QCAA Earth & Environmental Science case studies
QCAA Earth & Environmental Science · Put your knowledge to work in context.
Earth & Environmental Science is a General senior syllabus offered by the Queensland Curriculum & Assessment Authority (QCAA) for Queensland senior secondary students. The current syllabus is the Earth & Environmental Science General senior syllabus 2025, written for implementation with students who will complete their study of the course in 2026 or beyond. The QCAA Earth & Environmental Science case studies are 5 cases and about 2,542 words.
1Coastal Groundwater Salinity and Borefield Management
A coastal town pumps water from an unconfined sand aquifer for irrigation. Monitoring bores sit at three distances inland from the shoreline: bore A at 120 m, bore B at 350 m, and bore C at 800 m.
508 words, about 3 min2Rehabilitating a Saline-Sodic Soil Under Irrigation
A 12-hectare paddock has been irrigated with groundwater for eight years. Soil tests from the top 30 cm show electrical conductivity of the saturated extract (ECe) of 9.5 dS/m, sodium adsorption ratio (SAR) of 22, and pH of 8.6.
511 words, about 3 min3Interpreting a Carbon Budget for a Rehabilitated Mine Site
A mining company revegetates a 200-hectare waste-rock landform. Monitoring over five years gives these annual figures: gross primary production (GPP) 4.2 t C/ha/yr, autotrophic respiration 2.9 t C/ha/yr, heterotrophic respiration from soil 1.6 t C/ha/yr, and carbon export in erosion and runoff 0.4 t C/ha/yr.
461 words, about 2 min4Seismic Hazard Assessment for a Regional Town
A town of 18,000 people sits 25 km from an active fault. Historical records, which span only 160 years, show no earthquake above magnitude 4.5 in the region.
516 words, about 3 min5Managing a River Reach Downstream of a Dam
A 60 m high dam was built 50 years ago on a gravel-bed river. Downstream, a 40 km reach now has these symptoms: the channel bed has incised by 1.8 m, formerly mobile gravel bars are colonised by dense willow, median bed sediment size has increased from 18 mm to 45 mm, and native fish that spawn in gravel have declined by 60%.
546 words, about 3 min