Previous work
Earlier reviews of Australia 's water resources include:
The Australian Water Resources Assessment 2000
The Australian Water
Resources Assessment 2000
was undertaken as part of the National Land and Water Resources Audit. It assessed
surface water and groundwater resources across Australia . For the basis of
reporting, Australian Water Resources Council (AWRC) river basins were refined
into 325 surface water management areas. Datasets provided for each surface
water management area and groundwater management unit included:
- developed yield (surface water only)
- diversions and extractions
- water use
- water allocation
- sustainable yield.
The Australian Water Resources Assessment 2000 has made a significant
contribution to understanding Australia 's resources. Key findings included
(from AWRA 2000):
- Australia's surface water resources: 84 (26 per cent) of 325
surface water management areas are either close to capacity or overused
when compared with sustainable flow regime requirements. These account for
about 13 200 gigalitres (a gigalitre is 1000 megalitres) or 55 per cent of
total water use in Australia; they are the vast majority of Australia's areas
in which water resource development is a viable option. Continued effort
by Australia 's water resource managers to improve water use efficiency and
ensure allocations to environmental purposes for these surface water management
areas is essential. These highly committed and overcommitted basins must
continue to be given priority in surface water management activities. They
must also be reassessed in terms of sustainability as additional information
and improved methods and tools for determining ecological requirements become
available.
- Australia's surface water quality: water quality data are limited,
with between 67 and 75 of Australia's 246 river basins (28 per cent) able to
be assessed for any of the key variables—turbidity, nutrients or salinity.
Sixty-five basins had major exceedances of state or territory surface water
quality guidelines for nutrients, salinity or turbidity. Exceedances of major
nutrients were found in 43 river basins, which was 61 per cent of basins
that could be assessed. Major turbidity exceedances were found in 41 (61
per cent) of the basins assessed. Major salinity exceedances were most frequent
in basins within temperate south-western and south-eastern Australia , particularly
within the Murray-Darling and the South-West Coast Drainage Divisions: exceedances
were found in 24 basins (32 per cent) of the basins that could be assessed
in those areas.
- Australia's groundwater resources: 161 (30 per cent) of Australia's
538 groundwater management units are either close to capacity or overused
when compared with their estimated sustainable yield. In terms of licences
for abstraction, 168 groundwater management units are either fully allocated
or overallocated when compared with the estimated sustainable yield. Substantially
increased effort by Australia 's water resource managers is required to precisely
define sustainable yields and improve management of Australia 's groundwater
management units. Priority must continue to be given to the highly committed
and overcommitted groundwater management units.
- Australia 's water resource development: 241 surface water management
areas and 265 groundwater management units are at low to medium levels of development.
Many of these have limited capability for significant development—particularly
the more arid basins of Australia . Development opportunities vary across Australia
: in tropical Australia , opportunities based on water capture (such as dams,
bore fields, harvesting of overland flows) are still to be fully assessed and
realised; in southern Australia , development is approaching its extraction
limits and caps are being introduced to fine tune water use. Development opportunities
in southern Australia —including much of New South Wales , South Australia
, Victoria and Tasmania —principally entail moving water to higher value
uses through water trading and reallocating any water gained through water
use efficiency measures. In some cases, efficiency gains are allocated to
the environment rather than to other water uses.
- Understanding water use: water use increased to 24 000 gigalitres
(equivalent to 47 times the volume of Sydney Harbour ) in 1996–97 (19 000 gigalitres
from surface water; 5000 gigalitres from groundwater), from 14 600 gigalitres
in 1983–84. The greatest increases by volume in water use are in New South
Wales (3800 gigalitres) and Queensland (2300 gigalitres)—together these two
states account for 25 per cent of the total annual water use in Australia .
Water use and detailed knowledge of water use efficiency measures are often
poorly recorded—some 31 per cent of basins have no recorded use data. Of
the water diverted for use, on average only 77 per cent actually reaches
the customer and the remainder is lost to seepage or evaporation. The percentage
delivered varies between 41 per cent and 100 per cent, with delivery techniques
ranging from open channels to fully piped reticulation systems. Water use
and delivery efficiency, recycling, trading and pricing are increasingly
becoming priorities and provide opportunities for development. To support
and foster this shift in development emphasis, improved information about
water use is essential.
- An Australia-wide initiative in water resource management:
water availability and quality are at the centre of economic development
and environmental management for Australia . An Australia-wide initiative
in partnership with state and territory water management authorities could
focus on improvements in groundwater characterisation, water use efficiency,
increased and more scientifically-based environmental water provisions, improvement
to water quality monitoring and the understanding and managing of interactions
between surface and groundwater quality and quantity.
- Making information readily available: it is essential that
Australia capitalise on the investment by the states, territories and this
audit in data collection and put in place Australia-wide assessment and reporting
systems. This can be achieved through existing agencies, with central coordination
and updating through the Australian Natural Resources Atlas. It will ensure
that Australia has access to the contemporary water resources information
that is essential for natural resources decision-making.
Information gaps that were highlighted in the Australian Water Resources
Assessment 2000 included:
- The impact of farm dams on catchment yield and the interaction
between surface water quality and usage were not considered, owing largely
to the lack of existing data.
- The interaction of surface water and groundwater (commonly
called conjunctive use) was taken into account in only 14 per cent of groundwater
management units across Australia .
- The method used to calculate the sustainable yield of surface
water management areas varied substantially between the states and territories,
making it difficult to compare surface water management areas on this basis.
- A review of the Australian Water Resources Assessment 2000 approach
was also highlighted in the Review of the Australian Water Resources Assessment
2000 (BRS 2004) and key findings included:
- the data collected are mean annual values and do not reflect
variability (within and between years)
- Australian Water Resources Assessment 2000 does
not adequately address the issue of sustainability and sustainable
yield. Different interpretations make comparisons difficult
- there is a lack of repeatability as the assessment provides
only a snapshot, with no ability to update easily
- there is a lack of consistency (e.g. between states and territories)
as different methods were used for the assessment, making valid
comparisons difficult.
AWR 2005 is attempting to build on the strengths of the Australian Water
Resources Assessment 2000 and seeks to identify progress since that
report—for example around consistency in approach—and to incorporate new
data sets and more comprehensive assessments.
State Initiatives
Your location:
|