Academic literature on the topic 'Murray-Darling Basin, NSW'
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Journal articles on the topic "Murray-Darling Basin, NSW"
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Maini, N., A. Buchan, and S. Joseph. "Derivation of a salinity target for the Lower Murray Darling Valley." Water Science and Technology 48, no. 7 (October 1, 2003): 105–12. http://dx.doi.org/10.2166/wst.2003.0430.
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The NSW Government commissioned catchment management boards (CMBs) to set the direction and process for catchment scale natural resource management. In the Lower Murray Darling, Rivers are highly regulated and water resources shared between three states. The Catchment Board only has jurisdiction over the northern bank of the Murray but salt and water enter the river from many locations upstream and along the area boundary. River salt and flow modelling has continually been improved to reflect and contribute to an increased understanding of salinity processes. The MDBC Salt Load study correlates 10 years of actual measured data with its modelled outputs, and estimates river salinities for 2020, 2050 and 2100. Routing models such as SALTFLO and MURKEY generate percentile salinity levels at different nodes in the River Murray downstream of the Lower Darling confluence. National, Murray-Darling Basin and NSW salinity management policy and legislative requirements were considered, MDBC model output was used to ensure the interim targets are achievable, auditable, and appropriate to the catchment. The method for an end-of-valley river based target for salinity is described. A target of less than 463 μS/cm for Lock 6, a point in the lower reaches of the Murray River is recommended for year 2010. Catchment management targets that express the main river salinity risk in five hydrologically distinct management zones are also recommended. Salinity management changes are needed in each zone to meet the end-of-valley target.
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Stewart, G., and B. Harper. "Barmah-Millewa forest environmental water allocation." Water Science and Technology 45, no. 11 (June 1, 2002): 217–23. http://dx.doi.org/10.2166/wst.2002.0398.
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The formal allocation of water for the environment is a developing area of river management both scientifically and in terms of community participation. This case study, illustrating the recent use of the Barmah-Millewa Forest Environmental Water Allocation (EWA), provides a practical demonstration of community participation in environmental water management, the application of hydrological and biological “triggers” and a positive, demonstrable biological outcome from an environmental water allocation. The Barmah-Millewa Forest covers an area of 70,000 ha across the floodplain of the Murray River, upstream of the town of Echuca. About half the forest is in NSW (Millewa) and half is in Victoria (Barmah). The Barmah Forest is a Wetland of International Importance listed under the Convention on Wetlands - Ramsar Convention. The forest is the largest river redgum forest in the world. The natural flooding cycle associated with the forest has been significantly altered by regulation of the Murray River - impacting upon the overall health of the forest ecosystem. Recognising this, the Murray Darling Basin Commission developed a water management strategy for the forest to enhance forest, fish and wildlife values. To implement this strategy, between 1990 and 1993 reports were completed and community consultation took place. In 1993 the Murray Darling Basin Ministerial Council approved allocation of 100 Gigalitres of water per year, provided in equal shares by NSW and Victoria, to meet the needs of the forest ecosystem and in 1994 the Barmah-Millewa Forum was established under the Murray-Darling Basin Agreement. The vision for the Forum is to maintain and, where possible, improve the ecological and productive sustainability of the Barmah-Millewa Forest and to establish a planning and operational framework to better meet the flooding and drying requirements of the riparian forests and wetlands. Between October 2000 and January 2001 the Barmah-Millewa Forest Environmental Water Allocation was used for the second time. A total of 341 GL was released as an EWA. This amount represented only 8% of the total flows downstream of Yarrawonga Weir from September 2000 and January 2001. The strategic use of the relatively small amount of water enabled flooding to be maintained and ensured significant breeding success for water birds and other biota in the Forest.
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Marshall, Graham R. "Evaluating Adaptive Efficiency in Environmental Water Recovery: Application of a Framework for Institutional Cost-Effectiveness Analysis." Water Economics and Policy 06, no. 02 (April 2020): 2050003. http://dx.doi.org/10.1142/s2382624x20500034.
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The first empirical application of an established framework for evaluating the adaptive efficiency of policy and project options — the Institutional Cost-Effectiveness Analysis (ICEA) framework — is documented in this paper. The application involves cost-effectiveness comparison of six projects for environmental water recovery in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia, managed by the New South Wales (NSW) Government under three programs: The Living Murray Initiative; the NSW Wetland Recovery Program; and the NSW Rivers Environmental Restoration Program. Focussing primarily on one of the projects — the Darling Anabranch Pipeline Project (DAPP) — allows an in-depth account to be presented of the ICEA framework’s application. Abatement and transaction costs, and public and private subsets of these costs, were accounted for in the applications. The adaptive efficiency of the DAPP (a “water-saving project”) is found provisionally — i.e., without accounting quantitatively for institutional lock-in costs — to exceed that of the five other environmental water recovery projects (including two “market-purchase projects”) evaluated. This finding is significant given a tendency for economists to presume that environmental water recovery is generally achieved more efficiently through market-purchase projects. With water management, and environmental management more broadly, exposed to increasing uncertainty, adaptive efficiency will grow in importance as a metric for economic evaluation. The application of the ICEA framework documented in this paper can guide researchers in applying this metric to evaluations of projects and policies implemented in, or proposed for, this domain.
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Becker, Joy, Dean Gilligan, Martin Asmus, Alison Tweedie, and Richard Whittington. "Geographic Distribution of Epizootic haematopoietic necrosis virus (EHNV) in Freshwater Fish in South Eastern Australia: Lost Opportunity for a Notifiable Pathogen to Expand Its Geographic Range." Viruses 11, no. 4 (April 1, 2019): 315. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/v11040315.
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Epizootic haematopoietic necrosis virus (EHNV) was originally detected in Victoria, Australia in 1984. It spread rapidly over two decades with epidemic mortality events in wild redfin perch (Perca fluviatilis) and mild disease in farmed rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) being documented across southeastern Australia in New South Wales (NSW), the Australian Capital Territory (ACT), Victoria, and South Australia. We conducted a survey for EHNV between July 2007 and June 2011. The disease occurred in juvenile redfin perch in ACT in December 2008, and in NSW in December 2009 and December 2010. Based on testing 3622 tissue and 492 blood samples collected from fish across southeastern Australia, it was concluded that EHNV was most likely absent from redfin perch outside the endemic area in the upper Murrumbidgee River catchment in the Murray–Darling Basin (MDB), and it was not detected in other fish species. The frequency of outbreaks in redfin perch has diminished over time, and there have been no reports since 2012. As the disease is notifiable and a range of fish species are known to be susceptible to EHNV, existing policies to reduce the likelihood of spreading out of the endemic area are justified.
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Dabovic, Jodie, Lucy Dobbs, Glenn Byrne, and Allan Raine. "A new approach to prioritising groundwater dependent vegetation communities to inform groundwater management in New South Wales, Australia." Australian Journal of Botany 67, no. 5 (2019): 397. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/bt18213.
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Groundwater dependent ecosystems (GDEs) require access to groundwater to meet all or some of their water requirements to maintain community structure and function. The increasing demand of surface and groundwater resources has seen the NSW Government put in place management mechanisms to enable the sharing of water between irrigators, the environment, industry, towns and communities via water sharing plans. The groundwater sharing plans aim to provide adaptive management of GDEs by prioritising for protection those that are considered the most ecologically valuable within each plan area. The High Ecological Value Aquatic Ecosystems (HEVAE) framework has already been adopted to prioritise riverine ecosystems for management in surface water sharing plans. Here, we provide a method developed using the HEVAE framework to prioritise vegetation GDEs for management. The GDE HEVAE methods provide a derived ecological value dataset for identified groundwater dependent vegetation that is used to inform the planning and policy decisions in NSW. These decisions are required to manage and mitigate current and future risks caused by groundwater extraction. This is achieved via the identification of ecologically valuable assets to then use as the consequence component in a risk assessment for the groundwater sources, to provide vegetation GDE locations for setback distances for new groundwater production bores, and for the assessment of impacts due to current and potential future groundwater extraction. The GDE HEVAE method uses recorded and predicted spatial data to provide weighted scores for each attribute associated with the four HEVAE criteria (distinctiveness, diversity, vital habitat and naturalness). The combined scores categorise the ecological value of each groundwater dependent vegetation community (depicted as geographic information system (GIS) polygon features) from very high to very low. We apply the GDE HEVAE method to three catchments in order to demonstrate the method’s applicability across the Murray–Darling Basin with varying elevation and climate characteristics. The ecological value outcomes derived from the methods have been used to inform planning and policy decisions by NSW Government processes to allow for protection in not only areas that are currently at risk but to also manage for potential future risks from groundwater extraction.
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FitzSimons, Trish. "Catherine Potter, Sarah Moles, Libby Connors and Pam Postle, eds. Conversations on the Condamine: An Oral History from the Murray Darling Basin. Annandale NSW: Envirobook, 2002. 128 + vii pp. $19.95." Queensland Review 10, no. 1 (May 2003): 175–76. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s1321816600002609.
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VÖRÖS, JUDIT, SKYE WASSENS, LUKE PRICE, DAVID HUNTER, STEVEN MYERS, KYLE ARMSTRONG, MICHAEL J. MAHONY, and STEPHEN DONNELLAN. "Molecular systematic analysis demonstrates that the threatened southern bell frog, Litoria raniformis (Anura: Pelodryadidae) of eastern Australia, comprises two sub-species." Zootaxa 5228, no. 1 (January 11, 2023): 1–43. http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5228.1.1.
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In south-eastern Australia, the pelodryadid Litoria aurea Group (sensu Tyler & Davies 1978) comprises three species: Litoria aurea (Lesson, 1829), Litoria raniformis (Keferstein, 1867), and Litoria castanea (Steindachner, 1867). All three species have been subject to declines over recent decades and taxonomic uncertainty persists among populations on the tablelands in New South Wales. We address the systematics of the Group by analysing mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences to assess divergence in the Litoria raniformis from across its current range in New South Wales (NSW), Victoria, South Australia (SA) and Tasmania. We also included samples of Litoria castanea from a recently rediscovered population in the southern tablelands of NSW. Our phylogenetic and population genetic analyses show that Litoria raniformis comprises northern and southern lineages, showing deep mitochondrial DNA sequence divergence (7% net average sequence divergence) and can be diagnosed by fixed allelic differences at more than 4,000 SNP loci. Samples of the northern lineage were collected from the Murray-Darling Basin while those of the southern lineage were collected from south-eastern South Australia, southern and south-eastern Victoria and Tasmania. Analysis of the morphology and bioacoustics did not unequivocally delineate the two lineages. The presence of a hybrid backcross individual in western Victoria at the northern margin of the southern lineage, leads us to assign sub-species status to the two lineages, L. r. raniformis for the northern lineage and L. r. major for the southern lineage. Our data do not unequivocally resolve the taxonomic status of L. castanea which will require molecular genetic analyses of museum vouchers from those parts of the range where L. castanea and L. raniformis are no longer extant. Our data also suggest that human mediated movement of frogs may have occurred over the past 50 years. Our genotyping of vouchers collected in the 1970s from the Mount Lofty Ranges in South Australia detected mitochondrial haplotypes of both sub-species and SNP analysis showed that a single Tasmanian specimen was a backcross with L. r. raniformis ancestry. Movement of L. r. raniformis into Tasmania and both sub-species into the Mount Lofty Ranges are not likely due to passive movements of animals through agricultural commerce, but due to the attractiveness of the species as pets and subsequent escapes or releases, potentially of the larval life stage.
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O'Neill, C. J., E. Humphreys, J. Louis, and A. Katupitiya. "Maize productivity in southern New South Wales under furrow and pressurised irrigation." Australian Journal of Experimental Agriculture 48, no. 3 (2008): 285. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/ea06093.
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Irrigation farmers in the Murray–Darling Basin of Australia are under considerable pressure to reduce the amount of water they use for irrigation, while sustaining production and profitability. Changing from surface to pressurised irrigation systems may provide some or all of these outcomes; however, little is known about the performance of alternative irrigation methods for broadacre annual crops in this region. Therefore, a demonstration site for comparing furrow, subsurface drip and sprinkler irrigation was established on a representative clay soil in the Coleambally Irrigation Area, NSW. The performance of maize (Zea mays L.) under the three irrigation systems was compared during the 2004–05 season. Subsurface drip irrigated maize out-performed sprinkler and furrow irrigated maize in terms of grain yield (drip 11.8 t/ha, sprinkler 10.5 t/ha, furrow 10.1 t/ha at 14% moisture), net irrigation water application (drip 5.1 ML/ha, sprinkler 6.2 ML/ha, furrow 5.3 ML/ha), net irrigation water productivity (drip 2.3 t/ML, sprinkler 1.7 t/ML, furrow 1.9 t/ML) and total water productivity (drip 1.7 t/ML, sprinkler 1.4 t/ML, furrow 1.3 t/ML). Thus, subsurface drip irrigation saved ~30% of the total amount of water (irrigation, rain, soil water) needed to produce the same quantity of grain using furrow irrigation, while sprinkler irrigation saved ~8% of the water used. The higher net irrigation with sprinkler irrigation was largely due to the lower soil water content in the sprinkler block at the time of sowing. An EM31 survey indicated considerable spatial soil variability within each irrigation block, and all irrigation systems had spatially variable water distribution. Yield variability was very high within all irrigation systems, and appeared to be more strongly associated with irrigation variability than soil variability. All irrigation blocks had large patches of early senescence and poor cob fill, which appeared to be due to nitrogen and/or water deficit stress. We expect that crop performance under all irrigation systems can be improved by improving irrigation, soil and N management.
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Faulks, Leanne K., Dean M. Gilligan, and Luciano B. Beheregaray. "Phylogeography of a threatened freshwater fish (Mogurnda adspersa) in eastern Australia: conservation implications." Marine and Freshwater Research 59, no. 1 (2008): 89. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/mf07167.
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Phylogeography is a field that has the potential to provide an integrative approach to the conservation of threatened species. The southern purple spotted gudgeon, Mogurnda adspersa, is a small freshwater fish that was once common and widely distributed throughout south-eastern Australia. However, habitat alteration has dramatically reduced the size and the range of Murray–Darling Basin populations, which are now classified as endangered. Here patterns of genetic structure and evolutionary history of M. adspersa in southern Queensland and the Murray–Darling Basin are elucidated using three regions of the mitochondrial DNA, the ATPase 6 and 8 and the control region. Murray–Darling Basin populations are characterised by lineages with highly localised endemism, very low genetic diversity and restricted gene flow. Phylogenetic reconstructions show that Murray–Darling Basin populations comprise a monophyletic clade that possibly originated by range expansion from the coast around 1.6 million years ago. It is proposed that the divergent Murray–Darling Basin clade is of high conservation priority and requires separate management. The present study further exemplifies the role of drainage rearrangement in driving evolutionary diversification in Australian freshwater fishes, an historical process with profound implications for conservation management.
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Musyl, MK, and CP Keenan. "Population genetics and zoogeography of Australian freshwater golden perch, Macquaria ambigua (Richardson 1845) (Teleostei: Percichthyidae), and electrophoretic identification of a new species from the Lake Eyre basin." Marine and Freshwater Research 43, no. 6 (1992): 1585. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/mf9921585.
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Populations of golden perch (Macquaria ambigua) were sampled from both sides of the Great Dividing Range (GDR): from the Murray-Darling drainage basin (Murray R., L. Keepit and Condamine R.), the L. Eyre internal drainage basin (Barcoo R. and Diamantina R.), and the internal drainage basin of the Bulloo R.-all to the west of the GDR-and from the Fitzroy drainage basin (Dawson R. and Nogoa R.) east of the GDR. Starch-gel and polyacrylamide electrophoresis of 12 enzyme systems plus two general muscle proteins was used to estimate the genetic variation within and between populations. Of the 18 presumed genetic loci examined, nine were either polymorphic at the P0.99 criterion level or exhibited fixed allelic differences between some of the populations. Within the Murray-Darling drainage basin, there was little indication of heterogeneity. Contingency Χ2 analyses of allelic distributions among drainage basins indicated significant levels of heterogeneity at six variable loci. The isolated L. Eyre population exhibited diagnostic alleles at four loci when compared with the Murray- Darling and Fitzroy populations. The genetic distance of the L. Eyre population (Nei's D=0.23) from these two populations indicates that the L. Eyre golden perch is most probably a previously unrecognized allopatric species. The level of divergence (0 = 0.06) between Fitzroy and Murray-Darling golden perch indicates differentiation at the subspecies level, with no fixed differences observed between these two populations. Finally, golden perch from the Bulloo R. represent either (i) an intermediate evolutionary unit between the presumed ancestral L. Eyre population and the derived Murray-Darling and Fitzroy populations or (ii) a complex hybrid between these populations. Average gene-flow statistics, FST = 0.760 and Nem=0.08, suggest that the populations in each of the four basins can be regarded as separate gene pools that have been isolated for different, and considerable, periods of time.
Dissertations / Theses on the topic "Murray-Darling Basin, NSW"
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Dwyer, Brian James, University of Western Sydney, College of Social and Health Sciences, and School of Natural Sciences. "Aspects of governance and public participation in remediation of the Murray-Darling Basin." THESIS_CSHS_NS_Dwyer_B.xml, 2004. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/776.
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This thesis addresses the question “What is the essence of the Murray Darling river system conundrum that is usually posed as an issue of environmental remediation?”- following perceptions of problems in catchment strategy formulation regarding project selection and public consultation. The question is initially seen as having four facets – governance, public, participation and remediation. An initial literature review indicated that previous examination of these topics seemed insufficiently radical or comprehensive for the enquiry’s purposes, seeming not to attribute full humanness to members of the public. A fieldwork program of quasi-anthropological nature was conducted. Interpretation of the fieldwork reports focuses primarily on the lack of attribution of full humanness to members of the public. Interpretive techniques including a phenomenological-style process was applied and found that the district houses a number of unrecognised people “nexors’ occupying linking or nexus roles who exercise personal skills and initiatives to underpin effective remediation outcomes. Towards the end of the fieldwork program, further literature indicated that the initial four-facet nature of the enquiry should be reformulated, to include the overall nature of western society as it appears in the district (in place of participation), to reconstitute the concept of remediation more radically. Governance as a topic is broader than the ways in which it appears in the examined district, and suitable hybridizing of competing world view concepts remains unresolved in this thesisDoctor of Philosophy (PhD)
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King, Alison Jane 1974. "Recruitment ecology of fish in floodplain rivers of the southern Murray-Darling Basin, Australia." Monash University, Dept. of Biological Sciences, 2002. http://arrow.monash.edu.au/hdl/1959.1/8391.
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Hartwig, Lana D. "Aboriginal water rights in New South Wales: Implications of water governance reform for self-determination." Thesis, Griffith University, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/393199.
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Over recent decades, Indigenous peoples’ claims for rights to govern, protect and benefit from the use of their waters have attracted increased global attention. These claims form part of a broader set of demands for Indigenous self-determination, now enshrined in international norms, including the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. However, Indigenous peoples’ struggles for self-determination broadly, and freshwater rights specifically, are contentious and complex. This is especially so in settler-colonial contexts where Indigenous and settler populations and their institutions and political systems co-exist in complicated and interconnected ways.
Over roughly the same period, we have also witnessed the transformation of freshwater governance internationally. Underpinned by neoliberal rationality, nation states have tended to frame water governance challenges as issues of scarcity and inefficiency, and have proffered predominantly market-based and demand-focused policy and legislative responses. Scholars and practitioners disagree about whether these neoliberal water governance and distribution approaches create opportunities or further obstacles for appropriately addressing Indigenous freshwater claims. Some are concerned about how neoliberal rationality masks power asymmetries and constructs water as (only) an economic and value-free resource, which may displace alternative ontological and material water realities that do not align with dominant neoliberal representations of water.
These arguments about the pros and cons of neoliberal water governance and water markets play out in Australia. Over the past twenty years, escalating Aboriginal claims for freshwater rights have coincided with widespread neoliberal water reforms. These reforms have led to the development of the world’s biggest water market and completely restructured water rights. Despite this, Aboriginal peoples’ water justice claims remain unresolved and little is known about how neoliberal water governance and market frameworks materially or otherwise affect Aboriginal peoples in this region.
In response, this thesis describes and analyses the effects of Australia’s neoliberal water governance on self-determination for Aboriginal peoples. It uses the New South Wales portion of the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia’s most productive agricultural region, as a case study to examine the experiences of Aboriginal peoples who seek rights to access, use and manage water. Theoretical insights from critiques of neoliberalism, settler-colonial theory, legal and ontological pluralism and Indigenous methodologies informed the methodological approach to conceptualising and responding to this research problem. Data was collected via semi-structured interviews with Aboriginal water policy experts and representatives from Aboriginal organisations across the case study area that hold statutory water entitlements, as well as archival, documentary and state water entitlement data analysis.
The two key interrelated arguments and findings of this study are as follows. First, the neoliberal governance regime under which Aboriginal peoples currently seek water access and self-determination is built upon and entrenches the exclusion of Aboriginal peoples from historical land and water governance. Aboriginal peoples’ abilities to access, freely care for, manage and determine the use of water are significantly curtailed by enduring settler-colonial power relations. Evidence of this is obtained by quantifying and analysing Aboriginal-held water entitlements, establishing a profile of current holdings, and showing changes to these holdings over time. Analysis of interviews with Aboriginal water policy experts about their experiences and struggles to secure Aboriginal water rights in the recent era also support this finding.
Second, this thesis finds that where Aboriginal entities hold commercially valuable statutory water entitlements, there are some opportunities for self-determination but these are generally limited and constrained by structural, organisational and wider governance factors. Analysis of attitudes and behaviours of Aboriginal organisations and representatives who trade in the water market reveals that the conditions that arise from neoliberal water governance (and its intersection with neoliberal Aboriginal affairs policies) encourage them to conceptualise themselves, their water property rights and their pathways to self-determination, in particular ways that align with market subjectivities. This has the effect of narrowing the magnitude and suite of benefits that Aboriginal organisations derive from holding rights to water.
The findings from this work present important and timely insights for policy and law reform processes currently underway across Australia. The findings also offer valuable insights for Aboriginal organisations seeking to better engage with water governance and wanting to utilise and manage their water in ways of their choosing.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School of Environment and Sc
Science, Environment, Engineering and Technology
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McDonald, John Gilbert Walton. "Hydrochemical processes in the Lower Murrumbidgee Area, NSW : the influence of weathering reactions, evaporation, and salt dissolution on groundwater quality." Master's thesis, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/150008.
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The Lower Murrumbidgee area is a major agricultural region located on the Eastern margin of the sedimentary Murray Basin. A large low-salinity groundwater body extends from the Eastern margin in the semi-confined Calivil and Renmark Formation aquifers, and is overlain by higher salinity water in the surficial Shepparton Formation. Deep groundwater extraction has increased to ~300 GL in last decade, leading to substantial pressure declines, and the resulting increased vertical hydraulic gradient increases the potential for downward migration of saline water into productive aquifers. This study is aimed at determining the processes that form the wide range of groundwater compositions in the Lower Murrumbidgee area, and using groundwater chemistry to constrain flow paths. Groundwater and surface water were collected from bores and rivers and analysed for major and minor element concentrations, 87Sr/86Sr, and deuterium/oxygen isotope ratios. Total dissolved solids in groundwater samples span 3 orders of magnitude. Low-salinity groundwaters have similar major ion ratios to the surface waters, with high proportions of HCO3, Na, and Ca, whereas high-salinity waters are Na-Cl dominated with ionic ratios and concentrations similar to seawater. The location of the study area and the groundwater 87Sr/86Sr ratios preclude mixing with connate seawater; groundwaters instead evolve from low-salinity recharge sources (surface water and rain). Major ion trends indicate that high-salinity groundwaters are formed through evaporation/transpiration of rainfall during recharge, and that concentration of dilute solutes initially delivered in rainfall is the dominant process that forms chloride-rich saline groundwaters. The high potential evapotranspiration and flat topography (low runoff) result in removal of a large fraction (>99%) of the water and retention of the most soluble solutes (i.e., Na, Cl, Br). Dissolution of aeolian halite-containing dust is a secondary source of chloride to the system, contributing up to 30% of the total in the east of the study area and 50% in the west, but can not alone account for the formation of the saline groundwater. The shift to Na-Cl dominated compositions during concentration is instead caused by precipitation of calcite and high-Mg calcite; these less soluble components are then recycled back into the atmosphere and influence the rainfall compositions. Cation exchange of dissolved Na for Ca appears to occur during concentration, allowing continued precipitation of calcite without depletion of Ca/accumulation of HCO3. The lowest salinity groundwaters are clustered around the Murrumbidgee River at the eastern margin, and have similar major ion ratios to river water but higher Si concentrations and lower 87Sr/86Sr, indicating that weathering reactions occur during/shortly after recharge. Plagioclase and carbonate fractions of the sediments appear to weather preferentially, because groundwater 87Sr/86Sr ratios are significantly lower than bulk ratios of Murray Basin sediments and their source rocks. The more saline compositions of the deep groundwaters in the west of the study area are consistent with mixing with shallow saline water through downward leakage. The salinity increase is most marked 150-200 km west of the basin margin, and is likely related to increased sediment thickness and a resulting decrease in horizontal flow rates.
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Dwyer, Brian J. "Aspects of governance and public participation in remediation of the Murray-Darling Basin." Thesis, 2004. http://handle.uws.edu.au:8081/1959.7/776.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis addresses the question “What is the essence of the Murray Darling river system conundrum that is usually posed as an issue of environmental remediation?”- following perceptions of problems in catchment strategy formulation regarding project selection and public consultation. The question is initially seen as having four facets – governance, public, participation and remediation. An initial literature review indicated that previous examination of these topics seemed insufficiently radical or comprehensive for the enquiry’s purposes, seeming not to attribute full humanness to members of the public. A fieldwork program of quasi-anthropological nature was conducted. Interpretation of the fieldwork reports focuses primarily on the lack of attribution of full humanness to members of the public. Interpretive techniques including a phenomenological-style process was applied and found that the district houses a number of unrecognised people “nexors’ occupying linking or nexus roles who exercise personal skills and initiatives to underpin effective remediation outcomes. Towards the end of the fieldwork program, further literature indicated that the initial four-facet nature of the enquiry should be reformulated, to include the overall nature of western society as it appears in the district (in place of participation), to reconstitute the concept of remediation more radically. Governance as a topic is broader than the ways in which it appears in the examined district, and suitable hybridizing of competing world view concepts remains unresolved in this thesis
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Horner, Kyle. "New environmental tracer methods for quantifying solute sources in semi-arid alluvial aquifers." Phd thesis, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/156182.
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Alluvial aquifer systems produce up to 60% of groundwater extracted in Australia. Identifying solute sources to these fresh water reservoirs is vital for their long-term sustainable management. In this thesis, new environmental tracer techniques are presented for quantifying the contributions of various processes to groundwater solute loads in semi-arid alluvial aquifers, extending the range of methods available for characterising solute sources in similar settings around the world. The methods are demonstrated in a surface water and groundwater study of the Lower Murrumbidgee Groundwater Management Area of south-east Australia's Murray Basin. Equations derived using Cl/Br ratios are used to quantify the input of chloride salts to dissolved chloride in waters subjected to evaporation and transpiration. The equations are applied to assess the contributions of halite to groundwater salinity in the Lower Murrumbidgee, where Cl/Br ratios are heterogeneous. Low, uniform Cl/Br ratios suggest negligible halite dissolution in the catchment's east while a systematic increase in Cl/Br ratios suggests up to 50% of dissolved chloride in the west could be from halite. Numerical simulations of the basin-scale "cyclic salt" conceptual groundwater salinisation model are used to quantify meteoric inputs to groundwater and to identify where additional processes not in the conceptual model contribute to aquifer salinity. Groundwater quantity in the study area is shown to depend on the leakage rate of the Murrumbidgee River to regional aquifers, but groundwater quality depends on the rate of cyclic salt input from the vadose zone. Solute distribution in irrigated areas deviates from the regional trend. Results indicate irrigation return flows have mobilised solutes in the unsaturated zone, but in-situ dissolution of soluble minerals does not significantly contribute to aquifer salinity. Stable silicon isotopes are used to examine spatial and temporal variations in silicate weathering in the Lower Murrumbidgee, where silica accounts for up to 30% of total dissolved solids in low-salinity groundwaters. A new conceptual model of silicon isotope fractionation during silicate weathering is presented and an existing mathematical model of isotope fractionation is adapted to calculate silicon isotope composition in solution. Fractionation is shown to be pathway-dependent, greatest in weathering processes that sequester high proportions of silica in secondary phases. Silicon isotope data from the Lower Murrumbidgee indicates that weathering intensity in the catchment may have increased over the last 20 000 years, and surface water 30Si values indicate a similar increase in the headwater catchments during the same period.
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McCarthy, Michael G. (Michael George). "Effect of timing of water deficit on fruit development and composition of Vitis vinifera cv. Shiraz." 1997. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09PH/09phm1233.pdf.
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Includes bibliographies. This thesis describes an irrigation experiment established on Vitis vinifera cv. Shiraz in a mature vineyard in the Australian Murray-Darling basin. It concentrates on the relationship between the timing of the water deficit and the depth of irrigation applied and the difference in berry weight between different irrigation treatments. The study includes a polynomial equation which describes the relation between growing degree days and °Brix. A two phase linear model is used to describe the change in red-free glycosyl-glucose (G-G).
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Koehn, John Desmond. "The ecology and conservation management of Murray Cod Macullochella peelii peelii." 2006. http://repository.unimelb.edu.au/10187/2864.
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Murray cod Maccullochella peelii peelii is an iconic freshwater angling species that has suffered declines in abundance and is now listed as a nationally vulnerable species. Despite recognition of the need for biological knowledge to provide future management directions, little is known of its ecology. This thesis examines that ecology to provide new knowledge and recommendations for improved conservation management. (For complete abstract open document)
Books on the topic "Murray-Darling Basin, NSW"
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Saintilan, Neil, and Ian Overton, eds. Ecosystem Response Modelling in the Murray-Darling Basin. CSIRO Publishing, 2010. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/9780643100213.
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Ecosystem Response Modelling in the Murray-Darling Basin provides an overview of the status of science in support of water management in Australia’s largest and most economically important river catchment, and brings together the leading ecologists working in the rivers and wetlands of the Basin. It introduces the issues in ecosystem response modelling and how this area of science can support environmental watering decisions.
The declining ecological condition of the internationally significant wetlands of the Murray-Darling Basin has been a prominent issue in Australia for many years. Several high profile government programs have sought to restore the flow conditions required to sustain healthy wetlands, and this book documents the scientific effort that is underpinning this task.
In the Southern Murray-Darling Basin, the River Murray, the Murrumbidgee River and their associated wetlands and floodplains have been the focus of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority’s ‘The Living Murray’ program, and the NSW Rivers Environmental Restoration Program. The book documents research aimed at informing environmental water use in a number of iconic wetlands including those along the Murray – the Barmah-Millewa Forest; the Chowilla Floodplain and Lindsay-Wallpolla Islands; the Coorong and Murray mouth; and the Murrumbidgee – the Lowbidgee Floodplain.
Within the Northern Murray-Darling Basin, research conducted in support of the Wetland Recovery Plan and the NSW Rivers Environmental Restoration Program has improved our knowledge of the Gwydir Wetlands and the Macquarie Marshes, and the water regimes required to sustain their ecology.
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Swan, Michael. Frogs and Reptiles of the Murray–Darling Basin. CSIRO Publishing, 2020. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/9781486311330.
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The Murray–Darling Basin spans more than 1 million square kilometres across the lower third of Queensland, most of New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, northern Victoria and the south-eastern corner of South Australia. Wildlife habitats range from the floodplains of the Basin to alpine areas, making the region of special ecological and environmental interest.
This book is the first comprehensive guide to the 310 species of frogs and reptiles living in the Murray–Darling Basin. An overview of each of the 22 catchment areas introduces the unique and varied climates, topography, vegetation and fauna. Comprehensive species accounts include diagnostic features, conservation ratings, photographs and distribution maps for all frogs, freshwater turtles, lizards and snakes recorded in this important region.
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O'Gorman, Emily. Flood Country. CSIRO Publishing, 2012. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/9780643106659.
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Floods in the Murray-Darling Basin are crucial sources of water for people, animals and plants in this often dry region of inland eastern Australia. Even so, floods have often been experienced as natural disasters, which have led to major engineering schemes. Flood Country explores the contested and complex history of this region, examining the different ways in which floods have been understood and managed and some of the long-term consequences for people, rivers and ecologies.
The book examines many tensions, ranging from early exchanges between Aboriginal people and settlers about the dangers of floods, through to long running disputes between graziers and irrigators over damming floodwater, and conflicts between residents and colonial governments over whose responsibility it was to protect townships from floods.
Flood Country brings the Murray-Darling Basin's flood history into conversation with contemporary national debates about climate change and competing access to water for livelihoods, industries and ecosystems. It provides an important new historical perspective on this significant region of Australia, exploring how people, rivers and floods have re-made each other.
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Schmandt, Jurgen, Aysegül Kibaroglu, Regina Buono, and Sephra Thomas, eds. Sustainability of Engineered Rivers In Arid Lands. Cambridge University Press, 2021. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/9781108261142.
Full textAbstract:
This interdisciplinary volume examines how nine arid or semi-arid river basins with thriving irrigated agriculture are doing now and how they may change between now and mid-century. The rivers studied are the Colorado, Euphrates-Tigris, Jucar, Limarí, Murray-Darling, Nile, Rio Grande, São Francisco, and Yellow. Engineered dams and distribution networks brought large benefits to farmers and cities, but now the water systems face multiple challenges, above all climate change, reservoir siltation, and decreased water flows. Unchecked, they will see reduced food production and endanger the economic livelihood of basin populations. The authors suggest how to respond to these challenges without loss of food production, drinking water, or environmental health. The analysis of the political, hydrological, and environmental conditions within each basin gives policymakers, engineers, and researchers interested in the water/sustainability nexus a better understanding of engineered rivers in arid lands.
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Nambiar, Sadanandan, and Ian Ferguson. New Forests. CSIRO Publishing, 2005. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/9780643093089.
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There is no question that the timber industry needs to adopt sustainable practices that ensure a future for the industry. This book goes well beyond simply growing commercial tree plantations for wood production. It explores new forests that can supply environmental services such as salinity mitigation and carbon sequestration together with commercial wood production in an environment beyond the boundaries of traditional forestry.
New Forests targets agricultural landscapes affected by salinity and which generally have rainfall less than 650 mm per year. The book addresses vital issues such as where tree planting might best be pursued, what species and technologies should be used for establishment and later management, how productivity can be improved, what mix of environmental services and commercial goods is optimum, and whether the likely net benefits justify the change in land use and requisite investment.
While the book is focussed on the low-rainfall, agricultural, inland zone of the Murray-Darling Basin wherever possible the scope of most chapters has been expanded to synthesise generic information applicable to other regions in Australia and elsewhere.
The authors provide a comprehensive account of all the issues relevant to the development of these new forests, covering soils, the bio-physical environment, water use and irrigation strategies - including the use of wastewater, silviculture, pests and diseases, wood quality and products, and economics and policy implications.
Book chapters on the topic "Murray-Darling Basin, NSW"
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Rothenburg, Daniel. "A New World (1979–1994)." In Irrigation, Salinity, and Rural Communities in Australia's Murray-Darling Basin, 1945–2020, 201–40. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2023. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-18451-2_7.
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Guillaume, Joseph H. A., Alvar Closas, and Andrew McCallum. "Groundwater allocation in New South Wales, Australia." In Water Resources Allocation and Agriculture, 143–58. IWA Publishing, 2022. http://dx.doi.org/10.2166/9781789062786_0143.
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Abstract New South Wales has more than 100 years of history of water licensing and allocation. This chapter reflects on the approach to water allocation in the current groundwater sharing plans, including general principles and underlying reasoning for application elsewhere. Focus is on groundwater-specific issues for transition from open to regulated access, while embedded within broader water regulations and connections to surface water management. Water allocation is built around water sharing plans that determine extraction limits, with community consultation. Water rights are differentiated in terms of water sources and priority, separated from land ownership, and from time-varying water allocations, subject to available water determinations. Both water entitlements and allocations can be traded, with rules governing impact of trade. Water sharing plans are state-level instruments explicitly connected in applicable regions to the Commonwealth-level Murray-Darling Basin Plan and associated extraction limits. Compliance is based firstly on metering of water extractions. Future prospects are also discussed.
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"Freshwater, Fish and the Future: Proceedings of the Global Cross-Sectoral Conference." In Freshwater, Fish and the Future: Proceedings of the Global Cross-Sectoral Conference, edited by John D. Koehn. American Fisheries Society, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.47886/9789251092637.ch10.
Full textAbstract:
<em>Abstract</em> .—The collection and use of data to manage the freshwater fisheries of Australia’s Murray–Darling basin (MDB) has a poor history of success. While there was limited assessment data for early subsistence and commercial fisheries, even after more robust data became available during the 1950s its quality varied across jurisdictions and was often poorly collated, assessments were not completed, and the data were underutilized by management. The fishery for Murray Cod <em>Maccullochella peelii </em> is given as an example, where the fishery declined to the point of closure and then the decline continued to the extent that Murray Cod was listed as a threatened species and all harvest now only occurs through the recreational fishery. Lessons from such poor population assessments have not been fully learned, however, as there remains a paucity of harvest data for this recreational fishery. Without a proper assessment, a true economic valuation of this fishery has not been made. As the MDB is Australia’s food bowl, there are competing demands for water use by agriculture, and without a proper assessment of the worth of the fishery, it is difficult for Murray Cod to be truly considered in either economic or sociopolitical discussions. The poor state of MDB rivers and their fish populations (including Murray Cod) has, however, resulted in political pressure for the development of the sustainable rivers audit, a common assessment method for riverine environmental condition monitoring. This audit undertakes standardized sampling for fish and a range of other variables at a number of fixed and randomly selected sites on a 3-year rotating basis. While the sustainable rivers audit has provided a range of data indicating that the condition of rivers is generally very poor, these data have yet to be fully utilized to determine the potential state of the fisheries (such as Murray Cod) or to set targets for rehabilitation, such as for environmental flows. While, to date, data analyses have been somewhat restricted by fiscal constraints, more comprehensive use of data, together with full fishery valuations, should be seen as the way forward for improved management.
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"Freshwater, Fish and the Future: Proceedings of the Global Cross-Sectoral Conference." In Freshwater, Fish and the Future: Proceedings of the Global Cross-Sectoral Conference, edited by John D. Koehn. American Fisheries Society, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.47886/9789251092637.ch10.
Full textAbstract:
<em>Abstract</em> .—The collection and use of data to manage the freshwater fisheries of Australia’s Murray–Darling basin (MDB) has a poor history of success. While there was limited assessment data for early subsistence and commercial fisheries, even after more robust data became available during the 1950s its quality varied across jurisdictions and was often poorly collated, assessments were not completed, and the data were underutilized by management. The fishery for Murray Cod <em>Maccullochella peelii </em> is given as an example, where the fishery declined to the point of closure and then the decline continued to the extent that Murray Cod was listed as a threatened species and all harvest now only occurs through the recreational fishery. Lessons from such poor population assessments have not been fully learned, however, as there remains a paucity of harvest data for this recreational fishery. Without a proper assessment, a true economic valuation of this fishery has not been made. As the MDB is Australia’s food bowl, there are competing demands for water use by agriculture, and without a proper assessment of the worth of the fishery, it is difficult for Murray Cod to be truly considered in either economic or sociopolitical discussions. The poor state of MDB rivers and their fish populations (including Murray Cod) has, however, resulted in political pressure for the development of the sustainable rivers audit, a common assessment method for riverine environmental condition monitoring. This audit undertakes standardized sampling for fish and a range of other variables at a number of fixed and randomly selected sites on a 3-year rotating basis. While the sustainable rivers audit has provided a range of data indicating that the condition of rivers is generally very poor, these data have yet to be fully utilized to determine the potential state of the fisheries (such as Murray Cod) or to set targets for rehabilitation, such as for environmental flows. While, to date, data analyses have been somewhat restricted by fiscal constraints, more comprehensive use of data, together with full fishery valuations, should be seen as the way forward for improved management.
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"Freshwater, Fish and the Future: Proceedings of the Global Cross-Sectoral Conference." In Freshwater, Fish and the Future: Proceedings of the Global Cross-Sectoral Conference, edited by John D. Koehn. American Fisheries Society, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.47886/9789251092637.ch18.
Full textAbstract:
<em>Abstract</em> .—The Murray–Darling basin (MDB) in southeastern Australia, covers 1.1 million km<sup>2</sup>, involves six partner jurisdictions with a myriad of different government agencies, and, hence, provides an excellent example of the complexities of multijurisdictional management across a range of social and political tiers. In the MDB, fish and fisheries compete for water with agriculture, which is the traditional water user and is driven by national economics. Murray–Darling basin rivers are now highly regulated and generally in poor health, with native fish populations estimated to be at only about 10% of their pre-European settlement abundances. All native commercial fisheries are now closed, and the only harvest is by a recreational fishery. The six partner jurisdictions developed a Native Fish Strategy (NFS) to rehabilitate native fish populations to 60% of pre-European settlement levels after 50 years of implementation by addressing priority threats through a coordinated, long-term, whole-of-fish-community (all native fishes) approach. As there are a wide range of stakeholders, broad engagement was needed at a broad range of government and community levels. The NFS funding was discontinued after 10 years, not because of its lack of successes or project governance, but due to jurisdictional political changes and funding cuts that resulted in a failure of the collaborative funding structure. The withdrawal of considerable funding by one jurisdiction led to collective decline in monetary contributions and posed a threat to the multijurisdictional structures for both water and natural resource management (NRM) within the MDB. As a consequence, there was a review and reduction in NRM programs and a subsequent reduction in focus to the core business of water delivery. Reflection on the NFS, however, provides some useful insights as to the successes (many) and failures (funding) of this partnership model. Overall, the strategy and its structure was effective, as exhibited by an audit of outputs, outcomes, and networks; by the evident ongoing advocacy by NRM practitioners and the community; and by the continuation of ideas under other funding opportunities. This has provided a powerful legacy for future management of fishes in the MDB.
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"Freshwater, Fish and the Future: Proceedings of the Global Cross-Sectoral Conference." In Freshwater, Fish and the Future: Proceedings of the Global Cross-Sectoral Conference, edited by John D. Koehn. American Fisheries Society, 2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.47886/9789251092637.ch18.
Full textAbstract:
<em>Abstract</em> .—The Murray–Darling basin (MDB) in southeastern Australia, covers 1.1 million km<sup>2</sup>, involves six partner jurisdictions with a myriad of different government agencies, and, hence, provides an excellent example of the complexities of multijurisdictional management across a range of social and political tiers. In the MDB, fish and fisheries compete for water with agriculture, which is the traditional water user and is driven by national economics. Murray–Darling basin rivers are now highly regulated and generally in poor health, with native fish populations estimated to be at only about 10% of their pre-European settlement abundances. All native commercial fisheries are now closed, and the only harvest is by a recreational fishery. The six partner jurisdictions developed a Native Fish Strategy (NFS) to rehabilitate native fish populations to 60% of pre-European settlement levels after 50 years of implementation by addressing priority threats through a coordinated, long-term, whole-of-fish-community (all native fishes) approach. As there are a wide range of stakeholders, broad engagement was needed at a broad range of government and community levels. The NFS funding was discontinued after 10 years, not because of its lack of successes or project governance, but due to jurisdictional political changes and funding cuts that resulted in a failure of the collaborative funding structure. The withdrawal of considerable funding by one jurisdiction led to collective decline in monetary contributions and posed a threat to the multijurisdictional structures for both water and natural resource management (NRM) within the MDB. As a consequence, there was a review and reduction in NRM programs and a subsequent reduction in focus to the core business of water delivery. Reflection on the NFS, however, provides some useful insights as to the successes (many) and failures (funding) of this partnership model. Overall, the strategy and its structure was effective, as exhibited by an audit of outputs, outcomes, and networks; by the evident ongoing advocacy by NRM practitioners and the community; and by the continuation of ideas under other funding opportunities. This has provided a powerful legacy for future management of fishes in the MDB.
Conference papers on the topic "Murray-Darling Basin, NSW"
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Schellart*, Wouter P., and Wim Spakman. "Cenozoic Velocity and Topography Change of the Australian Plate Linked to Fossil New Guinea Slab Below Lake Eyre and the Murray-Darling Basin." In International Conference and Exhibition, Melbourne, Australia 13-16 September 2015. Society of Exploration Geophysicists and American Association of Petroleum Geologists, 2015. http://dx.doi.org/10.1190/ice2015-2196722.
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