Ecological water requirements of groundwater systems: a knowledge and policy review
Waterlines report No 68 - December 2011
The National Water Initiative (NWI) and its associated national water reforms have brought the ecological values of groundwater to the attention of water planners and managers.
Water management legislation in all Australian jurisdictions now requires water plans to recognise the ecological values of water.
However, in Australia the science to inform the management of groundwater-dependent ecological values is in its early stages compared to that of environmental flows in surface water management.
The report:
- provides a synthesis and review of the findings of recent studies on the ecological water requirements of groundwater systems
- contains an overview of policy developments relevant to the ecological value of groundwater and a summary of the legislative approaches and implementation in each jurisdiction
- summarises technical knowledge gaps in identifying the ecological values of groundwater and the uncertainties associated with assessing the water needs of groundwater-dependent ecosystems
- provides a methodological framework for ecological water management and sets out important considerations when applying surface water environmental flow approaches to groundwater systems.
Adoption of the framework will allow a nationally consistent approach to support the broad-scale, integrated research required to improve understanding of groundwater ecology.
This report has been prepared for the National Water Commission by Moya Tomlinson as part of the Commission’s fellowship program.
The fellowship program was established to support the implementation of the National Water Initiative by developing future leaders for Australia’s water sector who can advance water-related knowledge and build industry capacity.
Documents for download
Ecological water requirements of groundwater systems: a knowledge and policy review (PDF 1MB)
Ecological water requirements of groundwater systems: a knowledge and policy review (DOC 2.1MB)