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Economics - Werribee River

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Werribee River

What was included in the economic assessment of Australia's natural resource base?

New data sets have been developed through the National Land and Water Resources Audit that relate to economic aspects of natural resource management in Australia. There is a focus on resources used to support agriculture and resources impacted by agriculture. The Australia-wide report provides:

• An overview of the economic returns from the Nation's land and water resources used in agriculture;
• An agricultural or within pa.gifk perspective on economic aspects of salinity, sodicity and acidity;
• A "beyond the farm gate" perspective on impacts of agriculture on local infrastructure and downstream water users;
• Information on willingness to pay to slow rural population decline and improve environmental attributes that are not part of the market for agricultural products;
• An overview of how the databases developed for this project are organised and observations about ways they can be developed further to assist decision makers.

Consistent with protocols used by the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics, the database provides a new capacity to integrate natural resource information in Australia. The data sets are primarily built for the 1996/97 financial year, the year of an agricultural census. Except where stated otherwise, all dollar values given are in 1996/97 dollars.

Most of the data is represented on a 1km by 1km grid covering agricultural land. Whilst modelled at this level of spatial detail interpretation should generally occur at coarser levels. Data on downstream infrastructure costs of deteriorating water quality has been assembled by river basin.

Context for understanding the natural resource accounts for Werribee River

Attribute	Unit	Basin value	Median Australia-wide value
Total basin area	ha	197,135	909,531
Non-agricultural area	ha	72,040	299,341
Agricultural area	ha	125,094	477,706
Irrigated agricultural area in 1996/97	ha	4,104	2,458
Dryland agricultural area in 1996/97	ha	120,990	468,383

Agricultural profit in Werribee River

Attribute	Unit	Basin value	Median Australia-wide value
1996/97 Gross revenue	$000	50,486	27,636
1996/97 Variable costs	$000	19,862	8,654
1996/97 Fixed costs	$000	25,451	12,744
1996/97 Profit at full equity	$000	5,173	2,621
1996/97 Government Support	$000	3,380	1,827
1996/97 Economic returns	$000	1,793	707
5yr (1992/93 - 1996/97) Gross revenue	$000	57,941	31,139
5yr (1992/93 - 1996/97) Total costs	$000	45,673	23,408
5yr (1992/93 - 1996/97) Profit at full equity	$000	12,269	6,194
Irrigated agriculture 5yr profit at full equity	$000	16,186	4,226
Dryland agriculture 5yr profit at full equity	$000	-3,917	2,817
Minimum area of basin needed to produce 80% of profit at full equity within basin	ha	684	16,340
Ranking of basin in order of contribution to national 1996/97 profit at full equity	#	118	no data

Costs of resource use to agriculture in Werribee River

Attribute	Unit	Basin value	Median Australia-wide value
Area where NPV of lime application is positive	ha	881	7,265
Area where NPV of gypsum application is positive	ha	7,237	2,013
Area where NPV of lime and gypsum application is positive	ha	3,910	1,496
Area where dryland salinity caused yield loss in 2000	ha	438	1,015
Area where dryland salinity may cause yield loss in 2020	ha	8,389	1,702
Gross benefit from ameliorating acidic soils	$000	6,933	1,232
Gross benefit from ameliorating sodic soils	$000	6,454	666
Gross benefit from ameliorating saline soils	$000	12	152
Limiting factor gross benefit	$000	10,018	2,422
Impact cost of dryland salinity to agriculture from 2000 to 2020	$000	1,011	48
Present value of dryland salinity impact cost to agriculture from 2000 to 2020	$000	5,611	266
Net present value of lime application	$000	3,992	10,411
Net present value of gypsum application	$000	14,128	1,046
Net present value of lime and gypsum application	$000	67,227	4,133

Costs of resource use - offsite / downstream in Werribee River

Attribute	Unit	Basin value	Median Australia-wide value
Local infrastructure cost of salinity and water table rise 2000	$000/yr	51	56
Local infrastructure cost of salinity and water table rise 2020	$000/yr	3,452	79
Present value of increase in local infrastructure costs from salinity & rising water tables from 2000 to 2020		18,871	76
•1% increase in salt loads	$000	no data	240
•5% increase in salt loads	$000	no data	1,201
•10% increase in salt loads	$000	no data	2,401
•1% increase in turbidity	$000	1,831	169
•5% increase in turbidity	$000	2,133	414
•10% increase in turbidity	$000	2,500	744
•1% increase in sediment loads	$000	85	4
•5% increase in sediment loads	$000	226	19
•10% increase in sediment loads	$000	402	35

Further information

View the Australians and Natural Resource Management 2002 (theme) report.

View other Audit assessments by clicking the links below:

• Australian Water Resources Assessment 2000
• Australian Dryland Salinity Assessment 2000
• Australian Native Vegetation Assessment 2001
• Rangelands - tracking changes: Australian Collaborative Rangeland Information System
• Australian Agriculture Assessment 2001
• Australian Catchment, River and Estuary Assessment 2002
• Australian Terrestrial Biodiversity Assessment 2002

View "Natural Resource Economics" project and technical reports:

A project report has been prepared by CSIRO Land and Water Policy and Economic Research Unit in the development of this work:

• "Values of returns to land and water and costs of degradation" Edited by S.A. Hajkowicz and M.D. Young (PDF - 2.8 MB)

The technical appendices of "Values of returns to land and water and costs of degradation" report contain detailed descriptions of the methods used in this work:

• "Values of returns to land and water and costs of degradation" Edited by S.A. Hajkowicz and M.D. Young (PDF - 2.8 MB)

The technical appendices of "Values of returns to land and water and costs of degradation" report also includes a number of component project reports. These report may be viewed separately:

• "Ex-situ Costs of Australian Land and Water Resources Degradation to non-Agricultural Industries, Infrastructure and Households - REPORT A: EX-SITU COSTS OF SALINITY " by J.F.Thomas, The Resource Economic Unit, PPK Environment & Infrastructure (PPK) (PDF - 400 KB)
• "Ex-situ Costs of Australian Land and Water Resources Degradation to non-Agricultural Industries, Infrastructure and Households- REPORT B: EX-SITU COSTS OF EROSION AND SEDIMENTATION " by J.F.Thomas, The Resource Economic Unit, PPK Environment & Infrastructure (PPK) (PDF - 300 KB)
• "Ex-situ Costs of Australian Land and Water Resources Degradation to non-Agricultural Industries, Infrastructure and Households - REPORT C: TOTAL EX-SITU DAMAGE COST ESTIMATES FOR SALINITY, WATER TURBIDITY, AND EROSION" by by J.F.Thomas, The Resource Economic Unit (PDF - 400 KB)
• "The Ex-Situ Impacts to Industrial and Commercial Water Users Due to Degradation in the Quality of Water Resources" by PPK Environment Infrastructure Pty Ltd (PDF - 200 KB)
• "Estimating community values for land and water degradation impacts" Martin van Bueren and Jeff Bennett (PDF - 1.5 MB)

Case study: View or download a technical report and appendices on dryland salinity:

• Capacity to change - Case studies of dryland salinity and watertable control by Mike Read. (PDF - 1.2 MB)
• Capacity to change - Case studies of dryland salinity and watertable control - APPENDICES by Mike Read. (PDF - 1.9 MB)

View "People" project and technical reports:

• "Framework and Review of Capacity and Motivation for Change to Sustainable Management Practices" by D. Mark Fenton, Colin MacGregor and John Cary (PDF - 410 KB)
• *"Human and social aspects capacity to change to sustainable management practices" by John Cary, Neil Barr, Heather Aslin, Trevor Webb and Shannon Kelson (PDF - 707 KB)

This report does not contain maps and needs to be read in conjunction with:

• "Social Atlas for sustainable management - a social and economic database" by John Cary, Shannon Kelson and Heather Aslin. (PDF - 165 KB)
• "Social Atlas for sustainable management - a social and economic database" report by John Cary, Shannon Kelson and Heather Aslin (Zip - 7.8 MB)
• "Structural change in Australian agriculture: implications for natural resource management" by Neil Barr (PDF - 1.8 MB)
• "Structural change in Australian agriculture: implications for natural resource management - APPENDICES" by Neil Barr (PDF - 4.3 MB)

Link to the Map Maker to view economic data.

Link to the Australian Natural Resources Data Library - to download economic and social data