Effective water resource management requires the consideration of issues at stake within an appropriate coupled human-water systems context. In the case of the Murray-Darling Basin, societal sensitivities mean any approach to progress the management of the system must be defensible and socially acceptable under scrutiny from multiple perspectives (i.e. environmental, social, economic, and scientific). Integrated approaches allow us to elicit, connect and assimilate often-fragmented knowledge and information across sectors and disciplines, and with modelling processes to evaluate the consequences of management options.
We have applied an integrated approach to elicit and explore various conjunctive use options (i.e. managing surface water and groundwater collectively) in the Campaspe catchment. Through disciplinary research – including groundwater and surface water modelling, recharge studies, ecological and social research – and through integrated modelling processes, we have identified and explored the feasibility of conjunctive use options. The approach comprises six key components: 1) identifying issues and conjunctive use options through stakeholder workshops, 2) development of a feasibility assessment methodology for these options, 3) conceptual design of the integrated model, 4) design and development of component models, 5) software implementation of the integrated model and 6) evaluation of the options paying particular attention to uncertainties. The integrated modelling was designed for generating system understanding and management and decision support. It allows us to investigate the consequences of various possible futures, considering climate, water policy and irrigation opportunities on groundwater sustainability, farm profit, river ecology and recreational values.
In the presentation we describe the approach, and discuss the benefits: