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In this section you will find detailed information, including national overviews and state and regional level assessments, from the 2000-2002 National Land and Water Resources Audit theme assessments.
Water - Summary
Australian Water Resources Assessment 2000
Water is one of Australia?s most valuable natural resources. Australian Water Resources Assessment 2000 assesses the quantity, quality, use, allocation and management of our surface water and groundwater resources. As a part of this assessment and to provide information relevant for regionally based natural resources management, surface water resources have been divided into management areas, and groundwater resources into groundwater management units.
The detailed requirements for surface water management have meant that natural resource agencies have defined 325 surface water management areas for this assessment. These are based on the 246 river basins for Australia.
Groundwater systems may spatially overlay and interact with each other and reflect the various geological settings of the Australian landscape. Some 538 groundwater management units have been defined as part of this assessment.
Surface water quality monitoring systems provide information at specific locations. Data can then be aggregated back to the contributing catchment above the monitoring points to provide an overview of the status of water quality within each basin. Data collected during Australian Water Resources Assessment 2000 provide sufficient information to characterise the surface water quality of approximately 70 of Australia?s 246 river basins, generally those basins more intensively used.
Based on these spatial aggregations of Australia?s water resources, key findings of the National Land and Water Resources Audit?s Australian Water Resources Assessment 2000 include:
Australia?s surface water resources: 84 (26%) of 325 surface water management areas are either close to or overused when compared with sustainable flow regime requirements. These account for about 13 200 GL (a gigalitre is 1000 ML) or 55% of total water use in Australia and are the vast majority of Australia?s areas where water resource development is a viable option. Continued effort by Australia?s water resource managers to improve water use efficiency and ensure allocations to environmental purposes for these surface water management areas is essential. These highly and over-committed basins must continue to be given priority in surface water management activities and reassessed in terms of sustainability as additional information and improved methods and tools for determining ecological requirements become available.
Australia?s surface water quality: water quality data are limited, with between 67 and 75 out of Australia?s 246 river basins (about 28%) able to be assessed for any of the key variables- turbidity, nutrients or salinity. Sixty-five basins had major exceedances of State or Territory nominated surface water quality guidelines for nutrients, salinity or turbidity. Major nutrients exceedances were found to occur in 43 river basins, 61% of those able to be assessed. Major turbidity exceedances were found in 41 or 61% of the basins assessed. Major salinity exceedances were most prominent in basins within temperate south-western and south-eastern Australia particularly within the Murray-Darling and the South-West Coast Drainage Divisions and were found in 24 basins or 32% of the basins able to be assessed.
Australia?s groundwater resources: 161 (30%) of Australia?s 538 groundwater management units are either close to or overused when compared with their estimated sustainable yield. In terms of licences for abstraction, 168 groundwater management units are either fully allocated or over-allocated when compared with estimated sustainable yield. Substantially increased effort by Australia?s water resource managers is required to precisely define sustainable yield and improve management of Australia?s groundwater management units. Priority must continue to be given to the highly- and over-committed groundwater management units.
Australia?s water resource development: 241 surface water management areas and 265 groundwater management units are at low to medium levels of development. Many of these have limited capability for significant development-particularly the more arid basins of Australia. Development opportunities vary across Australia: in tropical Australia opportunities based on water capture (e.g. dams, bore fields, harvesting of overland flows) are still to be fully assessed and realised; in southern Australia development is approaching its extraction limits and caps are being introduced to finetune water use. Development opportunities in southern Australia, including much of New South Wales, South Australia, Victoria and Tasmania principally entail moving water to higher value uses through water trading and reallocating any water gained through water use efficiency measures.
Understanding water use: water use has increased to 24 000 GL (19 000 GL from surface water; 5000 GL from groundwater) in 1996/97 from 14 600 GL in 1983/84. This water use is equivalent to 47 times the volume of Sydney Harbour. The greatest increases by volume in water use are in New South Wales (3800 GL) and Queensland (2300 GL)-accounting for 25% of total annual water use. Water use and detailed knowledge of water use efficiency measures are often poorly recorded-31% of basins have no recorded use data. Of the water diverted for use on average only 77% actually reaches the customer with the remainder lost to seepage or evaporation. The percentage delivered varies between 41% and 100% and reflects delivery techniques ranging from open channels to fully piped reticulation systems. Water use and delivery efficiency, recycling, trading and pricing are increasingly becoming priorities and provide opportunities for development. To support and foster this shift in development emphasis, improved information on water use is essential.
An Australia-wide initiative in water resource management: water availability and quality are at the centre of economic development and environmental management for Australia. An Australia-wide initiative in partnership with State and Territory water management authorities could focus on improvements in groundwater characterisation, water use efficiency, increased and more scientifically based environmental water provisions, improvement to water quality monitoring and the understanding and managing of interactions between surface and groundwater quality and quantity.
Making information readily available: it is essential that Australia capitalise on the data collection investment of States, Territories and this Audit, and put in place Australia-wide assessment and reporting systems. This can be achieved through existing agencies, and centrally coordinated and updated through the Audit?s Australian Natural Resources Atlas. It will ensure Australia has access to contemporary water resources information-essential for natural resources decision making.
Table of Contents for the Australian Water Resources Assessment 2000
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