1. Umbrella Environmental Assets: establishing environmental water requirements in the Murray-Darling Basin
Matt O’Brien
Murray-Darling Basin Authority, Australia
Ross Thompson
University of Canberra, Australia

2. Outline Context Umbrella Environmental Assets
Murray-Darling Basin and Basin Plan
Environmental water requirements at large spatial scales
Umbrella Environmental Assets
Opportunities to improve approach

3. It supports over 3 million people
Generates about $19 billion per year in agricultural produce
Important recreational and cultural areas including more than 40 Aboriginal Nations

5. Evidence of environmental decline – 2008 Sustainable Rivers Audit

6. Basin Plan

7. 30,000 wetlands
77,000 km watercourses
95 threatened sp.
16 Ramsar wetlands

8. Umbrella Environmental Assets
Can’t assess whole Basin – lack of data/knowledge/research
Hydrological connectivity – watering one environmental asset will water many
UMBRELLA ENVIRONMENTAL ASSETS (UEAs)

9. What is an UEA?
Information-rich areas with high environmental values used to represent the water requirements of a broader river reach or valley

10. Umbrella Environmental Asset approach
SPATIAL PRIORITISATION (VALLEY SCALE)
SELECTION OF UEAs (WITHIN VALLEY)
ENVIRONMENTAL
OBJECTIVES
FLOW COMPONENTS REQUIRED TO ACHIEVE ENVIRONMENTAL OBJECTIVES

11. Spatial prioritisation
Impacted by flow regulation
Contribution to water resource
Environmental water requirement assessments already available

12. Hydrologic alteration
PROTECT
Increasing flow modification

13. Selecting UEAs High ecological value Representative
water requirements
spatially
Significant flow alteration
Availability of data

14. UEAs in Murray-Darling Basin
Gwydir wetlands
Hattah Lakes
Macquarie Marshes
Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth
Barmah-Millewa Forest

15. Defining UEA water requirements
UEA environmental objectives
Assess EWRs focussing on flow regime components required to support environmental values

16. Reinstate ecologically significant components of the flow regime

17. Opportunities EWR knowledge is continually improving
UEA representativeness

18. Take-home messages Knowledge will always be uneven and incomplete
UEAs provide a way to deal with imperfect knowledge
The application of a standard approach is a significant step forward in large river basin management

19. Acknowledgements Murray-Darling Basin Authority
Jody Swirepik, Ian Neave, Gavin Pryde
Murray-Darling Freshwater Research Centre
Ian Burns
University of Canberra
Fiona Dyer