Assessing impact of water allocation,...
URL: https://www.mdba.gov.au/sites/default/files/publications/assessing-synergies-in-water-allocation-environmental-social-economic-under-climate-change.pdf
Authors: Rebecca Lester, David Robertson, Joel Bailey, Georgia Dwyer, Galen Holt, Shokhrukh Jalilov, Ash Shokri and Muhammad Arif Watto
Date of publication: May/ June 2025
Freshwater resources need to simultaneously support environmental and economic outcomes, which is a critical challenge under climate change. Many environmental and economic outcomes have contrasting requirements for water, leading to difficult trade-offs that should be supported by integrated assessments.
This report analyses the impact of climate change and climate variability on water availability, ecological values and agricultural economic activity simultaneously in the Macquarie catchment in Australia and assesses the effect of plausible management adaptation options.
Key findings / recommendations:
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Under severe climate change, ecological outcomes were rarely met whilst the impact on economic outcomes was less severe; annual cropping reliant on low security water allocations was most vulnerable.
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Under more-likely moderate climate change, altering flow delivery patterns was as effective as altering the total licence volume of environmental water without adversely affecting agricultural benefits. Thus, environmental water management can potentially influence environmental outcomes, while core economic activities continue to be met.
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The findings emphasise the importance of adaptive management and integrated assessments to address the challenges posed by climate change on water resources in the Murray–Darling Basin.
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