Water resource issues in the Lower Murray Darling Basin Dr John Tibby Senior Lecturer Geographical and Environmental Studies

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Presentation transcript:

Water resource issues in the Lower Murray Darling Basin Dr John Tibby Senior Lecturer Geographical and Environmental Studies

Murray Darling Basin Kundzewicz et al. in IPCC (2007)  Identified as key threatened system in global scale assessments

Key questions  Will a weir be built across the River Murray at Wellington?  Can it be justified in terms of the “natural” state of Lake Alexandrina

A weir: why?  Construct across bottom of River Murray to raise/maintain water levels upstream  Karlene Maywald, Water Security Minister, recently said a 30% chance of being built (The Australian, 6 th Aug)  Up from 10% last year

Australia is becoming warmer…  Most of the last 20 years have been warmer than average… Source:

And drier… Source:  Drying trend for last ~ 50 years

Predicted to get worse…  50% chance of 5% rainfall decline  Perhaps a 25% reduction in stream flow Source: % change

Water balance in MDB: 2006  Average natural flow to the sea: 14,000 GL:  Average irrigation extraction: 11,000 GL source: Ladson (2008) Open channel cotton irrigation near St George, southern Queensland

Water “users” in MDB in 2020  Canberra bushfire regrowth: 130 GL  Revegetation: GL/yr  Climate change: 1100 GL  Living Murray Initiative: 500 GL/year? source: adpated from Lawrie and Williams (2004) Revegetation near Myponga Reservoir, southern Fleurieu

Sth Australian use of Murray  Have a “guaranteed” allocation of 1850 GL 570 GL: irrigation 170 GL: domestic water (mainly Adelaide) 1110 GL: environment  Total storage volume in Basin: 2300 GL

Adelaide water balance  2003 water use: ~280 GL  Groundwater (bores): 6%  Rainwater tanks: <1%  Desalination plant: GL/year  average: 60% from Adelaide Hills catchments, 10% in drought years Mannum: Adelaide water offtake

Water level is going below offtakes…

So…  Will a weir at Wellington be constructed? My money is on “yes”  Can it be justified in terms of the environment?

Lake Alexandrina: naturally estuarine?  Many claim Lake Alex would have had regular marine incursions  Don’t have a time machine…  Not quite…

The answer is in the mud…

Lake Alexandrina diatoms Modified, with permission from Fluin et al. 2007, Hydrobiologia 591 Little marine incursion in 7000 yrs

In conclusion  Can’t justify letting in marine water in terms of naturalness  However can prevent other environmental problems  Now your questions… Swanport wetland, Murray Bridge

References  Fluin, J., Gell, P., Haynes, D., Tibby, J. and Hancock, G Palaeolimnological evidence for the independent evolution of neighbouring terminal lakes, the Murray Darling Basin, Australia. Hydrobiologia 591(1):  Ladson, A Hydrology-An Australian Introduction. South Melbourne, Oxford University Press.  Lawrie, K. and Williams, M.A.J Improving salinity hazard predictions by factoring in a range of human impacts in the context of climate change. In: I.C.Roach (ed.) Regolith 2004: Proceedings of the CRC LEME Regional Regolith Symposia, Cooperative Research Centre for Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration  Climate change in Australia:  The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 4 th Assessment Report: