Please note that artificial influences are only visible to regulator users (due to data rights). You require read/write permissions in the Staging System to create, edit or delete artificial influence data.

What are abstractions?

Abstraction licences can be single site, simple purpose abstractions with no seasonal variation in abstraction limit. Others can contain complex authorisations regarding multiple abstraction locations, different purposes, different seasonal periods and imposed licence conditions. To represent this clearly, Qube divides a licence feature into three levels: the overall licence details, site details (one or more sets of which belong to the overall licence) and purpose level (one or more sets of which belong to a site).

Site details

You can save the following details for groundwater abstraction sites. The groundwater unit, storativity and transmissivity are required for all groundwater abstraction sites. There are default storativity and transmissivity values associated with each groundwater unit, but these can be updated.

Each abstraction site requires at least one site purpose. You can view and edit the site purpose details via the button.

Site purposes

The influence of an abstraction is specified as an actual monthly profile for each purpose at a site. A flag indicates whether the actual monthly profile is derived using returns data from the abstraction licensee.

The season start and end represent the authorised period of abstraction within the year.

The actual monthly profile is used within the estimation procedures, with the percentage return factor subsequently applied. A percentage return factor is required for each purpose if some of the abstracted water is returned and if this amount is not covered by a separate discharge consent (e.g. cooling water return). If no water is returned, then a 0% return should be used.

Stream depletion profile

Groundwater abstractions do not have an immediate impact on the flows in the rivers as a result of the complex response of stream flow to the pumping of water from an unconfined or semi-confined aquifer. Hence the monthly profile is adjusted by Stream Depletion Factors (SDFs) which summarise the net impacts of the stream flow response to groundwater pumping for that particular abstraction site. Accordingly the impact of a groundwater abstraction on nearby streams is quantified within Qube by considering both the site level monthly profile and the SDF applicable to that site.

Qube uses the Theis analytical model to estimate the stream depletion associated with a groundwater abstraction. You can manually edit the computed stream depletion profile via the button. An amber warning symbol appears if the profile has been manually edited. You can recalculate using Theis via the refresh button.

Confined aquifers

Theis assumes an unconfined aquifer. If a groundwater abstraction is abstracting from a confined aquifer, it would be advisable to adjust the stream depletion profile to zero.

Licence details

The licence details are summarised in the header. Use the button to edit the licence details.