Water Reform and the Federal System in the Murray-Darling Basin

Australia’s Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) is now well advanced on a major program of water reform to reduce threats to resource security, halt the ongoing decline in environmental conditions and improve the capacity to deal with climate change. Management of the MDB has been a focus for conflict between the Australian governments since federation in 1901. Within the region water is still managed with a high degree of autonomy by state governments but through implementation of the Water Act 2007 the Commonwealth (national) government is now asserting a basin-wide coordinating role for the first time. This paper places water management in the MDB within the larger context of the history of the evolution of the federal system in Australia and highlights a number of factors inherent in such systems that make it difficult to strengthen integration. It also suggests that the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder, created by the Water Act, is emerging as a powerful new institutional force in the MDB even though this was not an intended consequence when the Act was designed.     

Towards a systems approach for river basin management—Lessons from Australia's largest river

Globally, large river systems have been extensively modified and are increasingly managed for a range of purposes including ecosystem services and ecological values. Key to managing rivers effectively are developing approaches that deal with uncertainty, are adaptive in nature, and can incorporate multiple stakeholders with dynamic feedbacks. Australia's largest river system, the Murray–Darling Basin (MDB), has been extensively developed for shipping passage, irrigation, hydroelectric development, and water supply. Water development in the MDB over the last century resulted in overallocation of water resources and large‐scale environmental degradation throughout the Basin. Under the pressure of a significant drought, there was insufficient water to supply critical human, environmental, and agricultural needs. In response, a massive programme of water reform was enacted that resulted in considerable institutional, social, and economic change. The underlying policy was required to be enacted in an absence of certainty around the scientific basis, with an adaptive management focus to incorporate new knowledge. The resulting institutional arrangements were challenged by a need to generate new governance arrangements within the constraints of existing state and national structures. The ongoing reform and management of the MDB continues to challenge all parties to achieve optimization for multiple outcomes, and to communicate that effectively. As large‐scale water reform gains pace globally, the MDB provides a window of insight into the types of systems that may emerge and the challenges in working within them. Most particularly, it illustrates the need for much more sophisticated systems thinking that runs counter to the much more linear approaches often adopted in government.     

The 2012 Murray-Darling Basin Plan – issues to watch

The Murray-Darling Basin Plan is now in place, marking a further significant step in water policy development and water reform in Australia's Murray-Darling Basin (MDB). While it is an important planning and regulatory framework in its own right, and one that should further enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of water markets in the MDB, implementation and enforcement of the plan and continued action by governments, communities and stakeholders on key reform commitments are required to ensure much-needed improvement in economic, social and environmental sustainability. This article outlines seven watch points that will affect whether the desired outcomes are achieved.     

Learning from concurrent adaptive management in multiple catchments within a large environmental flows program in Australia

Adaptive management is central to improving outcomes of environmental water delivery. The Australian Government's Murray?Darling Basin (MDB) Plan 2012 explicitly states that adaptive management should be applied in the planning, prioritisation and use of environmental water. A Long Term Intervention Monitoring (LTIM) program was established in 2014 to evaluate responses to environmental water delivery for seven Areas within the MDB, with evaluation also undertaken at the Basin scale. Adaptive management at the Area scale was assessed using two approaches: (a) through a reflective exercise undertaken by researchers, water managers and community members and (b) through an independent review and evaluation of the program, where relevant reports were reviewed and managers and researchers involved in the LTIM program were interviewed. Both assessment approaches revealed that the scale of management actions influenced the extent to which learnings were incorporated into subsequent actions. Although there were many examples where learnings within an Area had been used to adaptively manage subsequent environmental water deliveries within that Area, there was inconsistent documentation of the processes for incorporating learnings into decision making. Although this likely limited the sharing of learnings, there were also examples where learnings from one Area had influenced environmental water management in another, suggesting that sharing between concurrent projects can increase learning. The two assessments identified ways to improve and systematically document the adaptive management learnings. With improved processes to increase reflection, documentation and sharing of learnings across projects, there is an opportunity to improve management of environmental water and ecosystem outcomes.     

The politics of water reform and environmental sustainability in the Murray–Darling Basin

This paper examines three actions by national and state governments – the role of the Cap, the Living Murray (TLM) and the National Action Plan for Water Security/Water for the Future, embodying the Murray–Darling Basin (MDB) Plan – in the Murray–Darling Basin over a 20-year period. The three actions sought to address declining environmental conditions through water policy reform. All were significant in their own way, but only the third offers the prospect of improving environmental outcomes. Taken together, the case studies illustrate that in real life and in complex, multilevelled policy-making, politics is central to water policy decision-making.     

Reflexive learning in adaptive management: A case study of environmental water management in the Murray Darling Basin,Australia

Adaptive management is a structured approach for people who must act despite uncertainty and complexity about what they are managing and the impacts of their actions. It is learning‐by‐doing through deliberate cycles of experimentation, review, and synthesis. However, understanding the processes of learning and how they relate to achieving resource management goals is in its infancy. Reflexive learning—a process of identifying and critically examining assumptions, values, and actions that frame knowledge—is critical to the effectiveness of adaptive management. It involves adaptive feedbacks between stakeholders as they examine assumptions, values, and actions. Adaptive management has been applied to environmental flows because it offers a system for making decisions about tradeoffs. In the Murray Darling Basin (MDB), Australia, adaptive management is applied as a cycle of plan, do, monitor, and learn, facilitated by short‐ and long‐term learning among stakeholders. An alternative conceptualization of adaptive management as an integration of single‐, double‐, and triple‐loop learning across multiple levels of governance is presented. This is applied to environmental flows in the MDB to map adaptive feedbacks of reflexive learning. At the lowest level of governance (Water Resource Planning Area), goals are assessed as Thresholds of Potential Concern related to flow‐ecology responses, which are reviewed every 3–6 years. At the second level of governance (Basin‐States), Water Management Targets are the key goals; reviewed and reframed every 6–10 years. The highest level of governance (the MDB) is concerned with policy targets, with review and reframing over 8–15 years. Feedbacks that generate reflexive learning are complex and require commitment to move through the modes of single‐, double‐, and triple‐loop learning. Effective adaptive management of environmental water requires practitioners to situate themselves within a matrix of information flow across modes of learning, levels of governance, and components of a social‐ecological system, where reflexive learning drives the achievement of management goals.     

Establishing Environmental Water Requirements for the Murray–Darling Basin,Australia's Largest Developed River System

There is a global need for management of river flows to be informed by science to protect and restore biodiversity and ecological function while maintaining water supply for human needs. However, a lack of data at large scales presents a substantial challenge to developing a scientifically robust approach to flow management that can be applied at a basin and valley scale. In most large systems, only a small number of aquatic ecosystems have been well enough studied to reliably describe their environmental water requirements. The umbrella environmental asset (UEA) approach uses environmental water requirements developed for information‐rich areas to represent the water requirements of a broader river reach or valley. We illustrate this approach in the Murray–Darling Basin (MDB) in eastern Australia, which was recently subject to a substantial revision of water management arrangements. The MDB is more than 1 million km² with 18 main river valleys and many thousands of aquatic ecosystems. Detailed eco‐hydrologic assessments of environmental water requirements that focused on the overbank, bankfull and fresh components of the flow regime were undertaken at a total of 24 UEA sites across the MDB. Flow needs (e.g. flow magnitude, duration, frequency and timing) were established for each UEA to meet the needs of key ecosystem components (e.g. vegetation, birds and fish). Those flow needs were then combined with other analyses to determine sustainable diversion limits across the basin. The UEA approach to identifying environmental water requirements is a robust, science‐based and fit‐for‐purpose approach to determining water requirements for large river basins in the absence of complete ecological knowledge. © 2015 The Authors. River Research and Applications published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Management pathways for the floodplain wetlands of the southern Murray–Darling Basin: Lessons from history

The condition of floodplain wetlands of the Murray–Darling Basin (MDB) reflects the combined effects of climate variability, river regulation, vegetation clearance, and the impacts of human settlement and industry. Today, these systems are degraded, in large part due to changes in the hydroecology of waterways arising from water diversion and abstraction to sustain irrigated agriculture. The MDB Plan directs substantial investment towards the restoration of ecosystems largely via the buy‐back of water allocations, under a cap‐and‐trade system, for use as environmental flows. This region is projected to receive less winter rainfall and run‐off, which could exacerbate the impact of water diversions. Long‐term climate records suggest a higher level of resilience to drying than may be inferred from modern studies. Further, palaeoecological records of change reveal that many wetlands that are perennial today were once naturally seasonal or intermittent, and that much wetland degradation predates regulation and can be attributed to declines in water quality, rather than quantity. A mix of approaches to rehabilitate this long‐degraded system, planned and implemented over an extended period, may meet the demands of the Water Act of 2007, but also support the regional economy. An adaptive management approach offers a framework within which to map system vulnerabilities, characterize climate pressures, identify adaptation options, and monitor outcomes along a pathway to a sustainable future. Early lessons show the extent to which such a deliberative framework can assist water reform under changing socio‐economic priorities and external hydroclimatic pressures.     

What is Public Participation in Water Resources Management and Why is it Important?

Abstract:

Australia has undergone comprehensive water policy reforms since the mid‐1990s. These reforms have imposed considerable uncertainties with respect to future supply and passed the risk management burden from water authorities to irrigators. There is, therefore, an increased need for risk management tools to assist irrigators in managing this increased uncertainty. Water markets are seen as important tools for managing this uncertainty and in assisting irrigation communities in the necessary adjustment process. Australia, therefore, provides an excellent case study in the extent to which irrigators have used markets as a risk management tool. It is concluded that allocation markets have been used by irrigators to manage uncertainty and risk within and between seasons while entitlement markets have been used to adjust irrigators’ risk position in the long term, resulting in subsequent use of the allocation market to manage this new risk position. However, there is clear evidence that the substantial uncertainty with respect to future supply has made irrigators reluctant to use the entitlement market and has therefore seen them rely heavily on the allocation market to manage their existing risk position. Also, existing water trading arrangements are impeding new investments in high value, efficient production systems. To address these two issues and to remove these impediments a new National Water Initiative is presently being implemented.     

A Water-Poverty Accounting Framework: Analyzing the Water-Poverty Link

Abstract

Water has been identified as a crucial resource for all life, production, and development, while a lack of access to water has been linked to poverty. Governments and donors have declared a desire to use water in more efficient, equitable, and environmentally sustainable ways. These different links and objectives touch upon many disciplines and people working in and/or dependent on water: economists, sociologists, engineers, politicians, decision-makers, and other stakeholders. There exist tools to describe how water is used in a physical sense and where it is available. There are also methods to examine the multidimensional aspects of poverty. However, until now there has been no tool to effectively examine the availability of water and its use toward matching social and economic goals to physical goals. This paper offers a framework for such an analysis. The Water-Poverty Accounting Framework presented here allows an analyst to effectively see how water is being used to meet different social goals such as hygiene, sanitation, irrigated production for poor farmers, and environmental demands. More importantly, this framework demonstrates the implications for (re) allocations of water when meeting social goals is deemed desirable.     

DSS Application to the Development of Water Management Strategies in Ribeiras do Algarve River Basin

Within the Project – “Developing Strategies for Regulating and Managing Water Resources and Demand in Water Deficient Regions (WSM)” funded by the EU in fifth Research Framework Program, the Ribeiras do Algarve River Basin was chosen as a case study to develop a DSS for planning purposes. Located in the southern stretch of the Portuguese territory, crucial conflicts do exist between tourist and agricultural water uses within the river basin. Additionally, there are important deficiencies in urban secondary water supply. Also inadequate irrigation methods and poor quality of water existing in some areas urge the implementation of management measures. Different ways to improve the water management situation were analysed: (a) structural options, (b) demand management options and (c) socio-economic measures. These options were analysed using a range of combinations of extreme demand and availability scenarios and ranked based on indicators reflecting the perception of the local stakeholders towards economic development and social and environmental sustainability. On a second phase, the formulation of strategies using the available options was addressed and two different strategies, resulting from a tentative timeframe of water management options combination, were applied aiming to achieve goals defined with regional stakeholders, namely: (a) on a first stage, the optimization of the domestic and irrigation water demand coverage and aquifer’s groundwater exploitation use ratio; (b) on a second stage, the determination of the water pricing increase necessary to achieve economical sustainability, aiming at cost recovery goals in accordance with the Water Framework Directive compliance.     

Regional cooperation and benefit sharing for sustainable water resources management in the Lower Mekong Basin

Benefit sharing is a concept associated with regional cooperation for sustainable water resources management. To this end, the present study analyses how implementation of this concept may contribute to economic growth and the promotion of sustainable livelihoods in the Lower Mekong Basin (LMB). It focuses on the balance between economic and human development, national interests, and the procedures used to manage water resources in the basin. It was found that: (a) Benefits obtained from the Mekong River are not equally shared between riparian countries because of inadequate regional cooperation, with economic and social development in the LMB being uneven, with Thailand and Vietnam achieving better human development, poverty reduction and food security outcomes than Laos and Cambodia; (b) Lack of shared national interests, or a common development agenda, has resulted in unsustainable water resource management outcomes; and (c) Procedures for water resources management agreed by the four LMB countries are well‐aligned with the conceptual framework for benefit sharing defined by Sadoff and Grey (2002, Water Policy, 4, 389), although while these procedures have the potential to facilitate a more cooperative agenda for equitable sharing of social, economic and environmental benefits from the water resources of the Mekong River, implementation of the 1995 Mekong Agreement currently remains controversial. The five procedures for water resource management developed by the Mekong River Commission have not resulted in satisfactory outcomes, due in part to the institution lacking regulatory authority.     

黄河水市场的建立与水资源的优化配置

1987年国务院批准了黄河可供水理分配方案，1994年黄河水利委员会又向沿黄省（区）颁发了《取水许可证》。随着流域社会经济的发展，黄河水资源供需矛盾愈加突出。目前黄河水资源管理调度体制还存在政府指令配水严重失控、没有引入激励补偿机制、同比例丰增枯减的原则不利于水资源优化配置等问题。在黄河上建立水市场符合市场经济规律，可以促进节水，提高水资源的利用率，改善生态环境，有利于水资源的高效配置和合理利用。     

Environmental Flows Under the WFD Implementation

The Water Framework Directive (WFD) is the first piece of European environmental legislation addressing hydromorphological modifications and impacts on water bodies. Accordingly, in those water bodies where the hydromorphological pressures are having an impact on the ecological status, action is needed to achieve WFD objectives. Environmental flows appeared as one of the answers to this challenge. Due to their importance, Member States (MSs) have been looking to integrate ecological flows in the River Basin Management Plans (RBMPs) and Programmes of Measures (PoMs). More than seventeen years after the WFD adoption, this study aims to provide a systematic review of the use of environmental flows within the process of WFD implementation and their contribution to the achievement of environmental objectives. In order to achieve the goals of the study, a special analysis was done using: i) the WFD official documentation reporting the progress of WFD and environmental flows definition and implementation (such as the CIS Guidance n° 31), as well as, ii) the answers to key questions addressed to EU MSs representatives involved in the implementation of environmental flows. These enabled us to perceive how this topic has been addressed in MSs. Based on the gathered information the authors assessed whether a change in the environmental flows’ situation, between the 1st and 2nd RBMPs, has occurred by each MS, or whether progress on environmental flows assessments has been made. Furthermore, this study also highlights some MSs representatives comments related with the role of the Guidance n°31 and some relevant information related with the 3rd RBMPs. Even though an evolution on environmental flows assessments can be perceived, with an increase in MSs defining and incorporating environmental flows within the 2nd RBMPs and in the complexity of the conducted approaches, there is still a long way to go. Namely, it could be highlighted that more efforts are required for the: i) implementation of environmental flows and the monitoring of its effects in the water bodies status, ii) development of a verifiable link between environmental flows and biological indicators.     

Economic Instruments in the Management of Australia's Water Resources: A Critical View

The era of environmental concern ushered in by the World Conservation Strategy and the Brundtland Commission in the 1980s was given renewed impetus following the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in 1992 and the adoption of Agenda 21. Water was a key resource singled out for attention and governments around the world have made a commitment to ecologically sustainable management of the resource. Australia is no exception and a number of processes are under way aimed at ensuring the sustainability of the country's limited water endowment. In recent years the Australian water industry has increasingly come under criticism as the perceived source of widespread resource degradationand extensive impairment of riverine environments. At the same time, growing demands for alternative uses of water have arisen for a wide range of environmental purposes. Addressing these criticisms and satisfying these demands have prompted moves for far-reaching adjustment to water allocation systems and a new approach to water management, a key component of which is the use of economic instruments to bring about change. Among measures introduced to improve water management are the encouragement of water markets and tradable water entitlements, and the rationalization of water pricing. These measures have had a mixed reception from water users, particularly in the irrigation sector, and have come under scrutiny with regard to their rationale and effectiveness in promoting efficiency and equity in rural water use. The challenge remains to identify the most appropriatemix of incentive-based and regulatory mechanisms for the management of Australia's water resources.     

Towards Poverty Alleviation: The Water Sector Perspectives

Given the context of diminishing water availability as a result of water pollution and inadequate development of water resources on the supply side and increasing population and expanding economic activity on the demand side, this paper reviews water-poverty interfaces and suggests ways of contributing to poverty alleviation through water sector interventions. The unequal distribution of the available water within communities and among various water users in the same country and across countries is discussed as a key issue in this context. The paper examines the causes of poverty with particular reference to the pattern of access to water supply as well as to water for various economic activities. It also considers water-related disasters such as flood, cyclone and riverbank erosion and their adverse human and natural consequences. Water deprivation is seen as both a state and a process--the former being the situation prevailing at a particular point of time and the later implying how that state has been reached and how may it evolve in future. The paper argues that the water crisis is primarily one of management, given the persisting traditional--sectorally focused and fragmented--approach. The appropriate alternative, it is argued, is integrated water resource management (IWRM), which is holistic in approach and focuses on the various uses of water and different categories of its users. It suggests ways of moving forward in terms of improved and participatory water development and management, which can contribute significantly to poverty alleviation. The second part of the paper highlights the National Water Policy of Bangladesh as a case study. The policy, adopted in 1999, broadly encompasses the various elements of IWRM. It enunciates principles and directions for water planning and utilization towards fulfilling the national goals of economic development, poverty alleviation, food security, public health and safety, decent standard of living of the people and protection of the natural environment. The policy has adopted a holistic approach and provided guidelines for participatory water management. The paper points out that a Bangladesh National Water Management Plan has been drafted within the framework of the National Water Policy with a view to improving water development and management so as to address human, economic and environmental needs of water, with special emphasis on the water needs of the poorer segments of society.     

Water security and the pursuit of food,energy, and earth systems resilience

ABSTRACT

This article addresses the emergence and interrelation of food, energy, and water security in terms of resource use and the ensuing societal and environmental outcomes. For decades, food security and energy security have been well-accepted, operational concepts. Water security is the latest entrant, yet the implications of water insecurity for food, energy and earth systems resilience have not been adequately considered. This article examines how and why this is so – particularly with growing water scarcity and insecurity that may compete with energy and food security – and emphasizes the critical need to link water-energy-food nexus approaches to earth systems resilience.     

Developing Purposeful and Adaptive Institutions for Effective Environmental Water Governance

Refashioning the institutions we use to manage and allocate water resources so as to provide for environmental water requirements has been a major element of the National Water Reform agenda in Australia since 1994, and represents a very significant potential innovation in the way water resources are managed. This essay addresses three central components of this institutional innovation: processes to reach an ecologically sustainable allocation of water resources; instruments to provide for and protect environmental water; and the development of management frameworks for rivers with environmental water regimes. The discussion explores the considerable constraints encountered in achieving institutions for effective environmental water allocation in the context of the Murray-Darling Basin, the major river basin in south-eastern Australia. Central to this discussion are fundamental questions of governance: who makes substantive decisions on water allocation and management; on what basis and for what purpose? What tools are developing to move towards desired outcomes? How effective are they within the broader institutional context? Given the incremental and, in many cases, ineffective implementation of environmental reform measures to date; and the additional uncertainties, complexities and urgencies posed by climate scenarios; this essay argues for a re-orientation of the policy agenda and its implementation, towards a more purposeful and adaptive governance model.     

The Impact of Institutional Path Dependence on Water Market Efficiency in Victoria,Australia

Water governance in Australia’s irrigation sector has undergone substantial change over the last three decades. In part, this change has been the result of a shift in intellectual thinking regarding the pricing and allocation of irrigation water with a move away from primary reliance on government to undertake these activities and a greater dependence on markets. Institutional change will be impacted on by the existence of institutional path dependence created by previous frameworks. Path dependence arises because actors are unable to predict the exact outcome of decisions made at different junctures in time. Individual decisions may be temporally remote but will impact the subsequent path of change as a result of lock-in. In turn, institutional path dependence may create some rigidity within new institutional arrangements. Evidence of current trading restrictions on Victorian water markets illustrates this outcome. These restrictions may not be permanent, but in the short-run they have limited, to some extent, the gains accruing from water trading.     

Integrated water and food analysis at the global and basin level. An application of WATERSIM

Several recent studies warn that under ‘Business-as-Usual’ a water crisis is impending, suggesting that appropriate actions need to be taken on the water supply and demand side. While many measures to alleviate water scarcity are within the water sector, it is increasingly recognized that many drivers, policies and institutions outside the water sector have large and real implications on how water is being allocated and used. Important drivers for water use include population and income growth, urbanization, trade and other macroeconomic policies, environmental regulations and climate policy. While some of these processes and trends, especially those at global level, may prove difficult to influence directly, it is important to understand their linkages with water issues to analyze the relative impact of various policies in the agricultural and water sectors on water and food security. The strong linkages between economic trends, agricultural policies and water use call for an integrated and multidisciplinary modelling approach. The WATERSIM model, developed by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) is a suitable tool to explore the impacts of water and food related policies on global and regional water demand and supply, food production and the environment. This paper introduces the WATERSIM model and, using some preliminary results, illustrates the importance of global economic trends on food and water outcomes.