major challenge therein is to handle the dimensions of the cobbles in lab conditions. For hydrological characterization, the multi-step-outflow method and the evaporation method were combined. The adopted changeable lab setup allows to determine the saturated hydraulic conductivity as well as the total pore volume at the beginning. Afterwards a ceramic pressure plate is used to perform the multistep-outflow method by applying certain negative pressures with a suction pump. In a third step the setup is changed to an evaporation method, which is used to determine the volumetric soil water content at more negative matric potentials.The first results provide a promising basis for further developments. For example, the available water capacity of structural soil substrates can be narrowed down to around 5 percent by volume, while the air capacity is around 21 percent by volume. This study represents a first step for developing appropriate methodology for a practicable hydrological characterization of structural soils. For the future, the experiment is intended to be extended by observations of wetting front characteristic and to be applied in standard procedures by a wide range of geotechnical or soil science laboratories.

Soil erosion and sediment loading are mainly caused by extreme events with rare occurrence. Thus, long term observation is necessary for identification of causes and factors that trigger the erosion process and lead to the generation of river sediment.To investigate the main drivers of erosion in the catchment of the Hydrological Open Air Laboratory (HOAL) Petzenkirchen, we performed time series analyses for the period of 2002-2022, including agricultural land use, precipitation, discharge and sediment load with high temporal and spatial resolution. The HOAL Petzenkirchen, located in the alpine forelands of Lower Austria, extends to 66 ha and is mainly used for intensive agriculture.To highlight the effect of heavy precipitation events, a 100-year flood event that occurred in 2021 is analysed in detail to demonstrate the immense impact of such events on the sediment loading.

Tillage is an important management practice that can be necessary to loosen the soil and allow for seeding and aims at enhancing productivity. However, the long-term effects of a particular tillage action on soil health depend on the local soil characteristics and differ amongst soils. The main aim of our study was to evaluate the possible effects of various physical, chemical, and biological soil quality indicators in dependence of three different tillage practices: Conventional Tillage (CT), Mulch Tillage (MT), and No-Till (NT). A long-term tillage experiment that started in 1994 in Mistelbach, Lower Austria, was comprehensively sampled in 2002 and 2021. The research attempts to fill the knowledge gap in the long-term soil health changes due to shifting conventional tillage. To evaluate the soil health changes over time, we assessed the impact of the three tillage practices on selected soil quality indicators in the 0-20 cm layer and below 20 cm, which we determined as being below the plowing depth. The "Soil Management Assessment Framework" (SMAF) procedure was applied to assess and compare the overall soil quality. Twenty-one indicators were selected to compare and evaluate the long-term effects of the three tillage systems (a.); fifteen indicators were used to investigate the temporal changes since the last monitoring (b.); thirteen indicators were selected to assess overall soil quality (c.). The study shows that the tillage practices and temporal conditions significantly affected soil organic carbon (SOC) content. The SOC amount in the 0-20 cm layer was twice as high under no-till (31.2 t/ha) compared to conventional tillage (15.3 t/ha). The SMAF reveals that NT increased SOC content and enhanced soil's physical indicators, such as available soil water, porosity, and coarse pores in the 0-20 cm layer. We found soil quality improvements with MT and NT in the 0-20 cm layer; however, the SMAF also indicates that the soil quality was better below 20 cm in 2021 compared to 2002, independent of the tillage practice. According to our results, conservation tillage practices (such as MT and NT) enhanced overall soil quality, particularly the physical (available soil water, coarse pores) and soil biological indicators, mainly SOC.

An important decision in soil hydrological research is whether to conduct experiments outdoors or indoors. Both approaches have their advantages and trade-offs. Using undisturbed soil monoliths combines some of the advantages of outdoor and indoor experiments; however, there are often size limitations. Acquiring large monoliths necessitates heavy machinery, which is time-, cost-, and labor-intensive. Small- to medium-sized soil blocks, however, can be obtained using less demanding methods. A promising approach is the combination of smaller blocks to form a single large monolith, thereby optimizing cost and labor efficiency as well as representativity and upscaling potential. To this end, we compared the runoff properties of medium-sized (1×0.5×0.35 m) grassland soil monoliths cut in half and recombined with uncut blocks. We conducted artificial runoff experiments and analyzed the chemical composition and amount of outflow from four flow pathways (surface runoff, subsurface interflow, percolating water, lateral flow). Furthermore, we studied surface runoff velocity parameters using a salt tracer. Our results suggest that the effects of the recombination procedure are negligible compared to the variation in the data caused by the inherent soil heterogeneity. We propose that the benefits of combining soil monoliths outweigh the potential disadvantages.

The amount and composition of organic carbon are major controls on water quality and ecological processes in streams. In this study we explored the fate of the quantity of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and the composition of dissolved organic matter (DOM) in an agricultural hillslope - stream network system. We conducted our study in the 66 ha HOAL (Hydrological Open Air Laboratory) in Lower Austria. We measured DOC of the soil eluates from different land use units, water samples from the stream and from seven tributaries, and estimated DOM components by fluorescent spectrophotometry and PARAFAC analyses. Soil DOC shows the highest concentrations in summer, but DOC concentrations in the tributaries are lower in summer than in winter by between 19% and 31%. DOM composition of the soil eluate differs between land use units. The forest site exhibits the largest fractions of humic-like fluorophores and less labile DOM. DOM composition in the tributaries is, in addition to DOC, controlled by soil moisture. We estimated the DOC import from the tributaries into the stream as 125 kg during base flow conditions in the period February to December 2017 and the instream DOC production as 38 kg, considering mass balance and exchange with groundwater. Six out of seven DOM components have a positive net production along the stream, only aliphatic DOM with low molecular weight is consumed (65 % of its input). These findings suggest that agricultural land use increases DOC input into streams and alters their DOM quality. Instream processes modify DOM quality over short distances.

Every application of soil erosion models brings the need of proper parametrization, i.e., finding physically or conceptually plausible parameter values that allow a model to reproduce measured values. No universal approach for model parametrization, calibration and validation exists, as it depends on the model, spatial and temporal resolution and the nature of the datasets used. We explored some existing options for parametrization, calibration and validation for erosion modelling exemplary with a specific dataset and modelling approach. A modified version of the Morgan-Morgan-Finney (MMF) model was selected, representing a balanced position between physically-based and empirical modelling approaches. The resulting calculator for soil erosion (CASE) model works in a spatially distributed way on the timescale of individual rainfall events. A dataset of 142 high-intensity rainfall experiments in Central Europe (AT, HU, IT, CZ), covering various slopes, soil types and experimental designs was used for calibration and validation with a modified Monte-Carlo approach. Subsequently, model parameter values were compared to parameter values obtained by alternative methods (measurements, pedotransfer functions, literature data). The model reproduced runoff and soil loss of the dataset in the validation setting with R of 0.89 and 0.76, respectively. Satisfactory agreement for the water phase was found, with calibrated saturated hydraulic conductivity (k ) values falling within the interquartile range of k predicted with 14 different PTFs, or being within one order of magnitude. The chosen approach also well reflected specific experimental setups contained in the dataset dealing with the effects of consecutive rainfall and different soil water conditions. For the sediment phase of the tested model agreement between calibrated cohesion, literature values and field measurements were only partially in line. For future applications of similar model applications or datasets, the obtained parameter combinations as well as the explored methods for deriving them may provide guidance.

A major decision in soil hydrological research is whether to conduct experiments outdoor or indoors. Both approaches have their advantages and trade-offs. Using undisturbed soil monoliths combines some of the advantages of outdoor and indoor experiments, however, there are often size limitations. While push-methods can be used for small- to medium-sized soil blocks, acquiring larger monoliths necessitates heavy machinery. A promising approach is the combination of smaller blocks to a single large monolith, thereby optimizing cost and labour efficiency as well as representativity and upscaling potential. To this end, we compared the runoff properties of medium-sized (1x 0.5 x 0.35 m) grassland soil monoliths cut in half and re-combined with uncut blocks. We conducted artificial runoff experiments and analyzed the outflow from four flow pathways (surface runoff, subsurface interflow, percolating water, laterally exported water) and surface runoff velocity parameters. Our results suggest that the effects of the re-combination procedure are negligible compared to the variation in the data caused by the inherent soil heterogeneity. Further research is needed for a definite conclusion. Nevertheless, we propose that the benefits of combining soil monoliths outweigh the potential disadvantages.