Water management options for urban and rural Australia

Overview

The Academy’s latest public lecture series, Water management options for urban and rural Australia, explores the role of science in understanding the location and amounts of water we have, in predicting how supply and demand may change into the future, and in developing technical responses and improved management techniques. It also examines situations where such information is being brought together to provide practical, environmentally responsible solutions.

Tuesday 7 December
Australian Water Reform – The Murray-Darling Basin Plan

Professor Barry Hart
Director of Water Science Pty Ltd
Emeritus Professor at Monash University

Australia has been undertaking major water reforms, in both urban and rural areas, for many years, with perhaps the largest change being the 2004 National Water Initiative. During 2010, the Academy has featured many presentations on aspects of these reforms.

The lecture covers the essential elements of the Basin Plan and will finish by discussion of major challenges for the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) in developing and implementing the Basin Plan.

Tuesday 2 November
Groundwater Challenges and Opportunities for Australia in the 21st Century

Professor Craig T. Simmons
Professor of Hydrogeology, Flinders University
Director, National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training

Groundwater is far more important to Australia than its national usage figures would suggest, making up 20% of total water use. This is due to its many important characteristics such as broad scale availability, interaction with surface waters and availability during drought, which means that it is and will continue to be a key water resource in much of Australia. However, groundwater must be better understood and more effectively managed.

Tuesday 5 October
The changing face of the urban water industry in the context of cities of the future

Mr Ross Young
Executive Director
Water Services Association of Australia

Climate uncertainty, population growth and sustainability are changing the Australian urban water industry. It is likely that in a decade the industry will be barely recognisable compared to today. Water resource planning will become an essential component of planning for our cities in the future, rather than an after thought.

Tuesday 7 September
Aboriginal knowledge and cultural values of water

Mr Bradley Moggridge
Indigenous Water Research Project Officer
CSIRO Land and Water

Australian Aboriginal people have survived on the driest inhabited continent on earth for many thousands of years. The term 'cultural flow' is increasingly being used to describe the water flow needed to ensure the maintenance of Aboriginal cultural and spiritual values. Further work is needed to clearly define a cultural flow, or unravel the differences/commonalities with environmental flows. With a lack of quantitative data on Aboriginal uses and values of water, it is difficult to allocate for Aboriginal water requirements. CSIRO has an ongoing and expanding interest in Aboriginal water management.

Tuesday 3 August 2010
The spin and economics of irrigation infrastructure policy in Australia

Professor Lin Crase
Professor of Applied Economics
Executive Director of Albury-Wodonga Campus
La Trobe University

The direction of water policy in Australia was fundamentally altered with the release of the Howard government’s National Plan for Water Security and the subsequent Rudd government’s Water for the Future manifesto. The major shift embodied in these policies was the return of public subsidy for irrigation infrastructure. This policy change was accompanied by a narrative that disguises important public policy ramifications – what some might call ‘spin’. Lin will explore this discourse with the view to make taxpayers and voters more aware of its pervasive nature. He also cautions against public subsidy of irrigation infrastructure as a panacea for dealing with the challenges associated with managing water in Australia.

Tuesday 6 July 2010
The Water Dance

Adjunct Professor Leith Boully
Chairman of the Lower Balonne Water Resources Ministerial Advisory Council

Dancing through water reform is also quite hard and is generating much emotion and debate. For much of the last decade many rural Australian’s have seen little water in motion and many people frenetically engaging in the great water dance of policy reform. Looking from the balcony we can see that the urban dance floors of the east have turned their back on the rural venues to the west of the Great Dividing Range. This talk will provide some reflections on the implications of having many dance floors, dances and dancers all vying for their favourite music.

Tuesday 1 June 2010
Recycling stormwater – new urban water supplies using aquifer recharge

Peter Dillon
CSIRO Land and Water, Waite Campus, Adelaide
CSIRO Water for a Healthy Country Flagship

Due to recent drought, stormwater and reclaimed water stored in aquifers are being used increasingly for urban irrigation, toilet flushing and industry. In rural areas river water and reclaimed water have also been stored in aquifers during the wet season to supply irrigation water in the dry season. This talk will explain why Australia is a world leader managed aquifer recharge, and the challenges that remain for its integration into urban water planning and infrastructure.

Tuesday 6 April 2010
Water reform in Australia

Ken Matthews
Chair and Chief Executive Officer
National Water Commission

The presentation will summarise progress in water reform in Australia over the last few years. A number of far-reaching recommendations by the National Water Commission to COAG will be described and suggestions will be made about improved water science arrangements for the future.

Tuesday 2 March 2010
Leveraging Australia’s water information

Dr Rob Vertessy
Deputy Director (Water)
Bureau of Meteorology

The lecture reports on the Australian Water Resources Information System that will significantly improve the accessibility and utility value of water information, and lead to improved water resource management outcomes. It discusses the preparation of a National Water Account, and the development of a new seasonal stream-flow forecasting service.

Tuesday 2 February 2010
Building water sensitive cities: From socio-technical path-dependency to adaptive governance

Associate Professor Rebekah Brown
School of Geography and Environmental Science, Monash University
Director, National Urban Water Governance Program
Foundation Director, Centre for Water Sensitive Cities

The notion of water sensitive Australian cities has featured in government policies in recent times but its strategic pathway remains largely undefined. The lecture draws upon recent insights from the fields of environmental governance and transitions management and considers how to advance water sensitive cities. The presentation also reviews the development of water resources policy and management across Australian cities over the last 150 years.

Tuesday 1 December 2009
Water as a limiting resource in dryland agriculture

Dr John Passioura FAA
Honorary Research Fellow
CSIRO Plant Industry

The lecture explores the prospects for substantially improving water-limited yields, with emphasis on Australia. While the challenges are great, major technological advances that are taking place provide cause for optimism. Advances in genetics are improving the ability of plant breeders to counter the threat of debilitating diseases and to cope better with water deficits. On-farm, the increasingly cheap monitoring of crops and soil are enabling farmers to manage their operations more effectively.

4 November 2009
Converging insecurities: The water, energy, carbon and food nexus

Andrew Campbell
Managing Director
Triple Helix Consulting

Recent modelling from the CSIRO suggests that the world will need to produce as much food over the next fifty years as it has in previous human history. All of the world’s great irrigated food bowls have fully- or over-committed their surface water and groundwater resources. Drawing on current work on a National Water Knowledge and Research Strategy for COAG, the lecture weaves together the threads of water, energy, carbon and food policy in an Australian context.

6 October 2009
Australia's water challenges

Dr Don Blackmore
AM FTSE Chairman, eWater CRC Chairman,
Advisory Council for CSIRO’s ‘Water for a Healthy Country’ Flagship

The drought in southern Australia combined with climate change has caused both rural and urban Australia to confront its water future. Australia has committed to ambitious and world leading water reforms. It is important for the response to these challenges to be integrated and coordinated across government policy and programs in partnership with industry and the community.