Pub Date : 2023-02-02DOI: 10.1080/13241583.2023.2171846
R. Ison, N. Rubenstein, Madeline R. Shelton, P. Wallis
Historically, governing, and thus planning, the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) has been framed in a plethora of ways. Seemingly, ‘the plan’ and planning has to be all things to all people, but the reforms, instituted in the Water Act 2007 (Cwlth), have resulted in greater complexity, uncertainty and controversy. Effective governing of the Basin along an unfolding, viable trajectory within an Anthropocene-world seems more elusive than ever. In this context, we propose a research and praxis agenda for dramaturgy as an initiative that seeks ‘effective’ water governance in the MDB. A dramaturge is someone,group, body or process who writes/adapts a play, brings forth a particular type of performance set in an ever-changing audience/context. Dramaturges engage in praxis. Two exemplar dramaturgies , developed through ex poste and ex ante analyses, are outlined. Each can be refined or consolidated in an on-going deliberative inquiry-process that generates social learning and effects concerted action for future MDB governance. Our research inquiry is exploratory but is based on a choice to frame governance from a cyber-systemic perspective, a praxis continually enacted through the interactions of actors, their symbols and frames and feedback dynamics between the social and biophysical world. We show how a dramaturgical framework can be used to analyse a policy process to reveal the important symbolic and performative dimensions, which are usually unrecognised. ARTICLE HISTORY Received 8 July 2022 Accepted 20 January 2023
{"title":"Dramaturgies for Re-imagining Murray-Darling basin governing","authors":"R. Ison, N. Rubenstein, Madeline R. Shelton, P. Wallis","doi":"10.1080/13241583.2023.2171846","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13241583.2023.2171846","url":null,"abstract":"Historically, governing, and thus planning, the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) has been framed in a plethora of ways. Seemingly, ‘the plan’ and planning has to be all things to all people, but the reforms, instituted in the Water Act 2007 (Cwlth), have resulted in greater complexity, uncertainty and controversy. Effective governing of the Basin along an unfolding, viable trajectory within an Anthropocene-world seems more elusive than ever. In this context, we propose a research and praxis agenda for dramaturgy as an initiative that seeks ‘effective’ water governance in the MDB. A dramaturge is someone,group, body or process who writes/adapts a play, brings forth a particular type of performance set in an ever-changing audience/context. Dramaturges engage in praxis. Two exemplar dramaturgies , developed through ex poste and ex ante analyses, are outlined. Each can be refined or consolidated in an on-going deliberative inquiry-process that generates social learning and effects concerted action for future MDB governance. Our research inquiry is exploratory but is based on a choice to frame governance from a cyber-systemic perspective, a praxis continually enacted through the interactions of actors, their symbols and frames and feedback dynamics between the social and biophysical world. We show how a dramaturgical framework can be used to analyse a policy process to reveal the important symbolic and performative dimensions, which are usually unrecognised. ARTICLE HISTORY Received 8 July 2022 Accepted 20 January 2023","PeriodicalId":51870,"journal":{"name":"Australasian Journal of Water Resources","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2023-02-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49306584","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/13241583.2022.2163475
S. Beavis, V. Wong, L. Mosley, D. Baldwin, James O. Latimer, P. Lane, Aparna Lal
ABSTRACT Management of water resources in the Murray-Darling Basin has historically focussed on water security and the allocation of water for users with competing needs. This focus was reflected in the seminal paper on multiple risks to shared water across the basin by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation 15 years ago. That paper captured key concerns that were at the forefront for decision-makers, managers and policy-makers who were, at that time, experiencing the early impacts of the Millennium Drought. Water quality, then, was secondary to the issues of water security. Across the following years, new water quality risks have emerged along with a more nuanced understanding of the complex interplay between climate, floodplain/catchment vegetation, hydrology, and water quality. Critically, this improved understanding applies to the systemic shocks of extreme events, such as the 2020 bushfires and hypoxic blackwater events, as well as the variability, duration and volumes of natural and regulated river flows. In this paper, we explore the key water quality issues that currently face the Basin, and reframe water quality as an integral rather than incidental component of the risks to shared water in the Basin, with the associated implications for policy development that this implies.
{"title":"Water quality risks in the Murray-Darling basin","authors":"S. Beavis, V. Wong, L. Mosley, D. Baldwin, James O. Latimer, P. Lane, Aparna Lal","doi":"10.1080/13241583.2022.2163475","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13241583.2022.2163475","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Management of water resources in the Murray-Darling Basin has historically focussed on water security and the allocation of water for users with competing needs. This focus was reflected in the seminal paper on multiple risks to shared water across the basin by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation 15 years ago. That paper captured key concerns that were at the forefront for decision-makers, managers and policy-makers who were, at that time, experiencing the early impacts of the Millennium Drought. Water quality, then, was secondary to the issues of water security. Across the following years, new water quality risks have emerged along with a more nuanced understanding of the complex interplay between climate, floodplain/catchment vegetation, hydrology, and water quality. Critically, this improved understanding applies to the systemic shocks of extreme events, such as the 2020 bushfires and hypoxic blackwater events, as well as the variability, duration and volumes of natural and regulated river flows. In this paper, we explore the key water quality issues that currently face the Basin, and reframe water quality as an integral rather than incidental component of the risks to shared water in the Basin, with the associated implications for policy development that this implies.","PeriodicalId":51870,"journal":{"name":"Australasian Journal of Water Resources","volume":"27 1","pages":"85 - 102"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45090276","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/13241583.2023.2190493
J. Pittock, S. Corbett, M. Colloff, Paul R. Wyrwoll, J. Alexandra, S. Beavis, Kate Chipperfield, B. Croke, P. Lane, Andrew Ross, John F. Williams
ABSTRACT Risks to shared water resources in the Murray–Darling Basin are reviewed after the report by CSIRO on the same topic in 2006. CSIRO outlined six major risks to shared water resources in the Basin. Herein, six groups of researchers have reviewed the risks of climate change, forest growth, groundwater, water infrastructure, water quality, and governance. These reviews bring an updated understanding of risk assessment and management that can contribute to the forthcoming reviews of the Water Act and Basin Plan in 2024–26. Drawing on these six papers, the authors synthesise knowledge of the risks to shared water resources and identify policy and management options and information gaps. We find that few risk factors have decreased in significance. Most risks remain and new risks are identified. Water managers must plan for a significant decrease in water availability and governments need to actively manage these risks under conditions of increasing uncertainty.
{"title":"A review of the risks to shared water resources in the Murray–Darling Basin","authors":"J. Pittock, S. Corbett, M. Colloff, Paul R. Wyrwoll, J. Alexandra, S. Beavis, Kate Chipperfield, B. Croke, P. Lane, Andrew Ross, John F. Williams","doi":"10.1080/13241583.2023.2190493","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13241583.2023.2190493","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Risks to shared water resources in the Murray–Darling Basin are reviewed after the report by CSIRO on the same topic in 2006. CSIRO outlined six major risks to shared water resources in the Basin. Herein, six groups of researchers have reviewed the risks of climate change, forest growth, groundwater, water infrastructure, water quality, and governance. These reviews bring an updated understanding of risk assessment and management that can contribute to the forthcoming reviews of the Water Act and Basin Plan in 2024–26. Drawing on these six papers, the authors synthesise knowledge of the risks to shared water resources and identify policy and management options and information gaps. We find that few risk factors have decreased in significance. Most risks remain and new risks are identified. Water managers must plan for a significant decrease in water availability and governments need to actively manage these risks under conditions of increasing uncertainty.","PeriodicalId":51870,"journal":{"name":"Australasian Journal of Water Resources","volume":"27 1","pages":"1 - 17"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46450105","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-02DOI: 10.1080/13241583.2023.2179555
P. Lane, R. Benyon, R. Nolan, R. Keenan, Lu Zhang
ABSTRACT The Murray-Darling River system is perhaps Australia’s most important, with significant social, cultural and environmental values including 16 Ramsar listed wetlands. The MDB is home to 2.6 million people and produces about $24 billion worth in agricultural production each year (about one-third of total value for Australia). Hydrologic issues, typified by water availability and quality, have existed for many years, peaking during the Millennium drought from 1997 to 2010. Competing interests (i.e. irrigation, tourism, environmental heath), and the declining flows and water quality during droughts, led governments and water management agencies to consider the risks to water resources in the system in the early-mid 2000s. This paper reviews changes to risks associated with forest dynamics, as identified by - afforestation and bushfire – and considers new issues that have emerged since that analysis. It was found that the potential impacts of bushfire on stream flows were over-estimated in past studies, and that a planned significant afforestation expansion into agricultural and grazing land that was projected to reduce stream flows did not occur. While these two risks now do not seem likely to have significant future impacts on flows, or consequent effects on downstream users, the interaction of elevated CO2 and increasing temperatures on vegetation functioning and subsequent hydrologic consequences at catchment scale require further research and analysis. Reduced rainfall and increased temperatures under future climate change are likely to have an impact on inputs and flows. Uncertainties in how these changes, and feedbacks between climate, drought, more frequent fire and vegetation responses, impact on system hydrology also require further investigation.
{"title":"Forests, fire and vegetation change impacts on Murray-Darling basin water resources","authors":"P. Lane, R. Benyon, R. Nolan, R. Keenan, Lu Zhang","doi":"10.1080/13241583.2023.2179555","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13241583.2023.2179555","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The Murray-Darling River system is perhaps Australia’s most important, with significant social, cultural and environmental values including 16 Ramsar listed wetlands. The MDB is home to 2.6 million people and produces about $24 billion worth in agricultural production each year (about one-third of total value for Australia). Hydrologic issues, typified by water availability and quality, have existed for many years, peaking during the Millennium drought from 1997 to 2010. Competing interests (i.e. irrigation, tourism, environmental heath), and the declining flows and water quality during droughts, led governments and water management agencies to consider the risks to water resources in the system in the early-mid 2000s. This paper reviews changes to risks associated with forest dynamics, as identified by - afforestation and bushfire – and considers new issues that have emerged since that analysis. It was found that the potential impacts of bushfire on stream flows were over-estimated in past studies, and that a planned significant afforestation expansion into agricultural and grazing land that was projected to reduce stream flows did not occur. While these two risks now do not seem likely to have significant future impacts on flows, or consequent effects on downstream users, the interaction of elevated CO2 and increasing temperatures on vegetation functioning and subsequent hydrologic consequences at catchment scale require further research and analysis. Reduced rainfall and increased temperatures under future climate change are likely to have an impact on inputs and flows. Uncertainties in how these changes, and feedbacks between climate, drought, more frequent fire and vegetation responses, impact on system hydrology also require further investigation.","PeriodicalId":51870,"journal":{"name":"Australasian Journal of Water Resources","volume":"27 1","pages":"68 - 84"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2023-01-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47220736","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-26DOI: 10.1080/13241583.2022.2161143
Kate Chipperfield, J. Alexandra
ABSTRACT In Australia’s Murray – Darling Basin (MDB), the law explicitly requires strategies for managing risks to water quality and quantity. In this paper, we analyse water governance in the Basin, identifying inadequate governance standards and practices. Current arrangements in the MDB demonstrate deficiencies and vulnerabilities that limit capabilities for dealing with known or emerging risks and erode the legitimacy of governing institutions. Our analysis of the problems and opportunities for reform is informed by the OECD’s principles of good water governance and the legal concept of the rule of law. We conclude that ignoring opportunities to adopt better-practice water governance is a severe risk to the MDB’s shared waters. To overcome reactionary crisis-reaction reform, we propose reforms that empower critical evaluations of governance structures, rules, practices and participation. Therefore, proposed reforms of policy, institutions and legislation do not simply attempt one-off changes to enhance transparency and accountability but instead seek to enshrine processes of continuous, ongoing improvements to water governance.
{"title":"Water governance, the rule of law and regulating risks to the Murray–Darling Basin","authors":"Kate Chipperfield, J. Alexandra","doi":"10.1080/13241583.2022.2161143","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13241583.2022.2161143","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT In Australia’s Murray – Darling Basin (MDB), the law explicitly requires strategies for managing risks to water quality and quantity. In this paper, we analyse water governance in the Basin, identifying inadequate governance standards and practices. Current arrangements in the MDB demonstrate deficiencies and vulnerabilities that limit capabilities for dealing with known or emerging risks and erode the legitimacy of governing institutions. Our analysis of the problems and opportunities for reform is informed by the OECD’s principles of good water governance and the legal concept of the rule of law. We conclude that ignoring opportunities to adopt better-practice water governance is a severe risk to the MDB’s shared waters. To overcome reactionary crisis-reaction reform, we propose reforms that empower critical evaluations of governance structures, rules, practices and participation. Therefore, proposed reforms of policy, institutions and legislation do not simply attempt one-off changes to enhance transparency and accountability but instead seek to enshrine processes of continuous, ongoing improvements to water governance.","PeriodicalId":51870,"journal":{"name":"Australasian Journal of Water Resources","volume":"27 1","pages":"103 - 116"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2022-12-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44193497","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-19DOI: 10.1080/13241583.2022.2153421
Roanna McClelland
ABSTRACT The Australian Government has committed to water reform, including safeguarding the Murray Darling Basin, providing an opportunity to examine legal responses to water scarcity and environmental degradation that are developing globally and being used to influence how rivers are managed or protected. Using a conceptual framework that links socio-legal analysis to theories of ‘institutional work’, this paper analyses the development of transnational water norms like The Human Right to Water and Rights for Rivers, highlights the institutional work of local actors and the role of transnational water norms in that work, and uses the Productivity Commission’s National Water Reform 2020 Inquiry Report to examine opportunities for water reform in Australia.
{"title":"Local actors, global lessons in safeguarding rivers: implementing the advice in the National Water Reform 2020 Inquiry Report","authors":"Roanna McClelland","doi":"10.1080/13241583.2022.2153421","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13241583.2022.2153421","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The Australian Government has committed to water reform, including safeguarding the Murray Darling Basin, providing an opportunity to examine legal responses to water scarcity and environmental degradation that are developing globally and being used to influence how rivers are managed or protected. Using a conceptual framework that links socio-legal analysis to theories of ‘institutional work’, this paper analyses the development of transnational water norms like The Human Right to Water and Rights for Rivers, highlights the institutional work of local actors and the role of transnational water norms in that work, and uses the Productivity Commission’s National Water Reform 2020 Inquiry Report to examine opportunities for water reform in Australia.","PeriodicalId":51870,"journal":{"name":"Australasian Journal of Water Resources","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2022-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47057455","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-19DOI: 10.1080/13241583.2022.2157107
J. Alexandra
ABSTRACT Climate change introduces greater complexity to water resources planning, requiring techniques suited to increased future uncertainties. In Australia’s Murray Darling Basin, governments formally recognised climate risk in 2002 and legislated science-based climate risk assessment in 2007. Since then, research has helped clarify the significance of climate change impacts on catchments, riverine ecosystems and water resources. This paper offers a review of climate risk assessments undertaken over the past two decades and outlines research needs and policy options while noting there are no simple solutions given the systemic nature of climate risks. Water resource planning and climate risk assessment need to handle non-stationarity and post-natural Anthropocene conditions. These methods should integrate biophysical and socio-economic modelling, increase stakeholder participation in developing and testing policy options and codify standards and procedures for transparency.
{"title":"Climate risk assessment in the MDB – a review","authors":"J. Alexandra","doi":"10.1080/13241583.2022.2157107","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13241583.2022.2157107","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Climate change introduces greater complexity to water resources planning, requiring techniques suited to increased future uncertainties. In Australia’s Murray Darling Basin, governments formally recognised climate risk in 2002 and legislated science-based climate risk assessment in 2007. Since then, research has helped clarify the significance of climate change impacts on catchments, riverine ecosystems and water resources. This paper offers a review of climate risk assessments undertaken over the past two decades and outlines research needs and policy options while noting there are no simple solutions given the systemic nature of climate risks. Water resource planning and climate risk assessment need to handle non-stationarity and post-natural Anthropocene conditions. These methods should integrate biophysical and socio-economic modelling, increase stakeholder participation in developing and testing policy options and codify standards and procedures for transparency.","PeriodicalId":51870,"journal":{"name":"Australasian Journal of Water Resources","volume":"27 1","pages":"18 - 30"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2022-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42618792","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-07DOI: 10.1080/13241583.2022.2151106
John F. Williams, M. Colloff, R. Grafton, Shahbaz Khan, Z. Paydar, Paul R. Wyrwoll
ABSTRACT Using a three-infrastructures (grey, soft, and green) framework, we examined key risks to water availability and quality in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia. These risks include increased irrigation efficiency, without a quantitative knowledge of the impact on water flow pathways, particularly return flows, growth in farm dams and floodplain harvesting, and unsustainable management of salinity. Critical to mitigating these risks are the metering, monitoring, and auditing of water flows, effective linkages between evidence and analysis, and accountability of decision-makers operating in the public interest. We contend that these approaches need to be supported by innovative risk assessments, which are fit-for-purpose under the MDB Plan, wherein the ‘who, what, when and where’ are assessed in relation to cumulative, systemic, and cascading risks from human actions.
{"title":"The three-infrastructures framework and water risks in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia","authors":"John F. Williams, M. Colloff, R. Grafton, Shahbaz Khan, Z. Paydar, Paul R. Wyrwoll","doi":"10.1080/13241583.2022.2151106","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13241583.2022.2151106","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Using a three-infrastructures (grey, soft, and green) framework, we examined key risks to water availability and quality in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia. These risks include increased irrigation efficiency, without a quantitative knowledge of the impact on water flow pathways, particularly return flows, growth in farm dams and floodplain harvesting, and unsustainable management of salinity. Critical to mitigating these risks are the metering, monitoring, and auditing of water flows, effective linkages between evidence and analysis, and accountability of decision-makers operating in the public interest. We contend that these approaches need to be supported by innovative risk assessments, which are fit-for-purpose under the MDB Plan, wherein the ‘who, what, when and where’ are assessed in relation to cumulative, systemic, and cascading risks from human actions.","PeriodicalId":51870,"journal":{"name":"Australasian Journal of Water Resources","volume":"27 1","pages":"47 - 67"},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2022-12-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45622464","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-11-11DOI: 10.1080/13241583.2022.2141333
Michael L. Wine
{"title":"Irrigation water use driving desiccation of Earth’s endorheic lakes and seas","authors":"Michael L. Wine","doi":"10.1080/13241583.2022.2141333","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13241583.2022.2141333","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":51870,"journal":{"name":"Australasian Journal of Water Resources","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2022-11-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42674277","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-11-09DOI: 10.1080/13241583.2022.2144115
D. Page, D. Gonzalez, T. Clune, Y. Colton, G. Bonnett
ABSTRACT Water banking in aquifers is an internationally proven, low-cost solution that could improve drought resilience across the Murray Darling Basin. While significant potential for water banking through managed aquifer recharge (MAR) or conjunctive use of surface and groundwater resources has been identified in the Murray Darling Basin Plan, there is a need to establish clear policy and institutional foundations to incentivise adoption. To provide appropriate incentives for schemes, the legal status of rights to recharge, store and recover water, and the rules and costs which apply to groundwater extraction need to be clear and transparent. This paper aims to clarify principles and frameworks to secure water rights for recharge, storage, and recovery within the sustainable limits of water resources currently set under law. The current Basin Plan supports water banking, and banking would be complementary with objective and outcomes sought by future Basin Plans. Existing water accounting systems would need to accommodate this new capacity. Institutional arrangements and financial structures of water banking in the USA provide guidance for Australia. Demonstration sites would enable concurrent policy development and institutional set-up and provide critical experience to serve as models for wider adoption as part of future Murray Darling Basin plans.
{"title":"Water banking in aquifers as a tool for drought resilience in the Murray Darling Basin","authors":"D. Page, D. Gonzalez, T. Clune, Y. Colton, G. Bonnett","doi":"10.1080/13241583.2022.2144115","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/13241583.2022.2144115","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Water banking in aquifers is an internationally proven, low-cost solution that could improve drought resilience across the Murray Darling Basin. While significant potential for water banking through managed aquifer recharge (MAR) or conjunctive use of surface and groundwater resources has been identified in the Murray Darling Basin Plan, there is a need to establish clear policy and institutional foundations to incentivise adoption. To provide appropriate incentives for schemes, the legal status of rights to recharge, store and recover water, and the rules and costs which apply to groundwater extraction need to be clear and transparent. This paper aims to clarify principles and frameworks to secure water rights for recharge, storage, and recovery within the sustainable limits of water resources currently set under law. The current Basin Plan supports water banking, and banking would be complementary with objective and outcomes sought by future Basin Plans. Existing water accounting systems would need to accommodate this new capacity. Institutional arrangements and financial structures of water banking in the USA provide guidance for Australia. Demonstration sites would enable concurrent policy development and institutional set-up and provide critical experience to serve as models for wider adoption as part of future Murray Darling Basin plans.","PeriodicalId":51870,"journal":{"name":"Australasian Journal of Water Resources","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":3.2,"publicationDate":"2022-11-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49645861","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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