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National Workshop

As part of the Managing Connected Water Resources project, a national workshop was held in Adelaide on the 6-7 May 2004. The workshop, Rivers and Aquifers: Towards Conjunctive Water Management bought together water experts, managers and users to identify strategic directions for realising the opportunities and addressing the issues associated with the coordinated management of surface water and groundwater systems.

The workshop found that:

  1. traditional institutional separation of surface water from groundwater has created fundamental communication barriers that now extend from technical expertise to policy developers, operational managers and water users. These barriers impede the understanding of the processes and consequences of groundwater-surface water interactions.
  2. The sustainable extraction limits for surface water and groundwater resources tend to be estimated in isolation and do not adequately account for connectivity. The activation of groundwater sleeper licences in connected systems is likely to exacerbate over-allocation by reducing base flows to rivers. In particular, increased groundwater extraction from bores adjacent to river systems is having a direct negative impact on river flows, including the River Murray. This has been compounded by the increase in users accessing groundwater in response to surface water restrictions. Better accounting of the combined water resource is required to identify and address over-allocation.
  3. Technologies to support coordinated management of surface water and groundwater resources exist, and investment is required for their further development and application. Australia has developed world-renowned expertise in the field of Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR). Increasing interest in conjunctive management indicates an international market exists for such technology. Significant efficiencies could be made through improved coordination of relevant expertise, research, policy, management, and technology.

While large gaps exist in technical understanding of river and aquifer connectivity, there are clear opportunities to improve current water management policy and practice.

The workshop developed the following high-level policy recommendations:

  1. Where physically connected, surface water (including overland flows) and groundwater should be managed as one resource.
  2. Allocation regimes should assume connectivity between surface water (including overland flows) and groundwater unless proven otherwise.
  3. Over-allocation of systems comprised of connected surface water, groundwater and/or overland flows should be identified and eliminated by 2014.