Level of groundwater entitlements relative to sustainable yield

The level of groundwater entitlements has been compared to the sustainable yield volumes for all groundwater management units where the data were available (refer to table below and accompanying map). In some cases, sustainable yield volumes are not used to manage groundwater management units because jurisdictions use trigger levels to represent the actual level of development. This occurs in the Great Artesian Basin area and many other confined or artesian aquifers, where pressure levels rather than the sustainable yield volumes are used to manage the resource instead. These areas are currently categorised as either not assessed', where sustainable yield volumes were not provided, or not applicable'.

Where information was available to categorise the groundwater management units, it clearly shows that groundwater is highly developed in the following areas:

• near major cities in western states and territories (e.g. Alice Springs, Perth, Darwin)
• in alluvial river valleys in eastern states where intensive irrigation occurs
• in areas where surface water resources are limited or where surface waters are episodic, such as on the South Australian Victorian border and in central Australia where there are high quality confined aquifers (e.g. the Great Artesian Basin and Murray Group Limestone in the Murray-Darling Basin)

The accompanying map shows the levels of development of groundwater management units across Australia. The map shows that large areas of Australia have low levels of groundwater resource development, but this is because groundwater resources in those areas (mostly large, unincorporated areas) are generally high in salinity and low in yield and so are not economic to develop in unpopulated regions. In fact, a much higher proportion of the groundwater resource is developed than the map suggests.

Across Australia , 103 of the 294 (more than 35 per cent) groundwater management units are either highly developed or overdeveloped (this excludes the not applicable' and not assessed' categories for reasons described above). It includes:

• 19 overallocated groundwater management units
• 84 highly developed groundwater management units
• 67 moderately developed
• 186 have a low level of development that includes many unincorporated areas in New South Wales and Northern Territory

New South Wales has made a commitment to reduce entitlements in six inland aquifers back to the sustainable yield, using a process called structural adjustment'. The process is due to commence in October 2006, and it is detailed in the specific water sharing plans for those areas. The New South Wales and Australian governments have jointly invested $110 million in the Achieving Sustainable Groundwater Entitlements Program, to help industry adjust to these entitlement reductions.

Level of groundwater development July 2004 - June 2005

Note: 'Low' level of development = 0-29%, 'moderate' level of development = 30-69%, 'high' level of development = 70-100% and 'overallocated' = >100%.

Level of groundwater development July 2004 - June 2005

Download high resolution Map:

Level of groundwater development July 2004 - June 2005 (1.9 Meg )

(this document requires the use of Adobe Acrobat Reader )

Interactive Maps:

Click on the links below to create and customise your own versions of the maps (e.g. add or remove layers) using the Map Maker tool on the Australian Natural Resource Atlas website:

• ANRA Map Maker Groundwater data

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