A review of the risks to shared water resources in the Murray–Darling Basin

ABSTRACT

Risks to shared water resources in the Murray–Darling Basin are reviewed after the report by CSIRO on the same topic in 2006. CSIRO outlined six major risks to shared water resources in the Basin. Herein, six groups of researchers have reviewed the risks of climate change, forest growth, groundwater, water infrastructure, water quality, and governance. These reviews bring an updated understanding of risk assessment and management that can contribute to the forthcoming reviews of the Water Act and Basin Plan in 2024–26. Drawing on these six papers, the authors synthesise knowledge of the risks to shared water resources and identify policy and management options and information gaps. We find that few risk factors have decreased in significance. Most risks remain and new risks are identified. Water managers must plan for a significant decrease in water availability and governments need to actively manage these risks under conditions of increasing uncertainty.

KEYWORDS:

• Climate change
• forests
• governance
• infrastructure
• risk
• water

Acknowledgements

We thank Prof. Katherine Daniell, editor, Australasian Journal of Water Resources for supporting our proposal for this special issue and to all authors who have contributed to it. We appreciate the insightful advice from two anonymous reviewers that has enhanced this paper.

Disclosure statement

Jamie Pittock is a member, and Matthew Colloff and associate, of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists. No other potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary Materials

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/13241583.2023.2190493.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jamie Pittock

Jamie Pittock (BSc, Monash; PhD, ANU) is a Professor in the Fenner School of Environment and Society at The Australian National University. His research from 2007 has focussed on better governance of the interlinked issues of water management, energy and food supply, responding to climate change and conserving biological diversity. Jamie directs research programs on irrigation in Africa, hydropower and food production in the Mekong region, and sustainable water management in the Murray-Darling Basin.

Samantha Corbett

Samantha Corbett is a research officer at the Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University and works on Indigenous sustainable development.

Matthew J. Colloff

Matthew J. Colloff is an Honorary Senior Lecturer at the Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University. His research interests include adaptation to climate change, water reform, ecosystem ecology and natural resources policy and management. He is a founder member of the Transformative Adaptation Research Alliance.

Paul Wyrwoll

Paul Wyrwoll is a Research Fellow in the Resources, Environment and Development Program at the Crawford School of Public Policy and a Fellow at the Institute for Water Futures, Australian National University. His applied research in environmental and resource economics examines how human societies manage water across uses, users, geographies, and time.

Jason Alexandra

Jason Alexandra works at the Institute for Climate, Energy & Disaster Solutions at the Australian National University researching water governance and climate adaptation.

Sara Beavis

Sara Beavis is a Senior Lecturer at the Fenner School of Environment and Society at the Australian National University with a background in engineering geology and has focused her research on the impacts of natural and anthropogenic processes on river systems, particularly with respect to water quality and water security. She is a Fellow of the Geological Society of London.

Kate Chipperfield

Kate Chipperfield is formerly of the Environmental Defenders Office freshwater team and is currently a practising corporate lawyer based in Brisbane. Kate also holds an economics degree from the University of Queensland.

Barry Croke

Barry Croke is an Associate Professor at the Australian National University. His research focuses on hydrological and integrated modelling of water resources, with a particular focus on understanding uncertainty in observations and model predictions and the implications these have for management of resources. He is currently the president of the International Commission on Water Resources Systems in the International Association of Hydrological Sciences.

Patrick Lane

Patrick Lane is a Professor of Forest Hydrology in the School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences. His research interests include the ecohydrology of natural and disturbed forests, streamflow dynamics and erosion processes. He has a particular interest in the effect of fire and climate variability on forest functioning and hydrology.

Andrew Ross

Andrew Ross is an Honorary Research Fellow at the Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University. Andrew is a specialist on integrated groundwater and surface water management, managed aquifer recharge, environmental governance, water policy and economics. He is leader of the International Association of Hydrogeologists’ working group on the economics of managed aquifer recharge.

John Williams

John Williams, FTSE, is a hydrologist and soil scientist. He is currently an Honorary Professor at the Crawford School of Public Policy at the Australian National University. He is a former Chief of CSIRO Land and Water and the former Commissioner of the NSW Natural Resources Commission. John is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering and holds the Farrer Memorial Medal for achievement and excellence in agricultural science.