Regional water resources assessments - Groundwater Management Area Great Artesian Basin

Regional Water Resource Assessment – GMU

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Great Artesian Basin

Great Artesian Basin Groundwater Management Unit is within New South Wales and is 120,666 km2

This page provides high level performance indicators of water management for the Great Artesian Basin groundwater management unit (GMU) based on information provided by the government of NSW.
It provides answers to a range of questions of relevance to the National Water Initiative (NWI), specifically in relation to:

Groundwater management framework
Water resource caps
Surface water / groundwater interaction
Sustainable groundwater yield
Environmental allowances / provisions
Groundwater diversions
Groundwater entitlements

Please note that a dash means that either the data was not available, not provided or that the question was not relevant for a particular area.

Groundwater management unit	Great Artesian Basin
Project ID	NSW_GW_601
Size of groundwater management unit	120666 km²
State	NSW

Groundwater management framework

What is the status of the water management plan for this groundwater management unit?	Draft
	Draft
If a final or draft plan has been written, what year was it completed?	2006
If a final or draft plan has been written, does it explicitly consider surface water?	No
If yes, how?	-
Does your water plan specify water quality objectives to meet environmental and other public benefit outcomes?	Yes
Other items included in the management framework are:
Metering program for this area	Included
Effluent recycling	-
Climate change	Included
Aquifer storage and recovery	Not included
Efficient irrigation systems	Not included
Other	Included
Management plan available at:	Management plan

Water resource caps

Has a cap been placed on groundwater usage / abstraction in this groundwater management unit?	Yes
Is the cap an absolute limit to allocation or provisional limit?	Absolute
If there is a cap, what year was it implemented?	1998
If there is a cap, is it considered to represent the sustainable groundwater yield?	No
The following water usage types are included/not included under the cap:
Irrigation	Included
Urban supply	Included
Commercial / Industrial	Included
Stock and domestic	Included
Mining / Oil and gas	Included
Forestry	Not included
Drought supply	Included
Greywater use	Not included
Effluent recycling	Not included
Aquifer storage and recovery	Included
Other	-

Surface water / groundwater interaction

Are groundwater and surface water managed as an integrated water resource in this groundwater management unit?	No
Reason or method:	There is minimal connectivity between SW and groundwater

Sustainable groundwater yield

The sustainable yield within this groundwater management unit for 2004/05 was:	85200 ML
The method used to determine the sustainable yield was:	Simple analytical calculations
Was the sustainable yield determined for the combined (i.e. surface water and groundwater) water resources?	No
Is the cap considered to be at or below the sustainable yield of surface water?	At
If the cap is above the sustainable yield, are there management actions to bring the cap down to sustainable yield?	-
How has the aquifer responded?	Stable
Does this aquifer trend require a management response?	No
What is the level of development relative to the sustainable yield?	High level of development

Environmental allowances / provisions

Have groundwater dependent ecosystems been identified for this groundwater management unit?	Yes
If yes, in what year were they identified?	2002
If yes, what type (s) of groundwater dependent ecosystems have been identified?
Terrestrial vegetation	Not identified
River base flow systems	Not identified
Aquifer and cave ecosystems	Not identified
Wetlands	Identified
Terrestrial fauna	Not identified
Estuarine and near shore marine ecosystems	Not identified
Other	Not identified
Have environmental water requirements for the identified groundwater dependent ecosystems been determined?	No
Have environmental water provisions for the identified groundwater dependent ecosystems been formally adopted / approved?	Yes
Do the environmental water provisions take into account surface water?	No
If yes, how?	-
Completed environmental water requirement/provision reports available at:

Groundwater diversions

The total groundwater extraction in the groundwater management unit for 2004/05 was:	76000 ML
What percentage of groundwater extraction is determined from metered data?	20%
What is the level of diversions relative to the sustainable yield?	89%
For surface water diversion that is NOT metered, how was the surface water diversion determined for 2004/05?
Estimated from irrigated areas	No
Estimated from licence volume	No
Estimated from power usage for pumps	No
Estimated from models	No
Other	Yes

Groundwater entitlements

Entitlements for groundwater are required/not required for the following usage types:
Irrigation	Required
Urban supply	Required
Commercial / Industrial	Required
Farm dams	-
Stock and domestic	Not required
Mining / Oil and gas	Required
Forestry	Not required
Floodplain harvesting	-
Drought supply	Required
Greywater use	-
Effluent recycling	-
Aquifer storage and recovery	Required
Other	-

National Water Commission