National Groundwater Forum
November 2009
The National Water Commission convened an inaugural national Groundwater Forum focusing on the Commission's National Groundwater Action Plan, which was initiated to progress the groundwater reform actions agreed under the National Water Initiative.
The objectives of the Forum were to bring together the Commission's groundwater project partners to discuss the challenges in managing the nation's groundwater and to provide the Commission with an understanding of the short-, medium- and long-term priorities for groundwater management and knowledge needs.
The Forum was attended by 120 of Australia's leading groundwater experts, academics, water managers and water users. The participants shared findings and challenges across 60 groundwater projects funded under the plan, which is now investing more than $105 million to improve groundwater knowledge, management and planning.
The Forum was broken down into nine thematic areas:
- groundwater - surface water connectivity
- modelling groundwater systems
- managed aquifer recharge/aquifer storage and recovery
- groundwater-dependent ecosystems
- risks to groundwater quality
- knowledge adoption, education, communication
- groundwater management
- monitoring, data and information
- northern Australia and Great Artesian Basin.
For each area, achievements and future priorities were identified. The priorities for each theme were then combined and a list of high-priority actions agreed at a final plenary session. The broad categories that the priorities fall under were:
- monitoring data and information
- communication and knowledge adoption
- policy, regulation and legislation
- capacity to meet future needs
- social impacts
- science and research.
Forum participants strongly supported the need for groundwater management to be fully integrated with whole-of-water-resource management across Australia. Additionally, the areas that were considered to be of particular importance were the need to continue to maintain monitoring of bores, communication and knowledge adoption and the policy and management areas of markets and pricing regulation, accommodating climate variability and uncertainty.
The forum also included presentations by the National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training, jointly funded by the Australian Research Council and the National Water Commission.
Groundwater Forum media release
