National assessment guidelines for dredging

source: Dept. of the Environment, Water, Heritage & the Arts
"A healthy marine environment is essential for Australia’s current and future well being. Australia has entered international agreements and implements legislation to help preserve marine ecosystems and prevent marine pollution. The international agreement relating to the dumping of wastes and other matter in Australian waters, including dredged material, is called the London Protocol. Australia implements its obligations under the London Protocol through the Commonwealth Environment Protection (Sea Dumping) Act 1981 (the Sea Dumping Act).Through the Sea Dumping Act, the Australian Government assesses proposals to load and dump wastes and other matter at sea, permits acceptable activities, and places conditions of approval, to mitigate and manage environmental impacts.The National Assessment Guidelines for Dredging set out the framework for the environmental impact assessment and permitting of the ocean disposal of dredged material."

Towards a systems-based approach to planning infrastructure

source: ECOS, no.149 (2009)
"ECOS issue 149 reports on a collaboration between Sustainable Ecosystems (CSE) and Queensland Water Infrastructure (QWI) to implement a systems-based approach to major infrastructure projects – starting with the Traveston Crossing Dam – aimed at reducing negative environmental and community impacts."

An atlas of the global water cycle

source: ANU E-Press
"What do climate models predict for the rainfall where you live? What about evaporation or runoff? Should your local community consider constructing new dams or do the existing water storages appear adequate? What about the availability of water for irrigation farming? Do the predictions differ between different climate models or do all the models basically predict the same changes in water availability where you live? The Atlas contains maps and tables that document model predictions contributed by international climate modelling groups to the 2007 4th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The predictions are made available here via the wonders of the internet and ongoing cooperation by the international climate modelling community who routinely archive their results. The maps and tables in the Atlas document rainfall, evaporation and runoff estimates for the 20th century along with predictions of the same quantities at the end of the 21st century."

Management of water produced by coal seam gas production

Source: Dept. of Infrastructure and Planning
"The Qld Govt says it will continue to work with industry to tackle the problem of disposing of heavily mineralised water produced as a by-product of coal-seam gas extraction.Feedback on a discussion paper that closed this month would be used to refine the policy on CSG water. The policy would ban using evaporation ponds for disposing of CSG water. The govt believed the water's salty nature meant it could cause environmental harm if released to land or water courses. If 10 gigalitres of CSG water were produced annually, after 30 years its salt content would be 7.5m tonnes. The spokesperson said the discussion paper had suggested industry establish a system to aggregate or transport treated CSG water for re-use, eg relieving demand on groundwater for irrigation. He said the govt would assess public and industry submissions and hoped to release an updated policy later this year."

Woodchipping our water

source: ACF
"This report, Woodchipping Our Water, assesses how the logging of mature forests in the Goulburn River catchment threatens the enormous water production and carbon
sequestration potential of the region. The Goulburn River is one of Australia’s most important and degraded river systems. It supplies water to many regional towns and cities, including Shepparton, Bendigo and Ballarat. The Goulburn also supports Victoria’s major irrigation industries and its flows are vital to the health of the Murray River system. The report finds that if logging in the study area stopped tomorrow, an additional water yield of 3,807 gigalitres would be delivered into the Goulburn River over the next 100 years. This is more than six times Melbourne’s annual average water use and around 165 times the amount of water the City of Bendigo uses in a single year. The economic value of this water would be $1.68 billion."

Pulsed flows: environmental costs and benefits and best practice

Source: National Water Commission
"This report examines whether pulsed flows achieve ecological benefits, and if so, how they might be implemented in river management. The report presents a review of the literature on the environmental costs and benefits of pulsed flows. Examples of current practice in pulsed flow methodology and an examination of existing plans that incorporate such flows help determine whether appropriate monitoring and evaluation frameworks exist within those plans. The report concludes by discussing prospective best practices for pulsing flows and areas where future work, such as experimental and observational studies, would be beneficial."

Transitioning to water sensitive cities

Source: International Water Centre
"This report summarises the key findings, issues and actions arising from five national capacity building and leadership workshops on Transitioning to Water Sensitive Cities in Australia The five workshops, each of two days, were held in each of the state capitals during February 2009. A further workshop was held in Canberra in May 2009 to report on the findings of the state capital workshops and to facilitate a faster take-up of water sensitive cities projects and initiatives."

National Water Commission water dictionary

Source: National Water Commission
"The Water Dictionary is a consolidated and authoritative Australia-wide dictionary of water terminology to assist the community to understand the definitions used in the National Water Initiative (NWI) and its jurisdictional variations. The water dictionary contains definitions of specific water terms and acronyms. Either search for a particular water term or browse the entire dictionary. The dictionary also displays state specific or jurisdictional terms on entitlements and trade terminology. Use the jurisdictional tabs within the dictionary to compare terms between states."

Australian drinking water guidelines: revised Chap.8

source: National Health and Medical Research Council
"The Australian Drinking Water Guidelines have recently been updated with the revision of Chapter 8: Drinking Water Treatment Chemicals, and the associated 34 fact sheets. The complete Guidelines are provided in a newly bookmarked version."

Water levels dropping in some major rivers

Source: National Center for Atmospheric Research
"Rivers in some of the world's most populous regions are losing water, according to a new comprehensive study of global stream flow. The study, led by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), suggests that in many cases the reduced flows are associated with climate change. The process could potentially threaten future supplies of food and water. The results will be published May 15 in the American Meteorological Society's Journal of Climate. The research was supported by the National Science Foundation, NCAR's sponsor. The scientists, who examined stream flow from 1948 to 2004, found significant changes in about one-third of the world's largest rivers. Of those, rivers with decreased flow outnumbered those with increased flow by a ratio of about 2.5 to 1."

Cave Review: competition and innovation in water markets

Source: DEFRA (UK)
"The final report by Professor Martin Cave into competition and innovation in water markets sets out the challenges and opportunities facing the industry. It also recommends measures for increasing competition and innovation to benefit customers and the economy by up to £2.5 billion over 30 years and deliver considerable environmental and service improvements."

Two decades of Murray-Darling water management: a river of funding, a trickle of achievement

source: Agenda, vol.16,no.1 (2009)
"The paper appraises the myriad of Murray-Darling Basin-related policies since the early 1990s. It contends that significant environmental improvements could have been achieved at substantially lower cost had decisive action been taken earlier. If the total expenditures in the last two decades had been put solely towards water entitlement buy-backs, an amount of water several times that necessary to significantly improve the health of the Basin would have been acquired."

National performance report 2007-08: urban water utilities

source: National Water Commission
"The report is based on the principles of comparability, accuracy and consistency, and spans all critical performance areas of water resources - health, customer service, asset management, environmental, finance and pricing. The report includes information from 82 water utilities that supply approximately 16.8 million Australians with their urban water services."

Ecohydrological regionalisation of Australia

Source: Land & Water Australia
"This report is a result of the Ecohydrological regionalisation of Australia project. The project classified Australia’s unregulated riverine flow regimes to provide a rigorous foundation for future ecological investigations of the importance of the flow regime, testing of scenarios associated with projected future climate change and application to management of the nation’s water resources."

Enzyme product removes pesticides from water

Source: CSIRO
"CSIRO has developed an enzyme-based product that can rapidly degrade pesticide residues. This bioremediation solution reduced organophosphate levels in cotton irrigation wastewater by 90 per cent within 10 minutes and in used sheep dip by 99 per cent within 30 minutes."

Thirsty energy: water and energy in the 21st century

Source: World Economic Forum
"The report explores the risks and opportunities inherent in the ancient relationship between energy and water, which has taken on a new urgency as competition for finite freshwater resources rises. Water is critical to energy production, yet the water/energy nexus is often overlooked."

Managed aquifer recharge: an introduction

source: National Water Commission
"The report explains managed aquifer recharge, offers a description of the diverse drivers for MAR and presents new information on the economics of MAR in relation to alternative sources of supply. The authors deal with how to establish a MAR project, outline considerations for government regulators and look at MAR opportunities in an integrated urban water management context. The report highlights the barriers to the wider adoption of MAR. These include lack of certainty around rights and entitlements, and the need for clear and nationally consistent assessment and approval approaches."

Climate change and water resources management: a federal perspective

Source: U.S. Geological Survey
"The purpose of this interagency report prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is to explore strategies to improve water management by tracking, anticipating, and responding to climate change. This report describes the existing and still needed underpinning science crucial to addressing the many impacts of climate change on water resources management."

RAMSAR snapshot study final report

Source: Dept. of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts
"A snapshot report into the management of Australia's Ramsar wetlands up to the end of 2007 paints a damning picture of poor administration and inaction under the previous government, Environment Minister Peter Garrett said today. The Ramsar Snapshot Study Report looks at the status and management of all 65 Australian Ramsar sites and assesses the completeness and currency of Ramsar site documentation for Australian Ramsar sites."

National urban water and desalination plan: implementation guidelines

Source: Dept. of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts.
"The Fed Govt has released guidelines for projects seeking financial support under its National Urban Water and Desal Plan. The $1bn, six-year plan was announced last April as part of the govt's water for the future scheme (EM 669). It provides subsidies of up to $100m for the capital cost of eligible projects, eg. desal, water recycling or stormwater capture systems."