Scientists Release Nine Step Proposal for Improved Water Planning

Last week, more than 30 of Australia's leading freshwater scientists and ecologists released a statement of principles for what they called "a once-in-a-life time opportunity to restore the ailing Murray-Darling Basin".

Although the statement expressed qualified support for the Basin Plan, the signatories to what they call the "scientific consensus statement" outline nine principles for the development of the Basin Plan, if it is to achieve its dual ambition: the restoration of an equitable and long-term sustainable balance between water for human use and the environment, and the reversal of the much publicised degradation of the Basin's riverine ecosystems. Although directed at the Basin Plan specifically, these principles can be usefully applied to water planning and management initiatives across the country.

Nine Principles for Water Planning

Flow connectivity needs to be a focus for management, because it is crucial for recovery and maintenance of floodplain river ecosystems, and because streams, wetlands and woodlands cannot be managed in isolation. Rather than managing for the protection of specific (or icon) sites, or managing the river as a delivery system for water to those sites, planning must be primarily geared towards maintaining the flow of waters to ensure a healthy estuary, through which sediment, salt and nutrients are exported to the sea.
Management should have ecological targets because ecosystems provide fundamental support for the economy, and not vice versa.
Due to climate change and long-standing climate variability, ensuring adaptability is essential now and in future, in contrast to our inflexible past demands for water and the slow responses of our water institutions. Water planning should adopt an ‘adaptive management’ framework where governance, planning and monitoring are combined in a partnership between all stakeholders.
Environmental assets should not be isolated sites, or species, but intact systems that truly represent biological and physical diversity within regions. They need to be connected with other assets periodically, through flows.
Diversion limits should be implemented to protect floodplain?river ecosystems, with management tools that can be adjusted to accommodate changes in climate. This should be coupled with the need to significantly increase environmental flows.
A common language is needed through standardisation of terms, measurements and values, and coordination of information management.
Reviewing and recording uncertainty are important, as the Basin Plan inevitably will require technical assumptions and provisional judgements about hydrological, ecological and socio-economic factors. Reassessing these assumptions and judgments is the key to an adaptive management regime.
Land and water must be managed together, and changes to the landscape as a result of water re-allocation are linked, complementary and should be planned, monitored and managed together.
Invest in long-term research and monitoring, so that future and ongoing management will continually improved by expanding knowledge about the environment. This could be supported by a scholarship scheme to encourage trainee scientists and managers to develop skills and contribute to the investigations needed to underpin policy and management.

In the Press

A number of the signatories to the statement were quoted throughout the Australian media. Professor Richard Kingsford, Director of the Australian Wetlands and Rivers Centre, University of NSW:

We've given up too much water in those rivers. We're seeing major problems in terms of dying flood plain eucalypts, native fish [populations] going backwards. If we're going to get away from that we need to put more water back in the rivers. We really have to get this right. We owe it to the Australian people and to the Basin's environment. We know the rivers are considerably over-allocated, so further limits on diversions are essential. But these can be delivered in many ways, such as sustainable diversion limits, end-of-system targets and management of low flows. There has never been a time when water has been more important as an issue for society and the environment. We need to be constantly learning and thinking about innovative ways of managing our rivers and our future generations need a leg-up to make this happen.

Adjunct Associate Professor Keith Walker of the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at The University of Adelaide:

Rivers and their floodplains are ecosystems connected by flow. Flowing water transports sediment, salt and nutrients, and connects the habitats of all plant and animals. Without adequate flow, the system would collapse.

Professor Max Finlayson, Director of the Institute for Land, Water and Society, Charles Sturt University:

Australia has international responsibilities for maintaining the ecological character of the Ramsar wetlands in the Basin yet most of them are in decline. The Basin Plan is a significant opportunity to tackle this major issue and reverse the neglect of the past.

To see the full statement and list of signatories, download the Scientific Consensus Statement on the Upcoming Murray-Darling Basin Plan here.