Research to support water resources planning in the Murray-Darling Basin

Many hydrological models (GR4J, Sacramento and SIMHYD for example) currently exist to reproduce hydrological response at a catchment scale. Some models (IQQM, Source for example) also exist to assess the impacts of human interventions designed to in some way optimise the use of water in regulated river systems. There are however a much smaller number of models designed to assess the impacts of water resources management on socio-economics, the community and the environment more broadly.

A current program of work known as MD-WERP – the Murray-Darling Water and Environment Research Program, seeks to improve the understanding and representation of key processes in hydrological models used to underpin basin analysis and planning. We are working with policy makers and water managers in State and Federal government to apply these models to assess the impacts of water resource management options on hydrological, ecological and socio-economic outcomes in the Murray-Darling Basin. This will allow planners to consider a wide range of management options in the review and revision of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan that is scheduled for the next few years.

The vast majority of global and regional climate models, as well as understanding of changes in global and regional circulation patterns suggest a drier future for the Murray-Darling Basin with consequently more frequent and severe droughts. The management options to be assessed therefore are primarily those that minimise the impacts of drier conditions on the environment, irrigators and the Basin community, along with models that allow assessments of trade-offs between these disparate water users to be made.

The models that are required to assess these adaptation options need to be diverse, covering not only things such as changes in rainfall and hydrological response, but also climate adaptation options in river system operations, conjunctive use of groundwater and surface water, water trading and allocation, and consequent impacts on the environment, irrigators, basin communities and First Nations groups.

This presentation will provide an overview of MD-WERP with a focus on the climate adaptation and hydrology themes, assessing how modelling tools can be used to better inform Basin-wide water resources policy and planning.