Journal articles on the topic 'Murray -Darling Rivers environmental policy'
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1
Goss, K. "Report Card - Murray-Darling Basin - 2001." Water Science and Technology 45, no. 11 (June 1, 2002): 133–44. http://dx.doi.org/10.2166/wst.2002.0388.
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Ongoing deterioration of the riverine environments of the Murray-Darling Basin led the Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial Council to introduce a Cap in 1995 to halt the growth in diversions of water for consumptive use. This initiative recognised the finite nature of water resources in the Basin and sought to introduce a balance between off-stream use of water and protection of the riverine environment. But the cap is only one step, albeit a fundamental one, in restoring the Basin's rivers - it is a “stake in the ground”. Parties to the Murray-Darling Basin Initiative recognise the need to reverse decades of creeping decline if the Basin's rivers and riverine environments are to return to a more ecologically sustainable condition. In the last 12 months, Council and Commission have taken far-reaching decisions designed to restore the Basin's Rivers. Many of these decisions, even 10 years ago, would have been unimaginable. The Report Card will explain the need for a number of recent decisions that will impact on the future of the Basin's rivers. For example, Council's decision to establish an Environmental Manager function in the Office of the Commission was made in the context of the recently agreed Integrated Catchment Management (ICM) Policy, and supporting Sustainable Rivers Audit. The role of targets and accountabilities under the ICM Policy will also be discussed. The Report Card will also present a snapshot of the state of the Basin's rivers and the actions being taken at a range of scales and locations in response to identified problems. Because some of the key initiatives are still in development, this Report Card will set the scene by describing where our attention is being focused and why.
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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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Garrick, Dustin, Rosalind Bark, Jeff Connor, and Onil Banerjee. "Environmental water governance in federal rivers: opportunities and limits for subsidiarity in Australia's Murray–Darling River." Water Policy 14, no. 6 (August 14, 2012): 915–36. http://dx.doi.org/10.2166/wp.2012.120.
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A reform process is underway in the Murray–Darling Basin (Australia) to reallocate water from irrigated agriculture to the environment. The scale, complexity and politics of the recovery process have prompted interest in the role of local environmental water managers within state and federal governance arrangements. This paper examines prospects for a local role in environmental water management through the lens of the subsidiarity principle: the notion that effective governance devolves tasks to the lowest level with the political authority and capacity to perform them. The article defines and applies the subsidiarity principle to assess evolving federal–state–local interactions in environmental water policy, planning and practice in Australia's Murray–Darling River. In this context, subsidiarity is useful to clarify institutional roles and their coordination at a whole-of-river level. This analysis demonstrates opportunities for a local role in information gathering, innovation and operational flexibility to respond to opportunities in real time. It identifies significant limits to local action in upstream–downstream tradeoffs, economies of scale, capacity building and cost sharing for basin-wide or national interests, and accountability mechanisms to balance local, state and national rights and responsibilities. Lessons are relevant internationally for regions confronting complex allocation tradeoffs between human and environmental needs within multi-jurisdictional federal systems.
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Gippel, C., T. Jacobs, and T. McLeod. "Environmental flows and water quality objectives for the River Murray." Water Science and Technology 45, no. 11 (June 1, 2002): 251–60. http://dx.doi.org/10.2166/wst.2002.0402.
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Over the past decade, there intense consideration of managing flows in the River Murray to provide environmental benefits. In 1990 the Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial Council adopted a water quality policy: To maintain and, where necessary, improve existing water quality in the rivers of the Murray-Darling Basin for all beneficial uses - agricultural, environmental, urban, industrial and recreational, and in 1994 a flow policy: To maintain and where necessary improve existing flow regimes in the waterways of the Murray-Darling Basin to protect and enhance the riverine environment. The Audit of Water Use followed in 1995, culminating in the decision of the Ministerial Council to implement an interim cap on new diversions for consumptive use (the “Cap”) in a bid to halt declining river health. In March 1999 the Environmental Flows and Water Quality Objectives for the River Murray Project (the Project) was set up, primarily to establish water quality and environmental flow objectives for the River Murray system. A Flow Management Plan will be developed that aims to achieve a sustainable river environment and water quality, in accordance with community needs, and including an adaptive approach to management and operation of the River. It will lead to objectives for water quality and environmental flows that are feasible, appropriate, have the support of the scientific, management and stakeholder communities, and carry acceptable levels of risk. This paper describes four key aspects of the process being undertaken to determine the objectives, and design the flow options that will meet those objectives: establishment of an appropriate technical, advisory and administrative framework; establishing clear evidence for regulation impacts; undergoing assessment of environmental flow needs; and filling knowledge gaps. A review of the impacts of flow regulation on the health of the River Murray revealed evidence for decline, but the case for flow regulation as the main cause is circumstantial or uncertain. This is to be expected, because the decline of the River Murray results from many factors acting over a long period. Also, the health of the river varies along its length, from highly degraded to reasonably healthy, so it is clear that different approaches will be needed in the various river zones, with some problems requiring reach or even point scale solutions. Environmental flow needs have been determined through two major Expert Panel reports that identified the ecological priorities for the river. The next step is to translate these needs into feasible flow management actions that will provide the necessary hydrological conditions. Several investigations are underway to recommend options for flow management. Two important investigations are described in this paper: how to enhance flows to wetlands of national and international significance, and how to physically alter or change the operation of structures (including a dam, weir, lock, regulator, barrage or causeway), to provide significant environmental benefits. Early modelling suggests that the only option which has a positive environmental effect in all zones of the River is a reduction in overall water consumption.
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Pittock, Jamie. "Are we there yet? The Murray-Darling Basin and sustainable water management." Thesis Eleven 150, no. 1 (February 2019): 119–30. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0725513618821970.
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In 2007, then Australian Prime Minister Howard said of the Murray-Darling Basin’s rivers that action was required to end the ‘The tyranny of incrementalism and the lowest common denominator’ governance to prevent ‘economic and environmental decline’. This paper explores the management of these rivers as an epicentre for three key debates for the future of Australia. Information on biodiversity, analyses of the socio-ecological system, and climate change projections are presented to illustrate the disjunction between trends in environmental health and the institutions established to manage the Basin sustainably. Three key debates are considered: (1) conflict over the allocation of water between irrigated agriculture versus a range of other ecosystem services as the latest manifestation of the debate between adherents of the pioneering myth versus advocates of limits to growth in Australia; (2) cyclical crises as a driver of reactive policy reform and the prospects of the 2008 Water Act forming the basis of proactive, adaptive management of emerging threats and opportunities; and (3) subsidiarity in governance of the environment and natural resources in the Australian federation. Implementation of the 2012 Basin Plan as promised by the Federal Government ‘in full and on time’ is a key sustainability test for Australia. Despite Australian claims of exceptionalism, the Murray-Darling Basin experience mirrors the challenges faced in managing rivers sustainably and across governance scales in federations around the world.
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Colloff, Matthew J., and Jamie Pittock. "Mind the Gap! Reconciling Environmental Water Requirements with Scarcity in the Murray–Darling Basin, Australia." Water 14, no. 2 (January 11, 2022): 208. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/w14020208.
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The Murray–Darling Basin Plan is a $AU 13 billion program to return water from irrigation use to the environment. Central to the success of the Plan, commenced in 2012, is the implementation of an Environmentally Sustainable Level of Take (ESLT) and a Sustainable Diversion Limit (SDL) on the volume of water that can be taken for consumptive use. Under the enabling legislation, the Water Act (2007), the ESLT and SDL must be set by the “best available science.” In 2009, the volume of water to maintain wetlands and rivers of the Basin was estimated at 3000–7600 GL per year. Since then, there has been a steady step-down in this volume to 2075 GL year due to repeated policy adjustments, including “supply measures projects,” building of infrastructure to obtain the same environmental outcomes with less water. Since implementation of the Plan, return of water to the environment is falling far short of targets. The gap between the volume required to maintain wetlands and rivers and what is available is increasing with climate change and other risks, but the Plan makes no direct allowance for climate change. We present policy options that address the need to adapt to less water and re-frame the decision context from contestation between water for irrigation versus the environment. Options include best use of water for adaptation and structural adjustment packages for irrigation communities integrated with environmental triage of those wetlands likely to transition to dryland ecosystems under climate change.
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Goss, Kevin F. "Environmental flows, river salinity and biodiversity conservation: managing trade-offs in the Murray - Darling basin." Australian Journal of Botany 51, no. 6 (2003): 619. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/bt03003.
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The Murray–Darling basin's river system suffers from over-allocation of water resources to consumptive use and salinity threats to water quality. This paper draws attention to the current state of knowledge and the need for further investigations into the biological effect of river salinity on aquatic biota and ecosystems, the threats of dryland salinity to terrestrial biodiversity, and managing environmental flows and salinity control to limit the trade-offs in water-resource security and river salinity.There is growing evidence that river salt concentrations lower than the normally adopted threshold have sublethal effects on species and ecosystems, over a longer time period. Further knowledge is required.There is no agreed process for incorporating terrestrial biodiversity values at risk into a strategic response for dryland-salinity management. This is a public policy issue to be addressed.Recent studies have quantified the trade-off in surface water flow and river salinity from refforestation and revegetation of upland catchments to control salinity. The potential losses or benefits to environmental values have not been quantified.Such improved knowledge is important to the Murray–Darling basin and relevant to other river basins and catchments in Australia.
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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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Growns, Ivor, Iris Wing Tsoi, Mark Southwell, Sarah Mika, Sam Lewis, and Ben Vincent. "The effects of hydrology on macroinvertebrate traits in river channel and wetland habitats." Aquatic Ecosystem Health & Management 24, no. 4 (October 1, 2021): 93–102. http://dx.doi.org/10.14321/aehm.024.04.12.
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Abstract Increased need for freshwater for human uses from the mid-1900s has severely impacted rivers and floodplain wetlands so that they are some of the most seriously degraded environments in the world. Research and monitoring in this area to date has focused on understanding ‘flow-ecology’ relationships, without investigating the mechanisms underlying them. The use of species traits offers a tool for defining mechanistic connections between biotic responses and environmental conditions. We examined nine macroinvertebrate trait categories in both wetlands and channels to determine whether their profiles responded to hydrology in the Gwydir River system in the northern Murray-Darling Basin, Australia. Trait responses were shown for the wetlands but not the river channels. Twelve traits showed positive relationships with the time the wetlands were connected to their river channels. It is unclear the reason(s) why the river channel invertebrate traits did not respond to hydrology. However, the use of environmental flows in the river systems may be important to other aspects of macroinvertebrate assemblages such as their role in food webs to support higher-order consumers.
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Bark, Rosalind, Mac Kirby, Jeffery D. Connor, and Neville D. Crossman. "Water allocation reform to meet environmental uses while sustaining irrigation: a case study of the Murray–Darling Basin, Australia." Water Policy 16, no. 4 (March 19, 2014): 739–54. http://dx.doi.org/10.2166/wp.2014.128.
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Governments are developing policy to reallocate water to environmental uses in many of the world's major river basins developed for irrigation. These policies can place considerable pressure on the irrigation sector to adjust, and may be perceived to conflict with food security and rural development goals. This paper reviews the literature examining opportunities to reduce irrigation district and third party externalities associated with rapid adjustment to water reallocation, with emphasis on recent water reform in the Murray–Darling Basin (MDB), Australia. We focus on opportunities to improve joint environmental and regional economic outcomes, by targeting and sequencing policy instruments operating at different scales.
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Papas, Maureen. "Supporting Sustainable Water Management: Insights from Australia’s Reform Journey and Future Directions for the Murray–Darling Basin." Water 10, no. 11 (November 14, 2018): 1649. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/w10111649.
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Effective regulation of freshwater remains one of the biggest challenges facing our societies. In times of record-breaking weather extremes spurred by a changing climate, decision makers are increasingly aware of the need to formulate more effective governance to ensure the reliability, accessibility, and quality of this life-giving resource. In recent years, the Australian government has played a key role in water management. The government has managed a significant amount of water entitlements in the Murray–Darling Basin (MDB), through its Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder (CEWH) agency, in a bid to increase river flows and thus improve the river system’s environmental and ecological conditions. The CEWH is unique in many respects, and the Australian government’s control of its budget and actions is a critical aspect of the Basin’s sustainable long-term management. Despite the importance of this instrument, this article points out that there are serious issues with the current governance arrangements, such as inherent conflicts in the Murray–Darling Basin Authority’s (MDBA) role, which is a concern raised by the Productivity Commission. This article goes on to recommend the policy changes required to address Basin-wide issues and promote sustainable practices to ensure the MDB’s long-term resilience.
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Bischoff-Mattson, Zachary, Amanda H. Lynch, and Lee Joachim. "Justice, science, or collaboration: divergent perspectives on Indigenous cultural water in Australia's Murray–Darling Basin." Water Policy 20, no. 2 (January 30, 2018): 235–51. http://dx.doi.org/10.2166/wp.2018.145.
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Abstract The concept of ‘Indigenous cultural water’ has emerged in Australia's Murray–Darling Basin in the context of sweeping reforms to provide environmental water allocations for ecosystem conservation. We discuss the concept of cultural water, its origins, and its function as a means of representing and advancing Indigenous interests in a fully allocated and heavily developed river system. Cultural water remains a contested and ambiguous frame for policy, providing ample scope for conflict over appropriate goals, standards, and efficacy. We used Q methodology to elucidate the structure and content of perspectives on Indigenous cultural water as a prospective frame for policy. Our results illustrate distinct views on cultural water relative to distributive justice and restitution, the role of science and technical experts, and prospects for collaborative management. They also illustrate nuanced perspectives on the relation between cultural and environmental water management. Clarifying goals and reconciling divergent expectations around cultural water is likely to be an ongoing challenge. We note that uncertainty surrounding the concept may ultimately function to open discursive spaces to alternative perspectives and innovations, and this would be supported by contextual approaches, grounded in place-based prototyping.
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Khan, S., T. Rana, and Munir A. Hanjra. "A whole-of-the-catchment water accounting framework to facilitate public–private investments: an example from Australia." Water Policy 12, no. 3 (November 9, 2009): 336–56. http://dx.doi.org/10.2166/wp.2009.027.
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Often, information on spatial water use efficiencies in a whole-of-the-catchment context does not exist or does not feed into the water policy process to guide investments. Significant gains in water use efficiency are achievable but the water savings are often assumed rather than identified systematically. This paper used a whole-of-the-catchment water accounting framework to identify the main pathways to enhance water use efficiency, taking the Murrumbidgee catchment in the Murray–Darling Basin in Australia as an example. The results show that large amounts of water remain unaccounted for in the river system account; the true water losses occur in the nearfarm and onfarm zones, most of which can be saved cost effectively. The catchment water accounting procedure thus offers a useful framework for bringing unaccounted/lost water flows into human and environmental uses, for enhancing water use efficiency, for targeting investments to the water system components with the largest potential gains in efficiency, and for garnering private sector investments to realize true water savings. The pro-investment technical and institutional, as well as governance and policy, interventions to revamp private sector participation in water infrastructure are articulated.
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Bino, G., R. T. Kingsford, and K. Brandis. "Australia's wetlands – learning from the past to manage for the future." Pacific Conservation Biology 22, no. 2 (2016): 116. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/pc15047.
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Australia has diverse wetlands with multiple threats. We reviewed knowledge about the extent of wetlands, representativeness, impacts and threats to integrity and options for effective conservation. Natural Australian wetlands cover an estimated 33 266 245 ha (4.4%), with 55% palustrine (floodplains and swamps), followed by 31% lakes, 10% estuarine systems, and 5% rivers and creeks. The Lake Eyre (1.1%), Murray–Darling (0.73%), Tanami–Timor Sea Coast (0.71%) and the Carpentaria Coast (0.55%) drainage divisions have more wetlands, also reflected in the distributions among states and territories. Ramsar sites and wetlands in protected areas were generally biased towards the southern continent. Overall representation of mapped wetlands was good for lacustrine (40.6%) and estuarine (34.4%), fair for riverine (16.8%), but inadequate for palustrine (10.8%) wetlands. Within drainage divisions, representation varied considerably, with shortfalls from the Aichi target of 17%. Agriculture, urbanisation, pollution and invasive species have degraded or destroyed wetlands, particularly in the developed south-east, south-west and north-east of the continent. Water resource developments, primarily the building of dams, diversion of water and development of floodplains, seriously threaten Australian wetlands, with all threats exacerbated by climate change impacts of rising sea levels and high temperatures. Management and policy for wetlands is dependent on data on distribution, type and extent of wetlands, a key national constraint. Some States are well advanced (e.g. Queensland) and others lack any comprehensive data on the distribution of wetlands. Mitigation of increasing development (e.g. northern Australia) will be critical for conservation, along with increased representativeness in protected areas and restoration, particularly with environmental flows.
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Lynch, Abigail J., Lee J. Baumgartner, Craig A. Boys, John Conallin, Ian G. Cowx, C. Max Finlayson, Paul A. Franklin, et al. "Speaking the same language: can the sustainable development goals translate the needs of inland fisheries into irrigation decisions?" Marine and Freshwater Research 70, no. 9 (2019): 1211. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/mf19176.
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Irrigated agriculture and inland fisheries both make important contributions to food security, nutrition, livelihoods and wellbeing. Typically, in modern irrigation systems, these components operate independently. Some practices, commonly associated with water use and intensification of crop production can be in direct conflict with and have adverse effects on fisheries. Food security objectives may be compromised if fish are not considered in the design phases of irrigation systems. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development provides a framework that can serve as a backdrop to help integrate both sectors in policy discussions and optimise their contributions to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Inland fisheries systems do play an important role in supporting many SDG objectives, but these contributions can sometimes be at odds with irrigated agriculture. Using case studies of two globally important river catchments, namely the Lower Mekong and Murray–Darling basins, we highlight the conflicts and opportunities for improved outcomes between irrigated agriculture and inland fisheries. We explore SDG 2 (Zero Hunger) as a path to advance our irrigation systems as a means to benefit both agriculture and inland fisheries, preserving biodiversity and enhancing the economic, environmental and social benefits they both provide to people.2
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Fülöp, R. H., A. T. Codilean, K. M. Wilcken, T. J. Cohen, D. Fink, A. M. Smith, B. Yang, et al. "Million-year lag times in a post-orogenic sediment conveyor." Science Advances 6, no. 25 (June 2020): eaaz8845. http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aaz8845.
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Understanding how sediment transport and storage will delay, attenuate, and even erase the erosional signal of tectonic and climatic forcings has bearing on our ability to read and interpret the geologic record effectively. Here, we estimate sediment transit times in Australia’s largest river system, the Murray-Darling basin, by measuring downstream changes in cosmogenic 26Al/10Be/14C ratios in modern river sediment. Results show that the sediments have experienced multiple episodes of burial and reexposure, with cumulative lag times exceeding 1 Ma in the downstream reaches of the Murray and Darling rivers. Combined with low sediment supply rates and old sediment blanketing the landscape, we posit that sediment recycling in the Murray-Darling is an important and ongoing process that will substantially delay and alter signals of external environmental forcing transmitted from the sediment’s hinterland.
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Hart, Barry, Glen Walker, Asitha Katupitiya, and Jane Doolan. "Salinity Management in the Murray–Darling Basin, Australia." Water 12, no. 6 (June 26, 2020): 1829. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/w12061829.
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The southern Murray–Darling Basin (MDB) is particularly vulnerable to salinity problems. Much of the Basin’s landscape and underlying groundwater is naturally saline with groundwater not being suitable for human or irrigation use. Since European settlement in the early 1800s, two actions—the clearance of deep-rooted native vegetation for dryland agriculture and the development of irrigation systems on the Riverine Plains and Mallee region—have resulted in more water now entering the groundwater systems, resulting in mobilization of the salt to the land surface and to rivers. While salinity has been a known issue since the 1960s, it was only in the mid-1980s that was recognized as one of the most significant environmental and economic challenges facing the MDB. Concerted and cooperative action since 1988 by the Commonwealth and Basin state governments under a salinity management approach implemented over the past 30 years has resulted in salinity now being largely under control, but still requiring on-going active management into the future. The approach has involved the development of three consecutive salinity strategies governing actions from 1988 to 2000, from 2001 to 2015, and the most recent from 2016 to 2030. The basis of the approach and all three strategies is an innovative, world-leading salinity management framework consisting of: An agreed salinity target; joint works and measures to reduce salt entering the rivers; and an agreed accountability and governance system consisting of a system of salinity credits to offset debits, a robust and agreed method to quantify the credits and debits, and a salinity register to keep track of credits and debits. This paper first provides background to the salinity issue in the MDB, then reviews the three salinity management strategies, the various actions that have been implemented through these strategies to control salinity, and the role of the recent Basin Plan in salinity management. We then discuss the future of salinity in the MDB given that climate change is forecast to lead to a hotter, drier and more variable climate (particularly more frequent droughts), and that increased salt loads to the River Murray are predicted to come from the lower reaches of the Mallee region. Finally, we identify the key success factors of the program.
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Pittock, Jamie, and C. Max Finlayson. "Australia's Murray - Darling Basin: freshwater ecosystem conservation options in an era of climate change." Marine and Freshwater Research 62, no. 3 (2011): 232. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/mf09319.
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River flows in the Murray–Darling Basin, as in many regions in the world, are vulnerable to climate change, anticipated to exacerbate current, substantial losses of freshwater biodiversity. Additional declines in water quantity and quality will have an adverse impact on existing freshwater ecosystems. We critique current river-management programs, including the proposed 2011 Basin Plan for Australia’s Murray–Darling Basin, focusing primarily on implementing environmental flows. River management programs generally ignore other important conservation and adaptation measures, such as strategically located freshwater-protected areas. Whereas most river-basin restoration techniques help build resilience of freshwater ecosystems to climate change impacts, different measures to enhance resilience and reoperate water infrastructure are also required, depending on the degree of disturbance of particular rivers on a spectrum from free-flowing to highly regulated. A crucial step is the conservation of free-flowing river ecosystems where maintenance of ecological processes enhances their capacity to resist climate change impacts, and where adaptation may be maximised. Systematic alteration of the operation of existing water infrastructure may also counter major climate impacts on regulated rivers.
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Davies, P. E., J. H. Harris, T. J. Hillman, and K. F. Walker. "The Sustainable Rivers Audit: assessing river ecosystem health in the Murray - Darling Basin, Australia." Marine and Freshwater Research 61, no. 7 (2010): 764. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/mf09043.
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The Sustainable Rivers Audit (SRA) is a systematic assessment of the health of river ecosystems in the Murray–Darling Basin (MDB), Australia. It has similarities to the United States’ Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program, the European Water Framework Directive and the South African River Health Program, but is designed expressly to represent functional and structural links between ecosystem components, biophysical condition and human interventions in the MDB. Environmental metrics derived from field samples and/or modelling are combined as indicators of condition in five themes (Hydrology, Fish, Macroinvertebrates, Vegetation and Physical Form). Condition indicator ratings are combined using expert-system rules to indicate ecosystem health, underpinned by conceptual models. Reference condition, an estimate of condition had there been no significant human intervention in the landscape, provides a benchmark for comparisons. To illustrate, a synopsis is included of health assessments in 2004–2007. This first audit completed assessments of condition and ecosystem health at the valley scale and in altitudinal zones, and future reports will include trend assessments. SRA river-health assessments are expected to play a key role in future water and catchment management through integration in a Basin Plan being developed by the Murray–Darling Basin Authority for implementation after 2011. For example, there could be links to facilitate monitoring against environmental targets.
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Sennett, Amy, Emma Chastain, Sarah Farrell, Tom Gole, Jasdeep Randhawa, and Chengyan Zhang. "Challenges and responses in the Murray–Darling Basin." Water Policy 16, S1 (March 1, 2014): 117–52. http://dx.doi.org/10.2166/wp.2014.006.
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This paper traces the evolving institutional and policy responses to the social, environmental and economic needs of stakeholders in the Murray–Darling Basin. The paper begins by describing four cycles of challenge and response in the basin: the first period (1830–1900) witnessed the state-level development of irrigation and navigation in the basin; the second period (1900–1982) encompassed the construction of the basin's major engineering projects and irrigation infrastructure; the third period (1982–2007) covered the institution of market reforms under a ‘whole Basin’ management approach, in particular, the development of inter-state water trading and the National Water Initiative; and the fourth phase (2007–present), marks the assertion of federal authority over water management with the passing of the Water Act in 2007. The second section of the paper provides background on the basin's natural environment and its infrastructure. This section also describes the increasing centralization of basin management authority by the federal government. The paper's final section presents three key questions for the basin's future: (1) the politically acceptable balance between environmental and economic uses for water in the basin; (2) the appropriate allocation of responsibility between federal and state basin management authorities; and (3) the best way to deliver the desired environmental outcomes.
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Parsons, Melissa, Martin C. Thoms, and Joseph E. Flotemersch. "Eight river principles for navigating the science–policy interface." Marine and Freshwater Research 68, no. 3 (2017): 401. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/mf15336.
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Scientists and policymakers often work together to develop policy about the sustainable use of river ecosystems. River science plays an important role in developing river policy but how can key aspects of river science be conveyed as a heuristic to navigate the interface between river science and river policy? This paper introduces eight principles that encapsulate the key properties of rivers to consider during the development of river policy: (1) rivers are social–ecological systems; (2) river ecosystems provide valuable ecosystem services; (3) tools should support policy development; (4) knowledge of river ecosystems will always be incomplete; (5) social–ecological systems require interdisciplinary perspectives; (6) science is one of many inputs to be considered; (7) heterogeneity and variability are characteristic of river ecosystems; and (8) scale awareness is essential in river ecosystems. Whereas policy challenges are associated with each principle, consideration of principles in the context of the issue at hand may increase the robustness of river policy and enhance the sustainability of river ecosystems. The eight principles are evaluated in relation to the Water Act 2007 and the draft Murray–Darling Basin Plan to demonstrate how the principles can enhance policy development in the area of water allocation.
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Pettigrove, V. "Larval mouthpart deformities in Procladius paludicola Skuse (Diptera: Chironomidae) from the Murray and Darling Rivers, Australia." Hydrobiologia 179, no. 2 (July 1989): 111–17. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/bf00007598.
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Ladson, Anthony R., and Robert M. Argent. "Adaptive management of environmental flows: lessons for the Murray-Darling Basin from three large North American Rivers." Australasian Journal of Water Resources 5, no. 1 (January 2002): 89–101. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13241583.2002.11465195.
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Balcombe, Stephen R., Angela H. Arthington, Neal D. Foster, Martin C. Thoms, Glenn G. Wilson, and Stuart E. Bunn. "Fish assemblages of an Australian dryland river: abundance, assemblage structure and recruitment patterns in the Warrego River, Murray - Darling Basin." Marine and Freshwater Research 57, no. 6 (2006): 619. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/mf06025.
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Fish in dryland rivers must cope with extreme variability in hydrology, temperature and other environmental factors that ultimately have a major influence on their patterns of distribution and abundance at the landscape scale. Given that fish persist in these systems under conditions of high environmental variability, dryland rivers represent ideal systems to investigate the processes contributing to and sustaining fish biodiversity and recruitment in variable environments. Hence, spatial and temporal variation in fish assemblage structure was examined in 15 waterholes of the Warrego River between October 2001 and May 2003. Fish assemblages in isolated waterholes were differentiated at the end of the dry 2001 winter but were relatively similar following high summer flows in January 2002 as a consequence of high hydrological connectivity among waterholes. Small, shallow waterholes supported more species and higher abundances than large-deep waterholes. Large, deep waterholes provided important refuge for large-bodied fish species such as adult yellowbelly, Macquaria ambigua, and the eel-tailed catfish, Tandanus tandanus. Recruitment patterns of bony bream (Nematalosa erebi), Hyrtl’s tandan (Neosilurus hyrtlii) and yellowbelly were associated with high flow events and backwater inundation; however recruitment of yellowbelly and bony bream was also evident following a zero-flow period. Departures from typical flood-induced seasonal spawning patterns may reflect opportunistic spawning behaviours appropriate to the erratic patterns of flooding and dry spells in dryland rivers.
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Growns, I. "The influence of changes to river hydrology on freshwater fish in regulated rivers of the Murray–Darling basin." Hydrobiologia 596, no. 1 (July 17, 2007): 203–11. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10750-007-9097-y.
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Lane, Ruth, Joanna Wills, Frank Vanclay, and Damian Lucas. "Vernacular heritage and evolving environmental policy in Australia: Lessons from the Murray–Darling Outreach Project." Geoforum 39, no. 3 (May 2008): 1308–20. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2007.08.002.
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Bryan, Brett A., Stefan Hajkowicz, Steve Marvanek, and Mike D. Young. "Mapping Economic Returns to Agriculture for Informing Environmental Policy in the Murray–Darling Basin, Australia." Environmental Modeling & Assessment 14, no. 3 (April 16, 2008): 375–90. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10666-008-9144-8.
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Khan, Shahbaz, Muhammad Nadeem Asghar, Shahbaz Mushtaq, and Aftab Ahmad. "On-farm options for managing stream salinity in irrigation areas: an example from the Murray Darling Basin, Australia." Hydrology Research 39, no. 2 (April 1, 2008): 157–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.2166/nh.2008.036.
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Increasing salt concentration in tributaries from catchments and rising water tables are the prime contributor to environmental degradation of rivers, creeks, streams or other water bodies. This is especially true during periods of mid- and low stream flows in arid and semi-arid regions around the globe. Catchment scale studies suggest that management of stream salinity requires greater land use change than is economically viable. Therefore, rather than focusing on the opportunity cost of catchment scale interventions, exploring interventions that are potentially viable at farm scale could be an appropriate strategy for stream salinity management. This paper presents an analysis of alternative on-farm strategies, such as evaporation ponds and serial biological concentration of salts, aimed at developing an economically self-sustainable stream salinity management system for the Box Creek stormwater escape channel located in the Murray–Darling Basin (MDB), Australia. It is concluded that irrigation areas, with careful management of flows in tributary streams, may be able to play a role in safeguarding the Murray River against further salinisation from irrigation and dryland areas. The outcomes of this paper will be helpful, but not limited to, the MDB in addressing environmental, economic and social issues associated with management of salt concentration in tributaries.
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Briscoe, John. "The Harvard Water Federalism Project – process and substance." Water Policy 16, S1 (March 1, 2014): 1–10. http://dx.doi.org/10.2166/wp.2014.001.
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This Special Edition of Water Policy is one outcome of an innovative educational and research project, the Harvard Water Federalism Project, designed to train a new generation of students from a wide variety of disciplines to address the growing challenge of water security. This paper describes the core ideas behind the project, namely the creation of a new generation of ‘specialized integrators’ and that of exposing students to the wisdom of ‘thinking practitioners’. The paper describes the particular water problem chosen, namely that of the infrastructural and institutional challenges involved with the development and management of water in large rivers (the Colorado, Indus, Mississippi, Murray–Darling and São Francisco) in federal countries (Australia, Brazil, Pakistan and the United States). The paper serves as an overview to the basin papers written by multi-disciplinary student teams, and draws some general lessons from this comparative analysis.
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Horne, A., J. Freebairn, and E. O’Donnell. "Establishment of Environmental Water in the Murray-Darling Basin: An Analysis of Two Key Policy Initiatives." Australasian Journal of Water Resources 15, no. 1 (January 2011): 7–19. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13241583.2011.11465386.
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Bouckaert, Frederick, Yongping Wei, and Jamie Pittock. "Governing the Murray-Darling Basin: Integrating social and biophysical indicators for better environmental outcomes." Environmental Science & Policy 124 (October 2021): 101–14. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2021.05.019.
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Jackson, Sue, and Deb Nias. "Watering country: Aboriginal partnerships with environmental water managers of the Murray–Darling Basin, Australia." Australasian Journal of Environmental Management 26, no. 3 (July 3, 2019): 287–303. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14486563.2019.1644544.
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Kingsford, Richard T., Keith F. Walker, Rebecca E. Lester, William J. Young, Peter G. Fairweather, Jesmond Sammut, and Michael C. Geddes. "A Ramsar wetland in crisis - the Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth, Australia." Marine and Freshwater Research 62, no. 3 (2011): 255. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/mf09315.
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The state of global freshwater ecosystems is increasingly parlous with water resource development degrading high-conservation wetlands. Rehabilitation is challenging because necessary increases in environmental flows have concomitant social impacts, complicated because many rivers flow between jurisdictions or countries. Australia’s Murray–Darling Basin is a large river basin with such problems encapsulated in the crisis of its Ramsar-listed terminal wetland, the Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth. Prolonged drought and upstream diversion of water dropped water levels in the Lakes below sea level (2009–2010), exposing hazardous acid sulfate soils. Salinities increased dramatically (e.g. South Lagoon of Coorong >200 g L–1, cf. modelled natural 80 g L–1), reducing populations of waterbirds, fish, macroinvertebrates and littoral plants. Calcareous masses of estuarine tubeworms (Ficopomatus enigmaticus) killed freshwater turtles (Chelidae) and other fauna. Management primarily focussed on treating symptoms (e.g. acidification), rather than reduced flows, at considerable expense (>AU$2 billion). We modelled a scenario that increased annual flows during low-flow periods from current levels up to one-third of what the natural flow would have been, potentially delivering substantial environmental benefits and avoiding future crises. Realisation of this outcome depends on increasing environmental flows and implementing sophisticated river management during dry periods, both highly contentious options.
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Capon, Samantha J., and Timothy R. Capon. "An Impossible Prescription: Why Science Cannot Determine Environmental Water Requirements for a Healthy Murray-Darling Basin." Water Economics and Policy 03, no. 03 (February 8, 2017): 1650037. http://dx.doi.org/10.1142/s2382624x16500375.
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The concept of environmental water requirements (EWRs) is central to Australia’s present approach to water reform. Current decision-making regarding environmental water relies strongly on the notion that EWRs necessary to meet targets associated with ecological objectives for asset sites can be scientifically defined, thus enabling the ecological outcomes of alternative water management scenarios to be evaluated in a relatively straightforward fashion in relation to these flow thresholds or targets. We argue, however, that the ecological objectives and targets currently underpinning the development of EWRs in the Murray-Darling Basin are insufficient to permit the identification of exact water requirements or flow thresholds. Because of the dynamic and heterogeneous nature of the Murray-Darling Basin and the myriad ways in which it is valued by people, we also assert that it is unlikely that adequate ecological objectives and targets from which to determine EWRs could ever be formulated. We suggest that the current emphasis on the concept of EWRs in environmental water planning conflates science and values, perpetuating a “how much is enough?” myth whereby the significance of the social, cultural and political dimension in environmental decision-making is diminished. We support an alternative paradigm in which the contribution of ecological science to water policy and management decisions focuses on understanding ecological responses of water-dependent ecosystems and their biota to alternative management scenarios and linking these responses to the ecosystem services and human values which they support.
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Growns, I., S. Lewis, D. Ryder, W. Tsoi, and B. Vincent. "Patterns of invertebrate emergence and succession in flooded wetland mesocosms." Marine and Freshwater Research 71, no. 10 (2020): 1373. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/mf19351.
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Floodplain wetlands are some of the most productive ecosystems available to aquatic and terrestrial organisms. However, regulation of lowland rivers can disrupt ecological processes occurring in the river–floodplain ecosystems, and environmental water can be delivered to affected wetlands to maintain productivity. It is not well understood at what stage following inundation there would be sufficient invertebrate biomass and large-sized individuals to support production and reproduction of secondary consumers. In this study we follow changes in the abundances of invertebrates after wetting in three mesocosm trials using soil from two wetlands from the north of the Murray–Darling Basin over 6-week periods. Peak abundances generally occurred in either the fifth or sixth weeks, but abundances were high after 2–3 weeks. Our results suggest that inundation of wetlands using environmental watering can achieve high productivity within a short time frame, within weeks. However, how quickly the high productivity is passed on to second-order consumers remains unclear and should be an area of future research.
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King, A. J., P. Humphries, and P. S. Lake. "Fish recruitment on floodplains: the roles of patterns of flooding and life history characteristics." Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 60, no. 7 (July 1, 2003): 773–86. http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/f03-057.
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Floodplain inundation in rivers is thought to enhance fish recruitment by providing a suitable spawning environment and abundant food and habitat for larvae. Although this model has not previously been tested in Australian rivers, it is often extrapolated to fishes of the Murray-Darling Basin. Fortnightly sampling of larvae and juveniles was conducted in the unregulated Ovens River floodplain during springsummer of 1999 (non-flood year) and 2000 (flood year). The only species that increased in larval abundance during or shortly after flooding was an introduced species, common carp (Cyprinus carpio). Additionally, the peak abundance of larvae on the floodplain occurred during a rapidly declining hydrograph under low flow conditions in isolated billabongs and anabranches. The low use of the inundated floodplain for recruitment contradicts previous models. We propose a model of the optimum environmental conditions required for use of the inundated floodplain for fish recruitment. The model suggests that the notion of the flood pulse alone controlling fish recruitment is too simplistic to describe all strategies within a system. Rather, the life history adaptations in the fauna of the system and aspects of the hydrological regime such as duration and timing of inundation will control the response of a river's fish fauna to flooding.
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Moran, Nicholas P., George G. Ganf, Todd A. Wallace, and Justin D. Brookes. "Flow variability and longitudinal characteristics of organic carbon in the Lachlan River, Australia." Marine and Freshwater Research 65, no. 1 (2014): 50. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/mf12297.
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Heterotrophic organic-carbon cycling is a major source of energy to aquatic food webs, yet there are few studies into patterns of heterotrophic productivity in large lowland rivers. The Lachlan River experienced a period of extreme flow variability from September 2010 to February 2011; for example, daily discharge (ML day–1) at one site reached >22 times its 10-year average. Heterotrophic cycling of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and particulate organic carbon (POC) were assessed over this period at six sites on the Lachlan River. Concentrations of total organic carbon (TOC) ranged from 7 to 30 mg L–1, of which the majority was in dissolved form. Concentration of DOC was positively correlated with daily discharge. Biochemical oxygen demand of TOC over 5 days (BOD5) showed significant variability, ranging from 0.6 to 6.6 mg O2 L–1. BOD5 did not appear related to discharge, but instead to a range of other factors, including regulation via weirs, lateral and longitudinal factors. Partitioning of DOC and POC showed that POC had an influence on BOD5 comparable to DOC. This is relevant to environmental-flow management in the Lachlan River, the Murray–Darling Basin and rivers generally, by showing that flow variability influences a fundamental ecosystem characteristic, namely organic carbon.
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Qureshi, M. Ejaz, R. Quentin Grafton, Mac Kirby, and Munir A. Hanjra. "Understanding irrigation water use efficiency at different scales for better policy reform: a case study of the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia." Water Policy 13, no. 1 (January 14, 2011): 1–17. http://dx.doi.org/10.2166/wp.2010.063.
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This paper examines water use efficiency and economic efficiency with a particular focus on the Murray-Darling Basin of Australia and the stated policy goal of increasing environmental flows of water in the Basin. The different measures of efficiency are explained, and their implications for water reform and the efficacy of market based approaches to addressing the water scarcity issues and environmental flow needs are explored. Public policies to subsidize investments for improvements in irrigation efficiency are shown not to be currently cost effective compared to alternatives, such as buying water through water markets. The implications of these findings, and the factors that determine the demand for irrigation water by competing uses, can guide policy makers undertaking water reforms in the agricultural sector to mitigate the environmental consequences of overuse of water resources.
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Walker, Glen. "A Potential Approach of Reporting Risk to Baseflow from Increased Groundwater Extraction in the Murray-Darling Basin, South-Eastern Australia." Water 14, no. 13 (July 2, 2022): 2118. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/w14132118.
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An approach of reporting long-term trends in groundwater extraction and baseflow impacts in the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) in south-eastern Australia was developed and tested. The principal aim of the framework was to provide early warning of any potential adverse impacts from groundwater extraction on environmental releases of surface water for baseflow, support adaptive management of these impacts, and highlight those areas which may benefit from conjunctive water management. The analysis showed that there is no current decadal trend in the annual aggregate groundwater extraction volumes or stream impact across the non-Victorian MDB, with much of the interannual variability being related to rainfall. Despite this, increasing volumes of environmental releases of water for baseflows in some river valleys are being required to replace the stream depletion caused by historical patterns of groundwater extraction established before 2003. Two valleys were identified for which there may be insufficient surface water storage to release water to substitute stream losses to groundwater and still support ecosystems during dry periods. The increasing trend in extraction since 2003 in one of the units has significantly increased the risk in that valley. The reporting framework was shown to be effective for alluvial groundwater systems connected to regulated rivers.
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Podger, G. M., S. M. Cuddy, L. Peeters, T. Smith, R. H. Bark, D. C. Black, and P. Wallbrink. "Risk management frameworks: supporting the next generation of Murray-Darling Basin water sharing plans." Proceedings of the International Association of Hydrological Sciences 364 (September 16, 2014): 452–57. http://dx.doi.org/10.5194/piahs-364-452-2014.
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Abstract. Water jurisdictions in Australia are required to prepare and implement water resource plans. In developing these plans the common goal is realising the best possible use of the water resources – maximising outcomes while minimising negative impacts. This requires managing the risks associated with assessing and balancing cultural, industrial, agricultural, social and environmental demands for water within a competitive and resource-limited environment. Recognising this, conformance to international risk management principles (ISO 31000:2009) have been embedded within the Murray-Darling Basin Plan. Yet, to date, there has been little strategic investment by water jurisdictions in bridging the gap between principle and practice. The ISO 31000 principles and the risk management framework that embodies them align well with an adaptive management paradigm within which to conduct water resource planning. They also provide an integrative framework for the development of workflows that link risk analysis with risk evaluation and mitigation (adaptation) scenarios, providing a transparent, repeatable and robust platform. This study, through a demonstration use case and a series of workflows, demonstrates to policy makers how these principles can be used to support the development of the next generation of water sharing plans in 2019. The workflows consider the uncertainty associated with climate and flow inputs, and model parameters on irrigation and hydropower production, meeting environmental flow objectives and recreational use of the water resource. The results provide insights to the risks associated with meeting a range of different objectives.
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Daghagh Yazd, Sahar, Sarah Ann Wheeler, and Alec Zuo. "Exploring the Drivers of Irrigator Mental Health in the Murray–Darling Basin, Australia." Sustainability 11, no. 21 (November 1, 2019): 6097. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su11216097.
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There has been little work conducted on how landholders’ farm management approaches and financial capital (specifically (i) farm method such as organic farming and (ii) financial profitability) may impact mental health. In particular, there is emerging evidence that an increase in natural farm capital and environmental conditions may improve farmers’ wellbeing. We used a 2015–2016 survey, which randomly sampled 1000 irrigators from the southern Murray–Darling Basin, to model the drivers of irrigators’ psychological distress. Results highlight that worsening financial capital (namely, lower farmland value, higher farm debt, lower percentage of off-farm income, lower productivity change over the past five years, and lower net farm income) was the most statistically significant factor associated with increased irrigator distress. In addition, there was some evidence that being a certified organic irrigator was also associated with lower psychological distress; however, it was only weakly significant in our overall model, with the most significance within the horticultural industry model. Contrary to expectations, drought and water scarcity were not the main drivers of psychological distress in the time-period studied, with their influence seemingly through reducing financial capital as a whole.
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Colloff, Matthew J., and Jamie Pittock. "Why we disagree about the Murray–Darling Basin Plan: water reform, environmental knowledge and the science-policy decision context." Australasian Journal of Water Resources 23, no. 2 (July 3, 2019): 88–98. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13241583.2019.1664878.
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Connell, Daniel. "Arguing the Case to Include a Wider Range of Stakeholders in the Murray–Darling Basin Policy Process." Water Economics and Policy 03, no. 03 (December 29, 2016): 1650040. http://dx.doi.org/10.1142/s2382624x16500405.
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Implementation of water reform in the Murray–Darling Basin has stalled. The principles remain in legislation, but government priorities are increasingly focused on irrigation-based agriculture rather than the comprehensive range of stakeholders with a legitimate interest in decisions about the future of the MDB. The negotiations required to gain parliamentary approval of the MDB Basin Plan in 2012 resulted in extensive concessions. Some have seriously damaged its integrity as a reform package. Within this now fragmented policy framework, the utility of important individual components has been eroded. These include acceptance of the need for a comprehensive analytical framework able to take full account of costs and benefits, the precautionary principle, the beneficiary pays principle, consistent policies for assigning public benefit from public investment, the importance of a comprehensive whole-of-catchment framework for managing social and biophysical processes and the understanding that serious water reform requires change in the cultural values related to the water-human relationship. As a result of these compromises, the capacity of the Basin Plan framework to manage future climate change challenges and development pressures is in doubt. Can this trend be reversed? The paper argues for a revitalization of the public policy process to bring in a wider range of stakeholders and expose decision making to more rigorous assessment. To help achieve this goal, control over a substantial proportion of the environmental water entitlements acquired by the national government should be devolved to elected regional bodies (who would have to work within auditing guidelines). This would stimulate community involvement by providing a substantial activity that would make engagement worthwhile.
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Kirby, Mac, Jeff Connor, Mobin-ud Din Ahmad, Lei Gao, and Mohammed Mainuddin. "Irrigator and Environmental Water Management Adaptation to Climate Change and Water Reallocation in the Murray–Darling Basin." Water Economics and Policy 01, no. 03 (September 2015): 1550009. http://dx.doi.org/10.1142/s2382624x15500095.
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In an earlier paper (Kirby et al. 2014a), we showed that climate change and a new policy which reallocates water to the environment will impact both the flow of water and the income derived from irrigation in the Murray–Darling Basin. Here, we extend the analysis to consider irrigator and environmental water management strategies to adapt to these new circumstances. Using an integrated hydrology-economics model, we examine a range of strategies and their impact on flows and the gross income of irrigation. We show that the adaptation strategies provide a range of flow and economic outcomes in the Basin. Several strategies offer significant scope to enhance flows without large adverse impacts on the gross income of irrigation overall. Some environmental water management strategies enhance flows in the Murray part of the basin even under the drying influence of a projected median climate change. Irrigator strategies that include carryover of water in storage from one year to the next provide for lesser year to year variability in gross income and may be regarded as more advantageous in providing security against droughts. Flows and the gross income of low value irrigation industries strategies are sensitive to climate change, irrespective of adaptation strategy. Should a projected dry extreme climate change be realized, no strategy can prevent a large reduction in flows and also in gross income, particularly of low value irrigation industries. Nevertheless, environmental water management strategies mitigate the impact on flows, and in some cases may also help mitigate the impacts on gross income. High value irrigation industries are less affected (in terms of gross income, though net income will reduce because of rising water prices) by projected climate change, consistent with observation in the recent long term drought.
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Downey, Heather, and Tim Clune. "How does the discourse surrounding the Murray Darling Basin manage the concept of entitlement to water?" Critical Social Policy 40, no. 1 (March 13, 2019): 108–29. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0261018319837206.
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Globally, the challenges of climate change have resulted in significant water policy reform. Australia’s Murray Darling Basin (MDB) Plan is a complex transboundary water management system that aims to balance the need for environmental protection with the needs of social and economic users of water. In July 2017, media reports argued that some MDB irrigators were misappropriating water destined for the environment and downstream users. This article uses Foucauldian discourse analysis to explore this flashpoint in the long-standing tensions between all stakeholders including the Basin jurisdictions. Diverse understandings of who is entitled to water that are shaped by the historical, political and social context are central to this conflict. Findings suggest that both neoliberal governmentality and the agrarian discourse are threatened by an emerging governmentality that embraces non-farming interests. The broader experience of water scarcity in a rapidly changing climate suggests comparable issues will become evident across the world.
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Bryan, Brett A., Simon Barry, and Steve Marvanek. "Agricultural commodity mapping for land use change assessment and environmental management: an application in the Murray–Darling Basin, Australia." Journal of Land Use Science 4, no. 3 (August 31, 2009): 131–55. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17474230802618722.
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Connolly, Joanne H., Tom Claridge, Sarah M. Cordell, Sharon Nielsen, and Geoff J. Dutton. "Distribution and characteristics of the platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) in the Murrumbidgee catchment." Australian Mammalogy 38, no. 1 (2016): 58. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/am14039.
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Little is known of the current status of platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) populations in the Murrumbidgee catchment and other west-flowing rivers in the Murray–Darling Basin. Platypus distribution in the Murrumbidgee catchment was determined from sightings, reports by government departments, the literature and a capture–release study. The platypus was found to be widespread in the catchment, including all subcatchment and elevation categories, but most reports were from the middle and upper subcatchments. Sixty-five captures of 55 individual platypuses were made during 61 trap-nights to 31 study sites in the Murrumbidgee catchment during 2009–10. Only three juveniles (all females) were captured and recapture rates were low, with only nine platypuses captured more than once. Adult males had body weights of 980–2180 g and body lengths of 42–60 cm (n = 32). Adult females weighed 795–1480 g and were 38–52 cm long (n = 20). Tail fat index was significantly affected by season and platypus age, while in comparison, season, platypus length and weight had a significant effect on tail volume index. This study established a baseline that provides a starting point from which the impacts of environmental disturbances or diseases occurring over time can be measured and investigated.
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Horne, James. "Water policy responses to drought in the MDB, Australia." Water Policy 18, S2 (December 1, 2016): 28–51. http://dx.doi.org/10.2166/wp.2016.012.
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This paper reviews water policy responses to drought in Australia, focusing on the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) during the two decades from 1997. This period, which includes the decade long Millennium drought, brought a much sharper focus to discussions of scarcity and value of water. The drought initially focused attention on rising salinity and environmental water availability, as action on both was supported by strong science, and resonated politically. The drought became a crisis in 2006. Short-term planning focused on ensuring communities did not run out of water. For the longer term, the national government responded by announcing a major package of reform measures addressing sustainability and underlying scarcity, and recognising climate change. The package strengthened MDB water market infrastructure, upgraded water resource planning and the ability of irrigators to manage their water assets more flexibly, established new sustainable diversion limits and provided funding to ensure the environment received a larger share of basin water resources. But its completeness as a package can be attributed not only to the severity of drought, but also to political leadership, a disrupting strategy in the form of national legislation and a strong national budget that provided financial resources. The drought provided a crisis, but other ingredients were necessary to ensure effective action.
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Peake, Paul, James Fitzsimons, Doug Frood, Mel Mitchell, Naomi Withers, Matt White, and Rick Webster. "A new approach to determining environmental flow requirements: Sustaining the natural values of floodplains of the southern Murray-Darling Basin." Ecological Management & Restoration 12, no. 2 (May 10, 2011): 128–37. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1442-8903.2011.00581.x.
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Armstrong, Kyle N., Sylvia Clarke, Aimee Linke, Annette Scanlon, Philip Roetman, Jacqui Wilson, Alan T. Hitch, and Steven C. Donnellan. "Citizen science implements the first intensive acoustics-based survey of insectivorous bat species across the Murray–Darling Basin of South Australia." Australian Journal of Zoology 68, no. 6 (2020): 364. http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/zo20051.
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Effective land management and biodiversity conservation policy relies on good records of native species occurrence and habitat association, but for many animal groups these data are inadequate. In the Murray–Darling Basin (MDB), the most environmentally and economically important catchment in Australia, knowledge gaps exist on the occurrence and habitat associations of insectivorous bat species. We relied on the interest and effort of citizen scientists to assist with the most intensive insectivorous bat survey ever undertaken in the MDB region of South Australia. We used an existing network of Natural Resource Management groups to connect interested citizens and build on historical observations of bat species using a fleet of 30 Anabat Swift bat detectors. The survey effort more than doubled the number of bat occurrence records for the area in two years (3000 records; cf. 2693 records between 1890 and 2018; freely available through the Atlas of Living Australia). We used multinomial logistic regression to look at the relationship between three types of environmental covariates: flight space, nearest open water source and vegetation type. There were no differences in species richness among the environmental covariates. The records have been, and will continue to be, used to inform government land management policy, more accurately predict the impact of development proposals on bat populations, and update conservation assessments for microbat species. A social survey tool also showed that participation in the project led to positive behaviours, and planned positive behaviours, for improving bat habitat on private land.