2CSalt simulates dryland salinity processes to estimate water and salt export on a monthly time step from catchments in upland areas of the Murray-Darling Basin ranging from 200 to 2000 km2. 2CSalt supports Murray-Darling Basin Commission reporting requirements by predicting the impacts of land use changes within a catchment on hydrology and salt export. Model output can be linked to stream routing models to predict the impacts of land use change scenarios for salinity management on downstream water allocations, environmental flows, and their contributions to end-of-valley targets.

Designed for use by CRCCH Industry partners as part of their State, Murray-Darling Basin and National investment, catchment planning and reporting mechanisms. 2CSalt is compatible with available spatial data sets in the Murray-Darling Basin. Setting up a 2CSalt model for areas outside the Murray-Darling Basin may require extensive data preparation involving the input of data and knowledge from a team of hydro-geologists, soil scientists, hydrologists and water balance modellers.

2CSalt has been designed with a level of complexity that is compatible with available spatial data sets in eastern Australia. Within-catchment processes of water and salt movement are lumped into larger spatial units that can be defined and parameterised with available data. The model is intended to be used to estimate water and salt movement at the catchment outlet. It does predict water and salt from individual groundwater response units within a catchment, but results at this scale are more difficult to validate and should be used with care.

2CSalt has been tested and evaluated using data from eight sub-catchments in eastern Australia. State Agencies in eastern Australia will be progressively applying 2CSalt across the upland areas of the Murray-Darling Basin. 2CSalt and the best available data will be made available as this rollout progresses. The main benefit of using 2CSalt is that the both the model itself and all underpinning data will be provided.

Applications of 2CSalt (2Csalt model and associated data) will be accredited under the mechanisms of the Murray-Darling Basin Commission Schedule C and Operational Protocols. This ensures the 2CSalt models can be used for reporting on the impacts of land use intervention strategies on salinity targets.