South Australia summary from water balances
For South Australia, water balances were prepared for five water management areas; Adelaide (incorporating the North Adelaide Plains, Yatla, South Para, Little Para, Upper Torrens, Lower Torrens, Onkaparinga, Patawalonga, Adelaide, McLaren Vale and Myponga water management areas), Patawalonga, Barossa, Rocky River, and Lower Limestone Coast. There were also water balances prepared for four interjurisdictional areas including Lake Eyre, Cooper Creek, the Murray-Darling Basin and the Great Artesian Basin. The Patawalonga and Great Artesian Basin water balances were based on groundwater boundaries.
.JPG) Part of the Lake Eyre Basin, South Australia, April 2004
Image by Justin Costello
Key points
- Rainfall and streamflow for the 2004-05 period were close to long term average values. Adelaide was the only priority WMA with major surface water storages and over the 2004-05 period surface water storage increased by approximately 10%. Long term transfer from the River Murray to Adelaide and surrounds is 110,000 ML/year. All WMAs were subject to permanent water conservation measures during the 2004-05 period.
- Much of the data for South Australia was sourced from the South Australian Department of Water, Land, Biodiversity and Conservation (DWLBC), consisting of measured streamflow, metered water levels, modelled data and estimates. As a result data reliability was variable, from ±10% to ±100%. Evaporation from surface water storage was calculated using measured evaporation rates and known surface water area and have data category B ±25%.
- Reliable information on groundwater inflows and outflows in most catchments was generally sparse. In particular, there was little information available on groundwater storage volumes, groundwater-surface water interaction (particularly baseflow volumes), groundwater discharged to evaporation and groundwater usage. Estimates of groundwater recharge were used, and groundwater discharge was identified using base flow separation or by groundwater models. For most of the WMAs, this lesser understanding lead to larger error terms in the groundwater component of the water balance than the surface water component.
- Indications from stakeholders suggest that the water balances for South Australia are of limited use reflecting more an accounting exercise than the way water is managed on the ground.
Further discussion of the water balances for South Australa is provided in the Water Availability National Perspective report, and the Regional Water Balances report, which are both available on the
Publications page.
For individual results of water balance assessments go to
Regional Water Resources Assessments
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