News Latest News Government Responds to Northern Australia Taskforce with Project Investment
Government Responds to Northern Australia Taskforce with Project Investment
In response to the recommendations of the recently published Northern Australia Land and Water Taskforce report, the Australian Government has announced an investment of $2.4 million in two new projects designed to increase understanding of northern Australia's rivers and water resources, and guide land and water resource planning. Both of these projects will have direct application to water planning in Northern Australia, and implications for planning across the country. The two projects have been funded as part of the Australian Government's response to the Final Report of the Northern Australia Land and Water Taskforce and will be administered under the under the National Water Commission's $250 million Raising National Water Standards Program.
According to the Minister for Water:
These two projects will help to ensure that future water resource development across northern Australia is environmentally, culturally and economically sustainable [and] are in line with recommendations in the Report which call for increased government investment in measures that support water use planning and local decision making.
Project 1: Water-related sociocultural values, beliefs and practices in northern Australia
The project will identify socio-cultural values, beliefs and practices as they relate to water in catchments identified by jurisdictions as likely to experience water resource development. It follows directly from the recommendations of the Northern Australia Land and Water Taskforce by providing social, cultural and economic analysis to support the assessment of competing values and uses for land and water use planning, catchment level water planning and local decision making. It also draws from a Review of existing cultural and social initiatives, and key groups and organisations across northern Australia associated with water undertaken by the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts in 2009. The project will deliver improved understanding of socio-cultural values, beliefs and practices, the water regime required to maintain them, and the potential impact of any changes to these flow regimes. More information on this project is available here.
Project 2: Assessing the likely impacts of development on aquatic ecological assets in Northern Australia
The Northern Australia Water Futures Assessment (NAWFA) is a multidisciplinary program being delivered jointly by the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts and the National Water Commission. The objective is to provide an enduring knowledge base to inform decisions about development and protection of northern Australia's water resources, so that any development proceeds in an ecologically, culturally and economically sustainable manner.
This project will contribute to the NAWFA program by improving our understanding of water-dependent ecological assets across northern Australia and the risks to those assets arising from hydrologic changes due to water resource development or climate change. The project also contributes to the recommendation made by the Northern Australia Land and Water Taskforce in its final report by increasing investment in climate, water, land and environment data collection and analysis to support land and water use planning, catchment level water planning and local decision making. This project builds on the Northern Australian Water Futures Assessment Ecological Program project.
For those aquatic ecological assets identified most at risk, the project will: describe the surface and groundwater regimes and ecological processes, assess the likely impacts (including cumulative) of possible development and climate change, and identify thresholds of ecological concern and a framework for monitoring and reporting change against these thresholds. By improving environmental data analysis, project outcomes will support land and water use planning, catchment level water planning and local decision making.
More information on this project is available here.
