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The way forward: Continuing policy and management reforms in the Murray–Darling Basin
Abstract
The major water resource policy and management reforms that have occurred in Australia's Murray–Darling Basin (MDB) over the past 30 years have made a good start to ensuring the MDB is a healthy and sustainable working Basin into the future. This is particularly true of the Basin Plan and the $A13 billion being invested to recover water for the environment. Many emerging and major challenges remain to achieving this goal over the next 30 years, to 2050 and beyond, particularly given an increased frequency of drought and the hotter and dryer future climate the Basin is facing.
In this chapter, we identify and discuss six desirable changes to the current Basin Plan, including further adjustments to sustainable diversion limits (SDL) and revisions to environmental objectives related to the Basin Plan because of climate change; addressing emerging water quality issues; improving environmental water management; strengthening the links with management of the Lower Lakes, Coorong and the coastal zone; improving monitoring, evaluation, and adaptive management; and strengthening compliance arrangements. The scheduled 2026 review of the Basin Plan provides the opportunity to implement these changes at the Basin scale.
Additionally, we have also identified three further reforms aimed to achieve a more integrated Basin Plan, including implementation of effective integrated catchment management; ongoing engagement of all stakeholders—including rural and regional communities, Aboriginal people, and irrigation industries—in well-designed, independent processes of deliberative decision-making and policy codesign; and effective integration of water policy development with linked policy areas, including climate change adaptation, regional development, and agricultural transitions. We proposed three key elements required for this integration process to be successful:
•Vision—A clear statement of why an integrated approach to managing the Basin would be beneficial.
•Better decision-making processes—The vision and a ‘road map’ for implementing the integration could be developed via an initial independently convened deliberative process involving all stakeholders and state and Commonwealth government representatives.
•Leadership from state and Commonwealth ministers (e.g. water, agriculture, environment, and regional development) to provide an appropriate authorising environment for the deliberative work need to develop a widely accepted vision.
We also draw out some ‘key lessons’ of relevance to others involved in the management of multijurisdictional Basins.
... Climate change typified by low flow is expected to prolong the duration and expand the geographical extent of algal blooms [32,33]. Challenges associated with the basin's heightened vulnerability to more frequent droughts and an increasingly arid and warmer climate lie ahead in the next three decades, extending to 2050 and beyond [58]. ...
... Extended droughts reduce surface water inflow, concentrate organic materials, and elevate water temperatures. When heavy rains finally arrive, these conditions can result in the rapid decomposition of accumulated organic matter and subsequent oxygen depletion, causing blackwater events in the MDB [58]. ...
Climate change is a global phenomenon that significantly affects water quality and quantity, with implications observed across various regions worldwide. In the Murray–Darling Basin (MDB), Australia’s largest and most vital river system, climate change is exacerbating environmental and public health challenges, particularly through its impact on water resources. This review assesses the historical, current, and potential future impacts of climate change on both water quantity and quality in the MDB. The study involved a systematic review of 126 reputable sources, including peer-reviewed journals, government reports, and relevant books. A particular focus was given to the increasing frequency of blue-green algae (BGA) and blackwater events, which are key indicators of climate change’s impact on the basin’s water systems. The findings underscore the critical importance of integrating climate adaptation measures into existing water quality management policies to mitigate these adverse effects. The review concludes that proactive adaptation measures are essential for enhancing the resilience of the MDB’s water resources against the ongoing and future impacts of climate change, with lessons that may be applicable to other regions facing similar challenges.
... There is increasing pressure for water resource managers to address climate change and balance consumptive and environmental water use for long-term sustainability. While doing so, natural resource managers are urged to adopt novel approaches, use the best available science, and incorporate diverse voices, including those of First Nations and communities, all in the context of deep uncertainty (Grafton et al. 2020;Alexandra 2021;Hart et al. 2021;Wyborn et al. 2023). ...
Globally, water governance struggles to reconcile increased demands on water resources with climate change–induced reductions in supply, making climate adaptation in water governance a pressing concern. The Resist-Accept-Direct (RAD) framework has emerged as a climate adaptation tool designed to help make adaptation decisions. However, there is limited understanding of social and political factors, which are critical in driving RAD decisions. This paper explores how communities are employing RAD to make climate adaptation decisions, using a case study of the Goulburn-Murray Resilience Strategy (the Strategy); a community-led strategy that uses a version of the RAD framework to build regional resilience in the Goulburn-Murray Irrigation District (GMID) in Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin (MDB). The Strategy focuses on building socio-economic, rather than ecological, resilience, making this research a valuable contribution to RAD literature. To apply the RAD framework to socio-economic adaptation, we adapted the framework to include IPCC language around incremental, transformational, planned, and autonomous adaptation. With the GMID considered a leader of resilience thinking in Australia, the Strategy may help decision-makers address water overallocation and contested governance in the MDB, and provide lessons for water governance globally. Data analysed from 20 semi-structured interviews with people involved with the Strategy revealed two main findings: (1) Communities and governments prioritise different actions under the RAD framework. Governments, particularly at the state level, preference incremental planned adaptation to maintain the status quo (resist), over incremental autonomous adaptation to changing conditions (accept), and transformational planned adaptation at various scales (direct). (2) Community and government actors perceive that factors driving governments’ preference for incremental-resist adaptation include electoral short-termism, linear planning, and conservative government culture.
... This transition led to a more one-sided flow of information as part of the Basin Plan's implementation. Despite recent efforts such as the decentralization of the MDBA into regional offices and the appointment of regional officers residing and working within the Basin, stakeholders remain dissatisfied, feeling excessively consulted but unheard (Hart et al., 2021). ...
Transformation from top-down government to collaborative governance for natural resources requires broadening the scope of stakeholders involved. However, the systemic identification and assessment of stakeholder engagement remains a challenge. This paper develops a network-based framework for assessing stakeholder engagement in natural resources governance. The framework proposed five system-level metrics: inclusivity, cohesion, centralization, efficiency, and brokerage, as well as three node-level metrics: dominators, brokers, and communicators. By using public submission data on four government policy initiatives each reflecting a major component of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, this study assessed the structural aspects of stakeholder engagement relevant to water resource management in the Murray-Darling Basin following legislative reforms in 2007. Findings suggested that current stakeholder engagement structures are neither balanced, nor have adequate maturity to develop a governance approach to resolve issues within the Basin. High variability between patterns of involvement in submissions to key policy initiatives indicated there were haphazard aggregations of public comments and the top-down approach to water management is still dominant. The framework developed in this paper offers a structural and systemic perspective for re-configuring stakeholder engagement networks for improving collaborative governance.
... water and outcomes from its use, such as improved habitat) (Baudoin and Arenas, 2020;Ostrom, 2009). Adaptive management (sensu Walters, 1986) is one approach for dealing with social-ecological complexity and uncertainty (Horne et al., 2022;McLoughlin et al., 2020) and is frequently adopted in EWM (Hart et al., 2021a;Mezger et al., 2019;Watts et al., 2020). ...
... After 10 years of implementation, policy and management changes to the Basin Plan should consider how well its objectives have been met. Reforms should also account for regional climate change effects and other emerging issues in the basin, including those covered in this study and previously (Hart et al. 2021). Particular focus should be placed on the outcomes related to the Coorong and broader LLCMM Ramsar site, as a sentinel of the entire basin. ...
Freshwater aquatic ecosystems can be considered sentinels of change as they integrate signals from catchment, hydrology and biogeochemistry to provide an indication of how the system fluctuates. The Coorong estuary acts as a sentinel for the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB), Australia. Its location at the terminus of the Murray-Darling River systems, which drains more than 1 million square kilometres across 22 major catchments, means that any change to climate, water extraction or land use in the upstream catchments will have repercussions for the Coorong. It therefore acts as an indicator of the health of the MDB and the effectiveness of
the Murray-Darling Basin Plan at protecting this ecosystem. Environmental water secured through the Murray-Darling Basin Plan and establishment of the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder has been critical to preventing significant ecosystem decline in the Coorong. For most water years in the last decade environmental water has contributed to the majority of flow through the barrages. This has exported salt from the basin, reduced influx of salt from the ocean, and expanded available habitat for fish in the Coorong. However, the
environmental flows have not been sufficient to arrest sand build up, and dredges still operate at the Murray Mouth during all but the highest flow events. There is a clear case for continued water management and reform, extending beyond the boundaries of the MDB, to further increase security of water flowing along the river system through the barrages and supporting the ecological health of the Coorong, and by association the full MDB.
The Australian government's response to the Millennium Drought (1997–2010) has been met with praise and contestation. While proponents saw the response as timely and crucial, critics claimed it was characterized by government overreach and mismanagement. Five months of field research in farm communities in the Murray Darling Basin (MDB) identified two dominant discourses: administrative rationalism and a local community-based discourse I have termed community-centrism. Administrative rationalism reflects the value of scientific inquiry in service to the state and is the dominant research-based problem-solving model used by water and natural resource agencies (Dryzek in The politics of the earth: environmental discourses, Oxford University Press, 2013; Colloff and Pittock in Aust J Water Resour, 23(2):88–98, 2019). Community-centrism was identified through discussions with farmers and represents a bottom-up approach to environmental planning and management that seeks to incorporate local knowledge, planning, and direct participation. This investigation reveals how discourses define problems and policy choices. While market-based government interventions were likely necessary to address the crisis in the MDB, community-centred responses could have enhanced the government’s capacity to respond to problems. This paper argues that the long-term sustainability of water management in the Basin will require a reorientation on the part of farmers, academics, and governments to develop a community-centred approach to water policies impacting agriculture.
The purpose of this article is to link two Special Issues of the Australasian Journal of Water Resources – this Issue on Improved Water Planning and another in preparation on Review of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan 2026: An opportunity to reconsider the management of the Murray–Darling Basin. The two Special Issues have a number of common threads which are discussed, namely: integration between water policy and other major policy areas; accounting for climate change; decision-making processes; and Indigenous involvement.
Climate change is threatening water security in water-scarce regions across the world, challenging water management policy in terms of how best to adapt. Transformative new approaches have been proposed, but management policies remain largely the same in many instances, and there are claims that good current management practice is well adapted. This paper takes the case of the Murray–Darling Basin, Australia, where management policies are highly sophisticated and have been through a recent transformation in order to critically review how well adapted the basin’s management is to climate change. This paper synthesizes published data, recent literature, and water plans in order to evaluate the outcomes of water management policy. It identifies several limitations and inequities that could emerge in the context of climate change and, through synthesis of the broader climate adaptation literature, proposes solutions that can be implemented when basin management is formally reviewed in 2026.
There is significant interest in global trends in Indigenous land titling but relatively less attention given to Indigenous water tenure despite significant reform of water governance regimes in many regions of the world. This paper considers the intertwined and complex history of Aboriginal land and water tenure in the Australian State of New South Wales, within the Murray-Darling Basin. Its temporal scope encompasses the initial dispossession effected by colonization and settler water development; the re-appropriation of land and water under social justice restoration schemes from the 1970s; and the past decade in which the small water holdings in the possession of some Aboriginal organizations have significantly diminished. The paper shows that proprietary rights to land and water acquired through the colonial period strongly conditioned rights of access to water during subsequent eras, particularly when Australian governments separated land and water titles and capped water use to create the world’s biggest water market. Using empirical water entitlement data, we profile the composition, spatial distribution and value of Aboriginal water holdings in the NSW portion of the Murray-Darling Basin. We show that while Aboriginal people in this area constitute nearly 10 % of the total population, their organizations hold only 0.2 % of the available surface water. We identify changes in Aboriginal water holdings between 2009 and 2018 that are indicative of a new wave of dispossession. Almost one fifth of Aboriginal water holdings by volume were lost over 2009−18 (at least 17.2 % in standardized terms). We discuss the factors that render Aboriginal water-holders vulnerable to the loss of valuable water rights and those factors that constrain the ability of all Aboriginal people to fully enjoy the benefits of water access, including water market participation. Additionally, we identify critical omissions in Australian water rights reform and offer recommendations for redress that are of wider international relevance.
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.
Independent and impartial scientific research provides critical contributions to many contemporary policy debates, including those about climate adaptation and natural resources. Therefore, institutional arrangements that enable and protect scientific independence are central to resolving environmental problems in advanced liberal democracies. This paper provides an overview of the research and development (R&D) funding organisation Land & Water Australia (LWA) that, due to its statutory independence, was effective and influential in promoting sustainable natural resource management. Established by legislation that provided structural independence, LWA was insulated from direct interference, enabling it to operate at arm's length from executive government. The paper profiles LWA contributions to changing policies and practices, and explores the features that enabled LWA to coordinate, organise and fund R&D, until its abolition in 2009. LWA provided a useful precedent of a statutory authority, chartered with a clear legislated purpose and legal mechanisms for ensuring independence. The paper highlights institutional arrangements that protect scientific independence, arguing that LWA provided an important model of public R&D investment directed to sustainability transformations.
This piece reflects on the on the legacies of democratic deliberation, particularly mini-publics in responding to issues of disinformation, bigotry and nativism that has entered the political mainstream today. It aims to provoke conversations about the limitations of mini-publics in promoting democratic renewal and reconsider the functions of these forums in democracy’s ‘dark times.’
Over the past decade, Australia has been buying water entitlements and subsidising irrigation infrastructure to reallocate water from consumptive to environmental purposes in the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB). There is considerable evidence that irrigation infrastructure subsidies are not cost-effective, as well as questions as to whether water extractions are increasing (rebounding) as a result. We used 2481 on-farm MDB irrigation surveys and identified a ‘rebound effect’ on water extractions, with irrigators who received an irrigation infrastructure subsidy significantly increasing (21-28%) their water extraction, relative to those who did not receive any grants. Although the precise hydrological impact of this rebound effect on catchment and Basin-wide extractions remains unknown, publicly available water data suggest that reductions in extractions from the MDB – supposedly commensurate with increases in environmental flows – may have been overestimated, particularly in the Northern MDB. This overestimation may in turn be linked to issues with water measurement and extractions at the catchment and Basin-scale, which occur due to: (1) water theft and poor enforcement; (2) inaccurate or absent water metering; (3) growth in unlicensed surface and groundwater extractions and on-farm storage capacity; (4) legal and practical uncertainties in compliance tools, processes and water accounting; and (5) complexity of floodplain, evaporation and groundwater interactions. To respond to these water governance challenges, MDB water and rural policy actions must: (1) improve measurement of diversions and develop transparent and robust water accounting, independently audited and accounting for uncertainty; (2) improve compliance, fines and regulation; (3) use multiple lines of evidence for water accounting and compliance; and (4) prioritise the cost and environmental effectiveness of water recovery.
Historically, water resource policy in the Murray–Darling Basin (Basin) has taken a pro-farmer orientation leaving the environment to become the residual claimant. Around 1990, the attention was focused on minimizing overuse that led to on-farm productivity losses and developing a market for water to help define opportunity costs of water in irrigation. More recently, the scope has been extended to include explicit allocations for the environment. However, the failure to agree on policies for recovering water for the environment in the implementation of the Basin Plan has extended avenues for rent seeking and cost shifting, thereby raising the total costs of reform. A focus on water use per se, rather than system productivity, and sidelining of market-based approaches in preference for government investment in water recovery and water use efficiency has complicated risk assignment amongst different users. Recurring droughts and resultant scarcity of water has made negotiations further complicated and controversial, broadening the gulf between environmentalists seeking public good outcomes and irrigators seeking private profit. Despite these, the MDB system as a whole, including dryland and irrigated farming, environmental uses and other industries, has adjusted to changing conditions, drawing on new knowledge and technology and emerging market opportunities. Irrigators have shown an ability to diversify into new commodities with better prospects for managing risks. However, declining farm numbers, a changing demography and accelerating climate change point to general failure risks if the reform process were to halt and governments disregarded the gains through a rebalancing of consumption possibilities from the full complement of Basin’s resources – not just irrigation. This paper, examines the sources of social costs in water resource allocation, including pros and cons of water trading with respect to agricultural production and externalities. The aim is to canvass possible reform alternatives which might help governments to become a catalyst in fostering collaboration for efficient adaptation.
Several independent findings about the current state of the environment and water management in the
Murray-Darling Basin were released in early 2019 by the South Australia Murray-Darling Basin Royal Commission,
the Australian Productivity Commission, and the Australian Academy of Science. We review these findings in relation to: an environmentally sustainable level of water diversions, as mandated in the Australian Water Act 2007; Sovereign Indigenous water rights and interests; the economics of water recovery to increase stream and river flows; and water governance. After reviewing the independent findings and the responses by government agencies, we propose the following actions to respond to post-truth: (1) instituting greater transparency in measurements of water use, consumption, storage and return flows and also of water values (market and non-market); (2) using deliberative democracy, engaging in more effective and inclusive participation in decision-making in terms of water planning and allocations, especially of those who have been long excluded such as the First Peoples of Australia; and (3) giving primacy to the environmental goals of the Water Act 2007 and supporting this through the establishment of an independent standing commission which reports to the Australian parliament and has audit and oversight powers in relation to land, water and the environment.
Absolute farm numbers all over the world have been decreasing over time, and in many countries, this is a source of concern for rural communities. In particular, the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) in Australia has faced considerable change in the form of increased temperatures and drought severity, reduced irrigation water diversions, declining real agricultural commodity prices, and declining rural community services. This study applies spatial regression modelling at the regional level to assess the impact of weather, economic, and water factors on net farmer number changes over a 20-year period from 1991 to 2011, with climate risk measured using data from 1961 onwards. Our analysis suggests that the direct drivers of farmer exit in local areas were climatic (e.g. increases in maximum temperature and increased drought risk (through decreased long-term precipitation skewness and increased long-term precipitation kurtosis)) and socio-economic (e.g. decreases in commodity output prices, increased urbanisation and higher unemployment). Contrary to the current narrative, changes in irrigation water diversions and water trade movements had no significant impact on MDB farmer exit.
We examine water governance in the Murray-Darling Basin using the frameworks of rent-seeking and regulatory capture. These frameworks are used to evaluate two government programmes intended to ensure an environmentally sustainable level of water diversions in the basin: targeted one-on-one purchases of water entitlements from designated sellers; and subsidies for irrigation infrastructure to increase irrigation efficiency. Deficiencies in delivering the stated environmental goals of both programmes, and questions about their ‘value for money’, are highlighted. Specific recommendations are provided about how to mitigate both rent-seeking and regulatory capture of water reform initiatives in large river basins.
Narratives emerging from the interaction between science and policy set the common language for understanding complex environmental issues. We explore discourses of contestation over a major environmental policy, the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, intended to re-allocate irrigation water to restore the environment in southeastern Australia. We examine three areas of scientific knowledge and decision-making at the science-policy interface: (1) water accounting and availability; (2) perspectives on ecological change and (3) issues of trust and the management of environmental water. Engagement and communication between scientists, bureaucrats and the public forms the basis for understanding contestation: over different sets of values, expectations of what scientists can deliver, perceptions of risk and uncertainty, interpretation of conflicting messages and economic development versus conservation. The Basin Plan was shaped by institutional processes not designed to account for such differences and has inadvertently promoted contestation through exclusion of world views that do not fit those of the decision makers. We consider how the Basin Plan can be re-framed by changing the values, rules and knowledge that set the decision context. These changes enable the Basin Plan to be re-conceptualised from a problem to be solved to an idea that can mobilise imaginative engagement by agents with diverse perspectives.
River flows connect people, places, and other forms of life, inspiring and sustaining diverse cultural beliefs, values, and ways of life. The concept of environmental flows provides a framework for improving understanding of relationships
between river flows and people, and for supporting those that are mutually beneficial. Nevertheless, most approaches to determining environmental flows remain
grounded in the biophysical sciences. The newly revised Brisbane Declaration
and Global Action Agenda on Environmental Flows (2018) represents a new
phase in environmental flow science and an opportunity to better consider the
co-constitution of river flows, ecosystems, and society, and to more explicitly
incorporate these relationships into river management. We synthesize understanding of relationships between people and rivers as conceived under the renewed
definition of environmental flows. We present case studies from Honduras, India,
Canada, New Zealand, and Australia that illustrate multidisciplinary, collaborative
efforts where recognizing and meeting diverse flow needs of human populations
was central to establishing environmental flow recommendations. We also review
a small body of literature to highlight examples of the diversity and interdependencies of human-flow relationships—such as the linkages between river flow and
human well-being, spiritual needs, cultural identity, and sense of place—that are
typically overlooked when environmental flows are assessed and negotiated.
Finally, we call for scientists and water managers to recognize the diversity of
ways of knowing, relating to, and utilizing rivers, and to place this recognition at
the center of future environmental flow assessments.
The Murray Darling Basin Plan (Murray Darling Basin Authority 2012) represents the largest investment by government in an Australian environmental management challenge and remains highly conflicted owing to the contested allocation of diminishing water resources. Central to the decision to reallocate consumptive water to environmental purposes in this Plan was the case made to maintain the freshwater character of two lakes at the terminus of the Murray Darling Basin, in South Australia. This freshwater state was identified as the natural condition on the basis of selected anecdotal evidence and was enshrined in the site’s listing under the Ramsar Convention. The commitment to the freshwater state was challenged under drought when sea water was seen as a means of averting acidification when low river flows risked the exposure of sulfidic sediments. Independent evidence from water quality indicators (diatoms) preserved in lake sediment records, however, attested to an estuarine, albeit variable, condition before the commissioning of near-mouth barrages in 1940. This interpretation for a naturally estuarine history, published after peer review, was overlooked in a report to the South Australian government, which argued, without the provision of new evidence from the lakes, that they were fresh for their entire history. This revised interpretation is widely cited in the scientific literature, government reports and online discussion and underpins a watering strategy aimed at a freshwater future for the Lower Lakes. The allocation of large volumes of fresh water to achieve this condition presents significant difficulties owing to the highly contested nature of water use across the Basin.
Water governance strongly depends on the institutional arrangements in place. The plethora of recent inquiries into the adequacy and integrity of governance arrangements in the Murray Darling Basin (MDB) indicates a crisis of trust, legitimacy and public confidence – in short, a loss of authority. With the prospect that current arrangements are losing the authority and legitimacy needed to govern the Basin, pressure is mounting for further reforms due to scandals exposed in the media throughout 2017 and 2018. These and subsequent inquiries have revealed serious concerns about probity, integrity, maladministration and the adequacy of compliance and enforcement regimes. The productive potential of this crisis is that draws attention to the need for reforms to governance institutions. This paper aims to explore the redesign of the institutional architecture in the MDB. Given the profound challenges of social and climate change that are demanding reconsideration of the underlying models used in adaptively governing large complex socio-ecological systems, the paper asks what arrangements are suited to the challenges of governing the Basin in the 21st century? This paper explores the nature of the redesign challenge, exploring principles, practices and features of MDB governance. The need for institutions with capacity for strategic navigation, goal seeking and the cultural co-construction of authority are suggested in the interests of cultivating debate about prospective reorganisation.
A major bloom of Chrysosporum ovalisporum occurred in ~2360 km of the Murray–Edward–Wakool River System, Australia, during the 2016 austral summer and autumn. Several potential causes were investigated. Although summer air temperatures were among the hottest on record, no significant relationships were found between meteorological factors and bloom abundance. Instead, a weak but significant relationship was found between surface water temperature and bloom abundance downstream of Lake Hume, because the hot weather is likely to have led to higher water temperatures promoting bloom development. Releases of cold water inflows into Lake Hume from its Murray River arm may have stimulated upwelling of nutrient-rich deeper water, promoting the establishment of the bloom in that lake. Total nitrogen and total phosphorus concentrations were within the mesoeutrophic range and significantly related to bloom abundance, although some nutrient would be contained within cyanobacterial cells. During peak bloom abundance, pH was above 8.5 at one site. One unusual feature was that the bloom occurred in very dilute water, at electrical conductivities of 40–50 µS cm–1. However, this does not appear to have affected carbon uptake and photosynthesis at high pH. Further blooms may occur if similar hot summers occur in future.
Though commanding a prominent role in political theory, deliberative democracy has also become a mainstay of myriad other research traditions in recent years. This diffusion has been propelled along by the notion that deliberation, properly conceived and enacted, generates many beneficial outcomes. This article has three goals geared toward understanding whether these instrumental benefits provide us with good reasons – beyond intrinsic ones – to be deliberative democrats. First, the proclaimed instrumental benefits are systematized in terms of micro, meso, and macro outcomes. Second, relevant literatures are canvassed to critically assess what we know – and what we do not know – about deliberation’s effects. Finally, the instrumental benefits of deliberation are recast in light of the ongoing systemic turn in deliberative theory. This article adds to our theoretical understanding of deliberation’s promises and pitfalls, and helps practitioners identify gaps in our knowledge concerning how deliberation works and what its wider societal implications might be. © 2018 International Association for Public Participation.All Rights Reserved.
The Anthropocene imposes new challenges for governments, demanding capabilities for dealing with complexity and uncertainty. In this paper we examine how effective governing of social-biophysical dynamics is constrained by current processes and systems of government. Framing choices and structural determinants combine to create governance deficits in multiple domains, particularly in relation to the governing of complex larger-scale social–biophysical systems. Attempts to build capability for governing ‘wicked problems’ are relevant to sustainability science and Anthropocene governance, but these have mostly failed to become institutionalised. Two cases studies are reported to elucidate how the systemic dynamics of governing operate and fail in relation to espoused purpose. In the UK attempts to enact ‘joined-up’ government’ during the years of New Labour government reveal systemic flaws and consistent praxis failures. From Australia we report on water governance reforms with implications for a wide range of complex policy issues. We conclude that innovations are needed to build capacity for governing the unfolding surprises and inherent uncertainties of the Anthropocene. These include institutionalising, or structural incorporation, of cyber-systemic thinking/practices that can also enhance empowerment and creativity that underpins sustainability science.
Graphical abstract
Institutional arrangements shape water-related decision making and water policies, and drive behaviours related to water sharing and use. It is therefore crucial that water researchers, policy makers and managers understand institutions. This article reviews and critically assesses the current knowledge of water-related institutional arrangements. It explains how researchers explore institutional structures, emergence and change. It details how institutions are considered as a response to social-environmental issues through design, fit and bricolage. The article concludes with the most promising topics for the future scientific agenda.
This paper explores the ways water governance adapts to changing social values and political imperatives by examining the case of water policy reforms in Australia’s Murray Darling Basin. Over more than two decades, Australia’s water reforms have explicitly aimed to promote ecological sustainability and economic efficiency, attempting to balance pro-market, micro-economic reforms with broader social and sustainability goals. Despite the formality of Australia’s intergovernmental agreements, water reforms have been expensive and heavily contested, experiencing many implementation challenges. However, water market reforms have generally been regarded as successful, enabling the reallocation of water for environmental and extractive uses, contributing to flexibility and adaptive capacity. Recognising that discursive contestation is central to policy development, the paper documents the way the reform processes have attempted to broker compromises between three competing policy paradigms—national development, economic rationalism and environmentalism. These inherent tensions resulted in prolonged contests for influence over policy directions long after formal statements of policy intent by Governments. Given that climate change is driving the need for water governance reforms, the paper looks to what lessons can be learnt about the redesigns of meta-governance arrangements, including through structured commitments to independent audits and evaluations that can provide the feedback needed for adaptive governance and policy learning.
Significant progress in environmental flow management has occurred in recent years due to several factors. These include governments committing to environmental flow programs, significant progress in scientific understanding, and environmental flow assessment methods that are cognizant of stakeholder participation and co-design. However, there remain key challenges facing environmental water management. In this paper, we report on a horizon scanning exercise that identified the questions, which, if answered, would deliver much needed progress in the field of environmental water management. We distributed an online survey to ask researchers and practitioners in the field of environmental water management to identify the key questions. The authors then consolidated 268 submitted questions and organized them into key themes. The consolidated list was presented to a workshop of environmental water researchers and practitioners, where attendees were asked to review the questions, vote on the most important, and provide feedback on gaps, issues, or overlaps. The breadth of issues facing environmental water management is captured by the six key themes into which questions were classified: (1) Ecological knowledge and environmental flow assessment methods, (2) Adaptive management, (3) Integrated management and river objectives, (4) Knowledge transfer: applying best practice in a global context, (5) Community knowledge and engagement, and (6) Active management. These questions provide a roadmap for research and management innovations that will improve the effectiveness of environmental flows programs.
River discharges are decreasing in many regions of the world; however, the consequences of this on water quality and primary productivity of receiving coastal oceans are largely unclear. We analysed satellite remote-sensing data (MODIS) of the coastal ocean zone that receives outflows from the Murray River, from 2002 to 2016. This system has experienced historical flow reductions and a recent extreme hydrological ‘Millennium’ drought. Remotely sensed chlorophyll-a and particulate organic carbon in the coastal ocean were strongly correlated with river outflows (R² > 0.6) in an 8-km radial buffer zone from the Murray Mouth, and the river influence extended up to ~60 km from the Murray Mouth during high-flow periods. This distance was approximately three times greater than the freshwater plume extent during maximum flows in 2011, suggesting that new primary productivity was created. In contrast, there was no additional coastal ocean productivity above background levels from 2007 to 2010 when river outflows ceased. Hindcast calculations based on historical flows from 1962 to 2002 suggest that declining Murray River flows have greatly reduced primary productivity in adjacent coastal waters. This has potential consequences for higher trophic levels and should be considered in future management planning.
The past four decades have seen a transformative process in Australian agriculture - the gradual incorporation of conservation practices such as ecological restoration, revegetation and agroforestry as a response to land degradation. Although actions have been impressive they remain fragmented, are confined to particular districts or properties and run the risk of not being built upon in the future. This paper traces the history of this movement and draws out lessons and implications for future policy development and research. Landscape-scale restoration and the integration of conservation into farming landscapes have been recognised as a global imperative for decades, for which Australia has generated many innovations - in the technical, social and policy domains. Scanning the 'big picture', we identify many pixels of best practice in policy, incentives, planning, regulation and on-ground practice. We wonder why we have not pulled these together, to work in concert over time. If we had, Australia would have a world's best natural resource management framework. However, we have neither integrated these elements at multiple scales nor sustained them. Unfortunately, although we are excellent at innovating, we have been equally good at forgetting. Progress remains partial, patchy and slow. Too often, we have made gains then gone backwards, reflecting a tendency towards policy adhockery and amnesia. With Australia's continuing depreciation of institutional memory, we risk losing critical capabilities for making sound policy decisions. Australian expertise in revegetation, restoration and regeneration of landscapes remains formidable however, with an enormous amount to offer the world. We are still learning to live and farm more sustainably, but we have made big strides over the last four decades. The challenge will be to maintain the momentum and provide adequate succession so future generations continue the work.
This essay reflects on the development of the field of deliberative democracy by discussing twelve key findings that capture a number of resolved issues in normative theory, conceptual clarification, and associated empirical results. We argue that these findings deserve to be more widely recognized and viewed as a foundation for future practice and research. We draw on our own research and that of others in the field.
Water scarcity is rapidly increasing in many regions. In a novel, multi-model assessment, we examine how human interventions (HI: land use and land cover change, man-made reservoirs and human water use) affected monthly river water availability and water scarcity over the period 1971–2010. Here we show that HI drastically change the critical dimensions of water scarcity, aggravating water scarcity for 8.8% (7.4–16.5%) of the global population but alleviating it for another 8.3% (6.4–15.8%). Positive impacts of HI mostly occur upstream, whereas HI aggravate water scarcity downstream; HI cause water scarcity to travel downstream. Attribution of water scarcity changes to HI components is complex and varies among the hydrological models. Seasonal variation in impacts and dominant HI components is also substantial. A thorough consideration of the spatially and temporally varying interactions among HI components and of uncertainties is therefore crucial for the success of water scarcity adaptation by HI.
Risks and uncertainties arising from climate change are increasingly recognized as significant challenges for water governance. To support adaptive approaches, critical examinations of water policy practices and rationalities are needed. This paper focuses on the treatment of climate change in Australia’s Murray–Darling Basin (MDB) reforms over the past decade. While the MDB faces potentially significant drying trends due to climate change no reductions in future water availability due to climate change were formalized in the 2012 Basin Plan — a regulatory instrument agreed to by Australia’s National Parliament. The background, key dimensions and possible reasons for this decision are examined. Possible reasons for not formally reducing water deemed available in the future include the complexity and uncertainty of climate science, the cultural construction of “climate normal” based on long-term averages, and institutional settings that reinforce dominant “hydro-logical” approaches and rationalities. Minimizing the political, legal and financial consequences of attributing reductions in water allocations to climate change are also potential reasons. The case of the MDB, as outlined in this paper, demonstrates some of the ways climate change is causing systemic challenges for adaptive water governance, and that innovative approaches need to be embraced, including better processes for institutionalizing science/policy integration.
Groundwater depletion is a worldwide phenomenon that has prompted calls for improved policy and management. A prominent policy recommendation, especially among economists, is the establishment of well-defined transferable groundwater rights and the promotion of water transfers or markets. Modelled effects and actual results in limited sites show promising potential, but progress has been slow, even in areas of significant need and capacity such as the western United States. This article identifies some of the complexities associated with defining groundwater rights and with managing groundwater aquifers. Those complexities may account to some degree for the incremental and limited progress toward transferable rights. Recent groundwater policy developments in California and other western states are reviewed briefly in light of those complexities.
Water is rising on the policy agenda as population growth and climate change intensify scarcity, shocks, and access inequalities. The conventional economic policy recommendations - privatization, pricing, and property rights - have struggled due to a failure to account adequately for the politics of water and the associated distributional conflicts. We identify distinctive social and physical characteristics of water supply and demand, and explore their implications for three central areas of water policy: financing infrastructure, pricing, and property rights reform. Growing dependence on groundwater and non-networked water supplies exacerbates these challenges and reinforces the need to rethink the economics of water and tackle the political challenges head on. Meeting the water sustainable development goals would require institutional and technological innovations to supply, allocate, and manage water, as well as a sustained political and financial commitment to address those who might be left behind. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Oxford University Press. For permissions please e-mail: [email protected]
Much of Australia has been in severe drought since at least 2017. Here we link Australian droughts to the absence of Pacific and Indian Ocean mode states that act as key drivers of drought-breaking rains. Predicting the impact of climate change on drought requires accurate modelling of these modes of variability.
The Murray–Darling Basin is the largest river system in Australia to enter the sea. Prior to regulation of water flows, the Murray Mouth remained open to the sea even during droughts. An open mouth assists in sustaining the ecology of a Ramsar listed wetland and enables the flushing of salt, nutrients, and suspended sediments to the sea. Construction of barrages designed to prevent saltwater ingress has separated the estuary into two sections, a set of freshwater lakes and a saline tidal lagoon area, creating a unique set of management challenges. Under current overextraction of water resources upstream, river flows have been largely insufficient to counter wave and tide processes, which propel marine sands thereby constricting the Murray Mouth. Dredging has been required to maintain an open entrance. Managing this system is part of a 2012 agreement between state and federal governments, through the Murray–Darling Basin Plan. This plan recognizes a healthy end of system; however, the hydrological models failed to factor in the power of the sea in blocking the Murray Mouth. The plan requires that there will be sufficient river flows for the mouth to be open 95% of the time without dredging. Currently, sand ingress from the sea requires dredging most of the time. It is unlikely that there will be sufficient river flows to counteract continued sequestration of marine sand into the mouth. Sea level rise and decreased rainfall in the southern half of the Basin under climate change conditions will require a review of management options to prevent the long‐term degradation of the end of system.
Australia’s water management futures are again under discussion as drought impacts and bushfires hit communities. Water and ecological system limits are being reached resulting in fish kills and dwindling water levels in storages. Awareness is also rising around the inequities in current water governance regimes for First Peoples across the Australian continent and beyond. Here we provide a brief overview and research on: the ingenuity of Indigenous waterscape and landscape knowledge and practices to care for country and community, including the development of agricultural systems and sophisticated fish and eel trapping systems that are thousands of years old; the devastating impacts of colonisation on First Peoples, their country and ability to maintain some cultural practices; and the ongoing contestation over water governance, right from Federation, including the eight waves of water reforms in the Murray-Darling Basin. Current challenges and needs for reform are also presented including: hydrological scientific uncertainties, such as around return flows and their adjustment due to irrigation infrastructure efficiency increases, and new design methodologies, such as for flood estimation inputs to hydraulic models; adjusting current governance regimes of sustainable diversion limits and water markets to provide alternative value to Australia, beyond economic value drivers, that better respond to the benefit of all basin communities in the face of ongoing extreme climate variability and climate change; and determining positive ways forward for truly valuing and allowing First Peoples’ knowledge, practices, culture and law to provide a basis for developing the next waves of Australia's water management reform journey.
From Turnbull to Morrison: Understanding the Trust Divide is the thirteenth volume of Australia's longest running study of Australian Commonwealth Government, started in 1983.
Is trust between the government and Australians broken? The country's leading institutions have been ranked among the least trusted in the world at a time when the economy has experienced twenty-seven years of economic growth. This has all happened since the 2016 federal election under the revolving prime ministerships of Malcolm Turnbull and Scott Morrison's first term.
Turnbull was the fourth sitting prime minister in a decade to be removed by his own party. What role do these politically turbulent times play in this trust deficit? Scott Morrison has now been elected by the people. What does he and future prime ministers need to do to reboot civic belief in politics? How will history judge the contribution of the Turnbull and Morrison administrations?
In From Turnbull to Morrison well-known political journalists including Michelle Grattan, George Megalogenis, Megan Davis, Virginia Haussegger, Mark Kenny and Katharine Murphy and leading academics such as Frank Bongiorno, Mark Evans, Susan Harris-Rimmer, Anne Tiernan, John Warhurst and George Williams examine the institutions, the issues and the leaders at the heart of this crisis.
It is crucial reading for champions of liberal democracy.
From Turnbull to Morrison: The Trust Divide is the thirteenth volume of Australia's longest running study of Australian Commonwealth Government, started in 1983.
Climate change will increase water stress in many regions placing greater pressures on rivers to meet human and ecological water needs. Managing rivers experiencing water stress requires a fundamental understanding of how ecosystem processes and functions respond to natural and anthropogenic drivers of flow variability and change. The field of environmental flows meets this need by defining “flow-ecology” relationships—mathematical models linking ecological characteristics and dynamics to the underlying flow regime. However, because these relationships are most often based on historical hydrologic regimes, they implicitly assume climatic stationarity. A fundamental challenge in the Anthropocene is how to model flow-ecology relationships such that the effects of nonstationarity can be captured. In the present article, we introduce a novel approach that addresses these shortcomings and show its utility through a series of conceptual and empirical examples. The framework incorporates ecological dynamics and uncertain future hydrologic conditions, as well as nonstationarity itself, thereby providing a viable framework for modeling flow-ecology responses to inform water management in a rapidly changing climate.
The Murray–Darling Basin in south‐eastern Australia contains over 70,000 km2 of wetlands and floodplains, many of which are in poor condition. In response, Australian governments have committed to a major restoration program, the Murray–Darling Basin Plan that includes management of 2,750 Gl of environmental water to protect and restore aquatic ecosystems. The restoration is being undertaken within an adaptive management framework that includes monitoring the outcomes of environmental flows in seven river valleys. This paper provides an overview of the 5‐year monitoring project and some preliminary results. Monitoring design considered the Basin Plan's environmental objectives, conceptual models of ecosystem responses to flow, and an outcomes framework linking flow responses to the environmental objectives. Monitoring indicators includes ecosystem type, vegetation, river metabolism, and fish. Responses are evaluated to identify the contribution of environmental flows to Basin Plan environmental objectives and continual improvements in management. The program is unique in that it seeks to monitor long‐term outcomes of environmental flows at the river basin scale. Despite many challenges, the monitoring has become a key part of the adaptive management of environmental flows in the Murray–Darling Basin.
Aboriginal representative organisations collaborated with the Murray Darling Basin Authority to develop the Aboriginal Waterways Assessment (AWA) tool. We consider the AWA as part of an evolving toolkit of methodologies designed to elevate First Nations’ objectives in water planning, in the context of national water reform and implementation of the Murray Darling Basin Plan. We describe the adaptation of the AWA from an approach developed in Aotearoa/New Zealand, the Maori Cultural Health Index for Streams and Waterways. We review the delivery and outcomes of seven AWA projects undertaken in Victoria between 2017 and 2018, demonstrating that the AWA is an effective and culturally safe mechanism for First Nations to document water-related values and influence waterway management. The article identifies improvements in water management resulting from the use of data generated through AWA projects, as well as project outcomes at the individual and broader political scale, including the social benefits of First Nations’ data collection and the importance of data sovereignty. We highlight the value of waterway assessments undertaken by First Nations as a tool to address their widespread exclusion from water planning and management.
Citizens can avoid polarization and make sound decisions
Full text freely available at: https://www.adelaide.edu.au/press/titles/natural-history-cllmm/cllmm-ebook.pdf
The Editorial Committee welcomes you to this Natural History Series book, Natural History of the Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth (CLLMM) region. The book is divided into four main parts, with individual chapters within each part outlined below.
HISTORICAL OVERVIEW (PART 1)
The book begins with Ngarrindjeri leaders such as Tom Trevorrow, George Trevorrow and Matthew Rigney (all deceased) providing a valuable introduction to the history and culture of the Ngarrindjeri traditional owners of the CLLMM land and waters, with a contextual introduction to this Ngarrindjeri account by Steve Hemming (Chapter 1.1). The more recent history of European settlement is then detailed by Valerie Sitters (1.2).
PHYSICAL-CHEMICAL NATURE (PART 2)
The detailed evolution and contemporary geology and geomorphology of the Murray Estuary and Mouth are provided in three chapters by Bob Bourman and co-authors (Chapters 2.1-2.3). Next, Deborah Haynes and co-authors reveal the hydrological and salinity history of the CLLMM based on their studies of diatoms archived in the bottom sediment (2.4). John Cann and Chantelle Lower describe the effects of ice ages, global warming and sea level changes in the formation of the Coorong Lagoon and catchment based on mollusc and other records in sediment cores (2.5). Deirdre Ryan describes the role of historical and current climate in shaping the CLLMM region, including large historical flood events (2.6). The surface water flows and movement within the system, which underpin much of the system function and health, are elaborated by Matt Gibbs and co-authors (2.7). The hydrogeology in the surrounding catchment, and groundwater inflows, are described by Steve Barnett (2.8). The soils in the CLLMM and surrounding catchments are described by Rob Fitzpatrick and co-authors (2.9), with particular emphasis on acid sulfate soils that caused major issues in the Millennium Drought. Finally, in this Part, the water quality of the CLLMM, which is a key driver of ecological health, is then described by Kane Aldridge and co-authors (2.10).
BIOLOGICAL SYSTEMS (PART 3)
Sophie Leterme and co-authors describe the plankton communities that form the base of the food chain and respond to changing hydrology and water quality (Chapter 3.1). The diverse vegetation in and on the edges of the water, and how it responds to changing water levels and quality, is outlined by Jason Nicol and co-authors (3.2). The terrestrial vegetation in the local catchment area, and factors determining its distribution, are described by Sacha Jellinek and co-authors (3.3). The composition of sediment-dwelling invertebrates in the Coorong and Murray Mouth estuary are detailed by Sabine Dittmann (3.4), including how these were severely impacted by the Millennium Drought. Invertebrates in the freshwater Lower Lakes are reviewed by the late Keith Walker (with Peter Goonan, Paul McEvoy and co-authors) (3.5). Chris Bice and co-authors provide a synopsis of the ecology and biology of fishes in the CLLMM (3.6), and how they are influenced by changing flow, water quality and connectivity. David Paton and
co-authors present a chapter on waterbirds (3.7), which are a key component of the CLLMM region and one of the main reasons it is listed as a Wetland of International Importance under the Ramsar Convention. The frogs of the CLLMM, including the important, yet vulnerable, Southern bell frog, are presented by Kate Mason and Rebecca Turner (3.8). Lastly for this Part, George Giatas and colleagues describe the Coorong food web (3.9), and how food and ‘energy’ flows between species to make the system productive and healthy.
MANAGEMENT, RESOURCE USE AND CONSERVATION (PART 4)
Given the large-scale anthropogenic changes in the hydrology of the Murray-Darling Basin, environmental water delivery, guided by legislation, plays a critical role in ensuring the health of the CLLMM system, as described by Adrienne Rumbelow (Chapter 4.1). This includes supporting important local fisheries, which have a long history in the region, as described by Greg Ferguson (4.2). Extreme low flows and water levels in the Millennium Drought created huge management challenges that had never been faced in the CLLMM before, as described by Kerri Muller and co-authors (4.3). Finally, Steve Hemming and co-authors provide two chapters (4.4-4.5) which establish the vision and framework for the important and increasing role that the Ngarrindjeri Nation will play in the shared long-term management of the region (Ngarrindjeri Ruwe/Ruwar).
Decision-Making in Water Resource Policy and Management: An Australian Perspective presents the latest information in developing new decision-making processes. Topics covered include key aspects of water resources planning, recent water resource policy changes in irrigation, urban, and environmental considerations, the evolution of a water market, a number of case studies that provide real examples of improved decision-making, transfer of the Australian experience overseas, and challenges for the future. Many countries are experiencing major water scarcity problems which will likely intensify with the continued impacts of climate change. In response to this challenge, there is increased worldwide focus on the development of more sustainable and integrated water resource policies. The Australian experience over the past three decades has led to major improvements in the decision-making processes in water resources policy and management, particularly in response to drought and climate change, providing a great model on which other nations can use and adapt. This information is essential to early to mid-career practitioners engaged in policy, planning and operational roles in all fields of water resource policy and management, and catchment management.
What is the role of the institution of science in a world where trust is declining? How do we ensure respect for scientifically derived knowledge in this environment, and particularly for policymaking? How do we ensure that policymakers are more likely to take into account the role of scientifically derived evidence in their decision-making?.
Democracy requires a connection to the “will of the people.” What does that mean in a world of “fake news,” relentless advocacy, dialogue mostly among the like-minded, and massive spending to manipulate public opinion? What kind of opinion can the public have under such conditions? What would democracy be like if the people were really thinking in depth about the policies they must live with? This book argues that “deliberative democracy” is not utopian. It is a practical solution to many of democracy’s ills. It can supplement existing institutions with practical reforms. It can apply at all levels of government and for many different kinds of policy choices. This book speaks to a recurring dilemma: listen to the people and get the angry voices of populism or rely on widely distrusted elites and get policies that seem out of touch with the public’s concerns. Instead, there are methods for getting a representative and thoughtful public voice that is really worth listening to. Democracy is under siege in most countries. Democratic institutions have low approval and face a resurgent threat from authoritarian regimes. Deliberative democracy can provide an antidote. It can reinvigorate our democratic politics. This book draws on the author’s research with many collaborators on “Deliberative Polling”-a process he has conducted in twenty-seven countries on six continents. It contributes both to political theory and to the empirical study of public opinion and participation, and should interest anyone concerned about the future of democracy and how it can be revitalized. © James S. Fishkin 2018 and Part III, Section 2: James S. Fishkin, Thad Kousser, Robert C. Luskin, and Alice Siu and Part III, Section 4: James S. Fishkin, Roy William Mayega, Lynn Atuyambe, Nathan Tumuhamye, Julius Ssentongo, Alice Siu, and William Bazeyo and Part III, Section 5: James S. Fishkin, Robert C. Luskin, and Alice Siu.
Many scholars and policymakers still expect a World Bank official’s 25-year old prediction that “the wars of the future will be fought over water” to come true. But in reality, international water wars are exceptionally rare, while political-economic conflicts between sub-national actors, including states and provinces, are increasingly prevalent. This book re-thinks the issue of water conflict by examining conflicts at the sub-national rather than international level. By examining several in-depth case studies of both conflict and cooperation, the book argues that increasing sub-national water conflict is driven by two inter-linked forces, identity politics, which gives sub-national politicians a reason to compete over shared water resources; and political decentralization, which provides them with the tools to do so. However, by encouraging broad participation in managing shared water resources, policymakers can create “constituencies for cooperation.” The book concludes by calling both scholars and policymakers to devote more attention to the growing challenge of sub-national conflict over water.
An approach is presented for evaluating in economic terms the investment made by a publicly funded natural resource management research and development (R&D) funding organisation (Land & Water Australia) over its 16-year life. The approach combines qualitative methods to describe research investments and their outputs, outcomes and benefits with conventional cost-benefit analyses that produce measures of the worth of the investment. While the major driver of such an approach is the need for accountability to the Australian Government, co-funders and the public, a number of other objectives are being met also. Benefits to the organisation are accruing, including a better understanding of the factors that contribute to a successful investment and how to communicate the benefits of research to stakeholders.
One of the important strengths of the process is the consistency of application of a standardised approach to cost-benefit analyses and the transparency of the analyses that have now addressed 28 separate case studies. The approach is flexible, is conducive to updating information over time, and recognises many of the difficulties involved in applying investment analysis to R&D investment. The development of the process has adopted a continuous improvement philosophy.
The current debate around environmental water in the Murray-Darling Basin has focused on how much water the environment needs (what should the sustainable diversion limits be) and how this water should be recovered. Now that the Murray-Darling Basin Plan has set these targets, discussion will quickly move to implementation and the governance arrangements for this water; that is, what parties are involved, what are their responsibilities, how are they accountable and how do they interact? While the agencies involved in environmental water management and their respective roles are broadly understood, the detail around accountability, interaction between agencies and assessment of success has potential for improvement. Massive public expenditure in water recovery and management requires high levels of accountability, and in such high stakes conditions, confusion can breed mistrust. This paper documents agency roles and existing governance models and proposes features of a governance model for environmental water management to enhance accountability, trust and efficiency.
Underlying conceptsComparison with other evaluation approachesKey messagesSuggested reading (loosely grouped by the authors' primary discipline)References and notes
This chapter provides a brief introduction to water management in Australia, including an overview of the history of water management in Australia since European settlement. It focuses particularly on the last 30 years, during which Australian governments have been undertaking a program of major water reform, transitioning to a new paradigm of environmentally and financially sustainable water resource management providing high economic value to the nation. This chapter also sets the scene for the rest of the book and summarizes the following individual chapters that go into more detail about specific elements that have contributed to the implementation of the reform agenda.