Tasmania summary from water balances

For Tasmania water balances were compiled for five water management areas; Hobart water supply area, Macquarie, South Esk, Mersey and Pittwater-Coal.

Mersey Walls, in the central highlands of Tasmania, January 2006
Image by Luke Robert

Key points

• A common element of the water balances prepared in Tasmania is that there was little data on groundwater, limited data on the amount of water in storage and volumes of actual water use. The Department of Primary Industries and Water (DPIW) record the capacity of all dams that have had a permit approved; however they do not collect data on the amount of water in storage at any one time. Some volumes in storage for larger reservoirs were provided by Hobart Water, Hydro Tasmania and the Rivers and Water Supply Commission.
• In Tasmania, each of the selected areas experienced some snowfalls; however there is no permanent snowpack and no survey of volume in storage.
• The volume of allocations is also recorded but this volume does not necessarily represent the actual water used by a diverter as records of actual usage are not available. Diversions are being increasingly metered in Tasmania. Local councils are generally responsible for domestic water supply and they decide whether they need a metered distribution system locally. Therefore, the extent of data on domestic water use is determined by the council policy.
• Groundwater understanding in Tasmania is being improved with increased investigation and resources. Initially, this includes identifying groundwater areas that require more intensive management and collating data that is already collected.
• There are a number of programs that are in place in Tasmania to improve the level of understanding of their water resources. In particular, DPIW are in the process of developing models to represent each of their developed catchments; a number of which will be integrated surface water and groundwater models.

Further discussion of the water balances for Tasmania 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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