Water sharing for the environment and agriculture in the Broken catchment

The Commonwealth of Australia Water Act 2007 changed the priority for water use in the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) to first ensure environmentally sustainable levels of extraction and then to maximise net economic returns to the community from water use. The Murray- Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) is expected to deliver a draft Basin Plan in 2011 providing a framework for future water planning. The Plan will include Sustainable Diversion Limits (SDLs) which define water diversions for consumption while maintaining environmental assets and ecosystem functions. The 2009 MDBA Concept Statement acknowledged that in some areas less information is available to determine the SDLs. The 2010 MDBA Guide to the Basin Plan proposed SDLs reducing the current long-term average surface water diversions to between 25 and 34% for the Goulburn-Broken region. Representative farm-level models of irrigated dairy, horticulture and viticulture, and dryland broadacre, industries were developed to determine the likely impacts on farm income and farm enterprise mix if the price and quantity of irrigation water changes. Water for ecological benefits and ecosystem functioning was determined for a range of river health levels using a bottom-up approach identifying flow requirements for fish, riparian vegetation, invertebrates, and geomorphic and nutrient processes. A novel part of the analysis is the conjunctive use of water for both purposes, e.g. wetland filling and then pumping for irrigation. The linkages between changed land use and surface/ground water outcomes are assessed using a Catchment Analysis Tool. An experimental design of different proportions of water going to the environment and consumptive uses showed potential trade-offs between agricultural, environmental and surface/ground water outcomes. These trade-offs were examined to assess the impact of alternative water management on catchment welfare, and provide information about setting SDLs.Water sharing, environment, agriculture, Murray-Darling Basin, Broken catchment, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy, Q18, Q25, Q28,

Decision support systems for large dam planning and operation in Africa

Decision support systems/ Dams/ Planning/ Operations/ Social impact/ Environmental effects

Hydronomic zones for developing basin water conservation strategies

Water conservation / River basins / Groundwater / Case studies / Irrigation / Water management / Water use efficiency / Sri Lanka / India / Egypt / Turkey / Kirindi Oya / Nile River / Bhakra Irrigation System / Gediz Basin

A Risky Climate for Southern African Hydro

This in-depth study of the hydrological risks to hydropower dams on the Zambezi River gives an early warning about what Southern Africa could be facing as it contemplates plans for more large hydropower dams in a time of climate change.Currently, 13,000 megawatts of new large-dam hydro is proposed for the Zambezi and its tributaries. The report finds that existing and proposed hydropower dams are not being properly evaluated for the risks from natural hydrological variability (which is extremely high in the Zambezi), much less the risks posed by climate change.Overall, Africa's fourth-largest river will experience worse droughts and more extreme floods. Dams being proposed and built now will be negatively affected, yet energy planning in the basin is not taking serious steps to address these huge hydrological uncertainties. The result could be dams that are uneconomic, disruptive to the energy sector, and possibly even dangerous.The report recommends a series of steps to address the coming storm of hydrological changes, including changes to how dams are planned and operated

An assessment of environmental flow requirements of Indian river basins

River basins / Environmental flows / Assessment / Hydrology / Ecology / Ecosystems / Water allocation / Water requirements / Time series / India

Water requirements of floodplain rivers and fisheries: existing decision support tools and pathways for development

Fisheries / Rivers / Flood plains / Hydrology / Ecology / Models / Decision support tools / Environmental impact assessment / Methodology / Databases

Adaptive management of Ramsar wetlands

Abstract The Macquarie Marshes are one of Australia’s iconic wetlands, recognised for their international importance, providing habitat for some of the continent’s more important waterbird breeding sites as well as complex and extensive flood-dependent vegetation communities. Part of the area is recognised as a wetland of international importance, under the Ramsar Convention. River regulation has affected their resilience, which may increase with climate change. Counteracting these impacts, the increased amount of environmental flow provided to the wetland through the buy-back and increased wildlife allocation have redressed some of the impacts of river regulation. This project assists in the development of an adaptive management framework for this Ramsar-listed wetland. It brings together current management and available science to provide an informed hierarchy of objectives that incorporates climate change adaptation and assists transparent management. The project adopts a generic approach allowing the framework to be transferred to other wetlands, including Ramsar-listed wetlands, supplied by rivers ranging from highly regulated to free flowing. The integration of management with science allows key indicators to be monitored that will inform management and promote increasingly informed decisions. The project involved a multi-disciplinary team of scientists and managers working on one of the more difficult challenges for Australia, exacerbated by increasing impacts of climate change on flows and inundation patterns

Integrated Systems Modeling to Improve Watershed Habitat Management and Decision Making

Regulated rivers provide opportunities to improve habitat quality by managing the times, locations, and magnitudes of reservoir releases and diversions across the watershed. To identify these opportunities, managers select priority species and determine when, where, and how to allocate water between competing human and environmental users in the basin. Systems models have been used to recommend allocation of water between species. However, many models consider species’ water needs as constraints on instream flow that is managed to maximize human beneficial uses. Many models also incorporate uncertainty in the system and report an overwhelmingly large number of management alternatives. This dissertation presents three new novel models to recommend the allocation of water and money to improve habitat quality. The new models also facilitate communicating model results to managers and to the public. First, a new measurable and observable habitat metric quantifies habitat area and quality for priority aquatic, floodplain, and wetland habitat species. The metric is embedded in a systems model as an ecological objective to maximize. The systems model helps managers to identify times and locations at which to apply scarce water to most improve habitat area and quality for multiple competing species. Second, a cluster analysis approach is introduced to reduce large dimensional uncertainty problems in habitat models and focus management efforts on the important parameters to measure and monitor more carefully. The approach includes manager preferences in the search for clusters. It identifies a few, easy-to-interpret management options from a large multivariate space of possible alternatives. Third, an open-access web tool helps water resources modelers display model outputs on an interactive web map. The tool allows modelers to construct node-link networks on a web map and facilitates sharing and visualizing spatial and temporal model outputs. The dissertation applies all three studies to the Lower Bear River, Utah, to guide ongoing habitat conservation efforts, recommend water allocation strategies, and provide important insights on ways to improve overall habitat quality and area

Using CASIMIR-Vegetation model in the context of modeling riparian woods and fish species to support a holistic approach for environmental flows to be used on river management and conservation

The CASiMiR-vegetation model is a software that recreates the physical processes influencing the survival and recruitment of riparian vegetation, based on the relationship between ecologically relevant flow regime components and riparian vegetation metrics that reflect the vegetation’s responses to flow regime change. Working at a flow response guild level, this tool outperforms equivalent models by overriding various restrictions of the conventional modeling approaches. The potential of the CASiMiR-vegetation model is revealed in its application to different case studies during the development of a holistic approach to determine environmental flows in lowland Mediterranean rivers, based on woody riparian vegetation and fish species. Various modeling circumstances are described where CASiMiR-vegetation model was used with the purpose of sustaining the research addressing the thesis objectives. The main findings already accomplished in this research are highlighted to illustrate the outcomes that can be attained from the use of such a model