Environmental water needs and ecosystem health
The need to establish and deliver environmental water provisions is another key driver for taking a conjunctive approach. Recognition that the environment is a legitimate user of water requires tradeoffs between competing demands for a limited water resource. As an example, the Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial Council established the Living Murray Programme in 2002 in response to evidence of declines in the health of aquatic ecosystems. The Living Murray follows on from the Cap on water extractions in the Murray Darling Basin by seeking to provide an additional 500 GL/yr of water to the ecological assets of the River Murray System.
The first step of the initiative is to achieve environmental benefits for six icon sites along the river, namely Barmah Millewa Forest, Gunbower Koondrook-Perricoota Forest, Hattah Lakes, Chowilla Floodplain (including Lindsay-Wallpolla), Lower Lakes-Coorong, and the Murray Mouth-River Murray Channel. One strategy to provide the additional 500 GL/yr is to identify inefficiencies in water management which can be translated into water savings transferable to the environment. Conjunctive water management is part of this process.
In recent years, there has been greater recognition that ecosystems such as particular wetlands, high baseflow streams and vegetation communities can have a dependency on the underlying groundwater system for their long term viability. This means that environmental water provisions should not be assessed and managed from just a surface water perspective, but also include a groundwater component.
Further Information
Groundwater dependent ecosystems
Riverine ecosystems
Coastal and marine ecosystems
Relevant Links
Murray-Darling Basin Ministerial Council