Integrated Catchment Management

Key Elements

- Julie Burke

Integrated Catchment Management:

What is it?› Management of a watershed

› Taking account of all competing interests:

Economic use of land and water

Environmental concerns

Social and cultural uses and values

› Taking advantage of knowledge in all disciplines:

Water engineering, economics, ecology, agricultural studies, forestry, sociology etc

Integrated Catchment Management: Key Elements

› driving issues

› identification of assets to be protected

› mechanisms to manage trade-offs and processes to manage negotiations

› measurable and simple objectives set

› Assessment of scenarios against objectives

› clear roles, responsibilities and accountabilities

› capacity of partners to carry out roles

› mechanisms to monitor, evaluate and improve the approach

In the Murray-Darling Basin, the Driving Issues are

› Water sharing › Water quality › Riverine Ecosystem Health › Biodiversity

Basin assets in the Broad (Goals)

› Healthy Rivers

› Healthy Ecosystems

› Productive and Innovative Industries

› Healthy regional communities

Some Specific Basin assets

› Adelaide’s drinking water

› Barmah-Millewa Forest and Narran Lakes (Ramsar sites)

› Murray Irrigation Districts

› Lake Victoria (cultural site)

Canberra

Sydney

Brisbane

NEW SOUTH WALES

QUEENSLAND

VICTORIA

SOUTHAUSTRALIA

Melbourne

Swan Hill

MilduraMorgan

Menindee

MenindeLakes

LakeVi ctoria

Albury

Forbes

Dubbo

Moree

Charleville

Bourke

MurrayMurrumbidgie

Lachlan

Darling Macquarie

Border

Balonne

Barwon

Warrego

Adelaide

200 km

Murray Bridge

Managing Trade-offs

› Need to limit degradation of assets› MDB will set limits on degradation of:

» Water quantity and flow» Water quality» Riverine health» Biodiversity

› MDBC calls these limits “targets”› These targets are a numerical form of objective

against which all scenarios can be tested

1

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End of valley target at site 1Protects downstream

Within-valley target at site 3:Protects wetland ecosystem

Within-valley target at site 2:Protects irrigation water supply

Within-valley target at site 4:Protects town water supply

4Major Town

Major Wetland

Managing Trade-offs – Targets to protect assets

5. Management target for sub-catchment:Revegetation of 20% of sub-catchment area

Irrigation District

5

Achievement of the target is the OBJECTIVE Protection of the assets is the desired OUTCOME

Basin Basin objectiveobjective

Catchment Catchment objectivesobjectives

Assets identified and targets set at different scales

Basin -------------------------------- Commission

Catchment---------------------- States

Sub-catchment --------- CMOs

Scale determines who manages negotiations and agrees targets

Managing Negotiations

› Identify stakeholders relevant to the issues and the scale

› Involve them in setting of targets, scenario development and assessment

› Everyone must have access to the same information

Assigning Roles

› Assign and agree roles and responsibilities

› Ensure mechanisms for reporting against responsibilities to all stakeholders

› Accountability, not blame

Capacity Building

› Capacities must match roles and responsibilities

› Capacities include:› leadership› legal and institutional› financial › technical› knowledge base› cultural

Knowledge

Required at many stages› Assessment of concerns (audit)

› Understanding of processes and drivers (economic, environmental, social)

› Modeling of scenarios, including “do nothing”

› Monitoring and Evaluation

Monitoring and Evaluation

› Monitor progress towards Objectives and Outcomes

› Monitor and evaluate the PROCESS

› Inform all stakeholders

› Learn from successes and failures to inform future actions

› all decisions are “interim” and must be tested

Issues

Assets

Trade-offs

Measurable and simple objectives

Scenario Assessment