Understanding return on investment of sub-surface water management options for waterlogged areas in the Western Region

Established in early 2021, the South Coast NRM (SCNRM) led project in Sub-Surface Drainage investigates methods of managing waterlogging within the Esperance Port Zone through the use of slotted pipe buried at depth. Since installation SCNRM has been monitoring the demonstration site to determine the effectiveness of slotted pipe in mitigating waterlogging, and also determine its effective potential return on investment to growers. A range of monitoring activities have been conducted throughout 2021, 2022 and 2023, including plant counts, biomass analysis, soil and water analysis and yield analysis to harvest 2023. The results from this project will be made public in early 2024.

The results from the Sub-Surface Drainage site will be collated and compared against those collected from the projects sister-site located in the Albany port zone.