As part of a broad process of improvement to South Australia’s water planning and management system, efforts have been made by the Department for Environment, Water and Natural Resources (DEWNR) to survey and synthesize the current approaches to setting extraction limits within groundwater management areas. Setting a volumetric limit safeguards the water property rights system in South Australia, and is based on defining acceptable levels of risk to the groundwater resource and associated users. The review of current technical approaches has provided recommendations that can be incorporated into DEWNR’s forward work-plan for water planning, facilitating well-planned and efficient use of public funds. Specifically, a number of technical studies recently completed for the Barossa, Adelaide Plains, and Tatiara groundwater resources have highlighted the increasing use of the Resource Condition Limit (RCL) approach. This is due to the increased need to address the uncertainties that arise from the water-balance approach that has been extensively used, and to evaluate the likely impact of climate change projections. The review also highlights the potential of the RCL approach for a greater level of community engagement in the process of capping extraction from an area and in managing extractions accordingly.