Improving environmental sustainability in water planning
Waterlines report No 20 - September 2009
This report explores the reasons why a consistent national approach to achieving environmental sustainability in water planning has been difficult and suggests how key National Water Initiative concepts could be interpreted and implemented.
It says each Australian state and territory has a different view on how to determine environmentally sustainable levels of extraction. For many parts of Australia, this manifests itself as a debate about how much water can be taken without there being an unacceptable risk of environmental damage.
There is a lack of clarity about the meaning of 'environmental assets, or ecosystem functions and the productive base of the resource'; about how to tell which of these are 'key' and which are not; and about what it means to 'compromise' them.
The report calls for an adaptable, structured framework for better inclusion of environmental sustainability in water planning. It says that wider use of regular, repeatable assessments of the condition of water ecosystems, such as Murray-Darling Basin Sustainable Rivers Audit and the Victorian Index of Stream Condition, would be of considerable value.
According to the report, 'key ecological assets, key ecosystem functions and the productive base of the resource' should be consistently described by defining each 'asset' and, for each such defined asset, consistent condition targets should be set.
Transparency and national clarity of process will invigorate public debate and clarify expectations, making trade-off decisions more transparent. If a process for identifying and valuing assets and functions has not met public expectations, it will soon become evident.
The report finds that an adaptable, structured national framework is critical for:
- implementing key elements of the National Water Initiative, including ensuring future development is environmentally sustainable, and returning overallocated and overused systems to environmentally sustainable levels of extraction
- developing the Murray-Darling Basin Plan during the next two years, so it relies on the same conceptual framework as the National Water Initiative in terms of identifying and addressing overallocation and overuse
- providing guidance for the most effective funding investments for addressing overallocation and overuse under the $12.9 billion Commonwealth Water for the Future program through improving planning practice so as to have clearer identification and prioritisation of 'key' environmental assets and ecosystem functions, and the level of risk they are currently under
- providing a basis for more rigorous water planning as vital state-based water plans are made or reviewed over the next decade.
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Improving environmental sustainability in water planning (223KB) - fact sheet