Enhanced Environmental Water Delivery Project
South Australia, New South Wales and Victoria are the joint proponents of the Enhanced Environmental Water Delivery (EEWD) Project. The EEWD project is a multijurisdictional project aimed at improving the outcomes and efficiency of delivery of water for the environment. The project will build on the existing knowledge of environmental water managers and river operators to improve coordination of water for the environment delivery across the southern connected basin.
The EEWD project seeks to develop new forecasting and planning tools and streamlined processes for coordinated system wide river operations in the Southern Connected Basin, to maximise downstream and system-wide connectivity and enhance environmental outcomes.
Specifically, the EEWD project aims to:
- Coordinate environmental water releases across tributaries of the River Murray to maximise downstream and system-wide connectivity outcomes
- Align the release of held environmental water with regulated and unregulated flows to achieve a desired peak and/or duration for a flow event, to create a stronger biological stimulus in sync with environmental water requirements and climate signals
- Efficiently use increased delivery capacity (created via the implementation of constraints measures) to improve in-channel, floodplain/wetland connectivity and end-of-system outcomes
- Develop a multi-year, multi-location planning framework including low flows, regulated flow, unregulated flows, as well as the use of works and measures to maximise long-term environmental outcomes.
The first stage of the project will establish project management and governance arrangements that will be critical to the development of a comprehensive implementation plan. The implementation plan is to be guided by early investigations, data collection, technical reports and stakeholder input and is expected to be completed by June 2022.
