Department for Environment and Water - Planning water for the…

Water for the environment planning is underpinned by scientific evidence and hydrological modelling. Cultural, social, economic and recreational values are also considered alongside environmental objectives.

Planning can be complex, as it needs to consider environmental goals at multiple levels, from local wetlands and waterways, to state-wide, to the whole Murray-Darling Basin.

Basin-wide strategy

The Basin-wide Environmental Watering Strategy supports environmental water holders, Basin state governments, water managers and river operators to plan and manage environmental watering at a Basin scale. It aligns environmental watering plans to long-term environmental objectives and is a key strategy that guides the planning and management of water resources under the Basin Plan.

The strategy provides for environmental outcomes along the River Murray and for the Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth.

Other important planning elements for all Basin states include long-term environmental watering plans, water resource plans, and annual environmental watering priorities. The South Australian plans and priorities are available below.

Long-term plans

Long-term watering plans (LTWPs) outline the long-term objectives and strategies to:

inform decisions on how water recovered under the Basin Plan should be prioritised and delivered
meet the watering requirements of environmental assets.

They also ensure water for the environment delivery aligns with the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) Environmental Watering Strategy and the Environmental Watering Plan (Chapter 8 of the Basin Plan).

Water resource plan areas

The South Australian LTWPs are divided into 3 water resource plan areas (WRPAs):

South Australian River Murray WRPA
Eastern Mount Lofty Ranges WRPA (includes the Marne Saunders Prescribed Water Resources Area)
South Australian Murray Region WRPA (covers groundwater and surface water in the remainder of the SA Murray-Darling Basin, including the Coorong and an extensive area north of the River Murray).

View a map of the water resource plan areas.

Annual plans

Annual watering priorities provide short-term local guidance on the actions needed to achieve long-term objectives. The planning for annual water delivery occurs between February and May each year.

As part of the planning process, the Department for Environment and Water (DEW) run a series of workshops with environmental water holders, scientific experts, First Nation peoples, non-government organisations and river operators. These workshops involve:

considering the water resource forecast for the year ahead
discussing watering events that may be possible with the volumes of water for the environment potentially available
reviewing modelling and ecological monitoring data for each site
beginning to develop watering proposals that aim to meet both site-specific and basin-wide targets.
Using scenario-based approaches that consider the variety of possible future water resource conditions such as climate outlook, storage levels, environmental conditions and water availability.

Following consultation and planning, DEW and the Murraylands and Riverland Landscape Board develop water for the environment proposals for the major South Australian sites and submit them to the MDBA Southern Connected Basin Environmental Watering Committee (SCBEWC) and the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder (CEWH).

The Basin Plan requires annual environmental watering priorities for each of the 3 South Australian water resource plan (WRP) areas to be identified for each year and submitted to the MDBA 31 May.

The MDBA then prepares the Basin Annual Environmental Watering Priorities, which contains a description of the various environmental priorities for the coming year.