Modelling the Water Crisis
Published on the 15 Jun 2005
As their major project in Mathematical Modelling for Real World Systems
This year, third year mathematics students modelled Sydney's Water Crisis.
Their modelling predicts that, if the past four years of rainfall over the
Sydney catchment area are used as a guide to future rainfall patterns, then
Sydney's dams will be out of water in about three years time. The students
also investigated the effectiveness of mass installations of backyard
rainwater tanks to address the problem but found that the crisis could not be
averted in this way.