Basin‐scale environmental water delivery in the Murray–Darling, Australia: A hydrological perspective

A major outstanding challenge for environmental flow management is to move from a single site, reach or river focus to planning and delivering environmental flows across entire river basins. There is a need for case studies of basin‐scale environmental water delivery as a first step in understanding...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Freshwater biology 2018-08, Vol.63 (8), p.969-985
Main Authors: Stewardson, Michael J., Guarino, Fiorenzo
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aquatic ecosystems
Case studies
Catchment area
Ecosystems
environmental flow
Environmental management
Floodplains
flow regime
Governance
Hydrology
Pathogens
Protozoa
river basin
River basins
river restoration
Rivers
Water
Water delivery
wetland inundation
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:A major outstanding challenge for environmental flow management is to move from a single site, reach or river focus to planning and delivering environmental flows across entire river basins. There is a need for case studies of basin‐scale environmental water delivery as a first step in understanding and eventually generalising basin‐scale responses. The Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder manages a portfolio of water entitlements for protecting and restoring aquatic ecosystems of the Murray–Darling Basin (MDB). This article describes the strategies used by the water holder and the hydrological outcomes of their basin‐scale environmental water delivery program. There are five delivery strategies used to enhance benefits achieved with available environmental water. Although the volume of commonwealth environmental water is small relative to mean catchment inflows, improvements in baseflows and freshes are seen across the MDB. Water was also successfully delivered into floodplain wetlands. The case study provides a successful example of implementing a basin‐scale program for environmental water delivery. However, there remains a great need to improve the knowledge, governance and planning tools for managing environmental water for a broad range of ecological demands that operate at the basin‐scale.
ISSN:0046-5070
1365-2427
DOI:10.1111/fwb.13102