Macro-engineering Australia's Lake Eyre with imported seawater

Abstract

The macro-engineering project proposal exploits technologies that have the potential to quickly enliven the arid region surrounding Lake Eyre. The plan is focused on biosaline agriculture. The distinctive macro-project components are: Lake Eyre is gradually filled to a higher level by controlling evaporation and by pumping seawater from the nearby ocean using cheap tensioned textile tubes. Most of the necessary energy could be produced by photovoltaics, in a very attractive application without electricity storage requirements. Eventually, Lake Eyre is to be lidded with a floating impermeable plastic cap or with buoyant hollow plastic balls that reduce evaporation. Filled with seawater, Lake Eyre can be used as a reservoir for irrigation in biosaline agriculture. Elementary mathematical models for the proposed tasks and rough macro-economical estimations are presented. Based on overall results, we concluded that the macro-project is feasible with existing technologies and could become profitable in a few decades. But beyond paying off the capital investment, the greatest implementation benefit is the prospect of creating conditions for human settlement in the low-fertility soils of the Lake Eyre basin. Additional research directions are briefly presented.