Water planning and management projects
Investments to achieve more effective planning and management on the ground, including greater involvement by the community, including indigenous communities, in water planning in rural/regional and metropolitan areas.
Announced projects include:
Improving the effectiveness of water allocation planning
This project creates a funding program to assist Australia's state and territories to improve their water allocation planning. Under the program, jurisdictions will identify barriers to planning, and then develop and manage projects to overcome these.
Integrating the mining sector into water planning and entitlements regimes
Investigating emerging issues and options for incorporating the water used by the mining sector and associated access regimes into water planning and water access entitlement processes.
Peter Cullen Water and Environment Trust
An enduring legacy commensurate with Peter Cullen's contribution to freshwater ecology, to science communication and to water research, policy and management in Australia.
Investigating low flows for improved water planning and management
Improving knowledge of low flows including flow rates, surface and groundwater drivers, spatial distribution, pool persistence, ecosystem responses, modelling, and predictive tools.
National inventory of water stressed systems
Establishing a national inventory of stressed catchments and aquifers, based on a nationally consistent set of criteria and published data.
Incorporating climate change impacts in water allocation planning
Assisting National Water Initiative partners to incorporate potential climate change impacts in their regional water allocation planning processes.
Australian Indigenous Water Roundtable
Supporting Indigenous involvement in national water management by establishing a National Indigenous Reference Group.
Tiwi Islands Water Allocation Plan
The Australian Government is contributing funds to the Northern Territory Government to employ an Indigenous water planner for two years. The water planner will develop a water allocation plan for the Tiwi Islands where there are forestry and groundwater extraction pressures on the resource.
Western Australia state water information system
Developing a state water information system to provide a single access point for water information from the various agencies.
Decision support system for real time management of water use in the Condamine-Balonne
To develop a comprehensive Water Resource Observation Network (WRON) compliant decision support system for the improved management of water use and flows in the Condamine-Balonne catchment over the next three years.
Indigenous water planning forum
Bringing together Indigenous people and jurisdictional water planners to identify and document good examples of Indigenous engagement in water planning processes.
Methods to accurately assess water allocation impacts of plantations
Assessing the risk of new plantations to water access entitlements by providing daily water yield predictions and to accurately quantify the site-scale impacts of new plantations on stream flows.
Australian hydrological modelling initiative - catchment water yield estimation tool
Developing a common framework for estimating catchment water yield and daily runoff characteristics, and the impacts of various drivers such as climate change, afforestation/land use change and farm dams, on catchment water yield.
Baseline review of activities that intercept surface and/or groundwater
Developing a national baseline of the status of major forms of activities that have the potential to intercept significant volumes of groundwater and/or surface water.
Water management and the electricity generation sector
Investigating the impact of changed water availability on electricity generation in Australia.
Strategy for improving environmental sustainability of water planning
Addressing the divergent interpretations and implementation of the terms "sustainable levels of extraction" and "over-allocation" that are currently used in water planning and management across Australia
Water planning processes: lessons, gaps and adoption
Improving the way in which water planning is undertaken across Australia.
Guidelines and best practice documentation - water services in remote Indigenous communities
Revising key documents, including aspects of the Australian Drinking Water Guidelines, and develop an information package, including materials such as diagrams, maps, and tables, that assists with preparing usable and understandable drinking water management plans.
National risk assessment - water services in remote Indigenous communities
Undertaking a national risk assessment to identify key opportunities for improving drinking water management in remote Indigenous communities.
Australian hydrological modelling initiative: river system management tool
Providing one point of contact for modelling systems for use in the different water planning processes across Australia.
Water planning practices and lessons learned
Reviewing a range of current water plans and identify lessons learned during the planning process to improve our future water management planning.
Baseline assessment of water governance arrangements
Examining a number of priority water governance issues that are impacting on the achievement of National Water Initiative outcomes, and examine how, over time, better practice water governance arrangements can be encouraged and implemented across Australia.
Driving water reform through knowledge and capacity building
Supporting a range of activities to address specific areas identified for attention under the National Water Initiative.
New water entitlements
Developing specifications for new water entitlements that would be required for various new water products likely to be introduced into the water market in the near future. This project is also listed under the emerging water markets theme.