Introduction

As resource demands and pressure increases so to do the requirements of both management and information needs. Outlined below are the key issues facing the region as determined by the State / Territory water management agency.

What is the estimated demand for surface water in Hunter River - Regulated?

How was this assessment undertaken in the Hunter River - Regulated Surface Water Management Area?

Development Potential:

Significant advancement has been made in basin modeling since the last National audit of water resources in 1985. Basin model at that time in NSW were based on monthly time steps, bulked water use and tributary inflow within a few node points along the length of the river, simplified landholder reponse, river operation and resource sharing algorithms. Most regulated valleys in NSW are now simulated over about 100 years using IQQM models with daily time steps, multiple node points along the river between gauging stations, full provision for tributary inflows, detailed split up of water use and comprehensive landholder reponse, river operation and resource sharing algorithms. In particular the algorithms cover both access and use of regulated flow (on allocation) and unregulated flow (off allocation). The IQQM models do not model irrigator behavior nor water sharing rules on the unregulated tributaries below the dam(s), nor the unregulated catchment above the dam(s). IQQM simulation models exist for all the basins within the Murray-Darling basin with the exception of the Murrumbidgee, which still has a monthly model. The Murrumbidgee IQQM simulation model should be available by mid 2000. The Hunter basin also has an IQQM simulation model. The Bega River basin and portion of the Richmond River basin have monthly simulation models. However, there is no surface water development potential within the NSW portion of the Murray- Darling basin. Any development taking place in any sub-basin is simply transferring wealth or environmental flows from elsewhere in the basin. Surface water development can only take place via transfer of entitlements to higher value use and by improvements in water use efficiency.

Estimated Use:

Demand in the NSW portion of the Murray Darling basin will remain static while ever the MDB Ministerial Council cap on water use is in place and the NSW government maintains its current approach to environmental flow management. Although the Cap does not apply to the Hunter Basin, it is not expected that usage will increase significantly beyond current levels.

There may be some change in the annual pattern of demand as users optimise their water use and management within the water sharing bounds.

Some urban schemes within the NSW portion of the Murray-Darling basin may have increasing trends in demand due to population and industrial growth. This increased demand will be at the expense of reduced supply to low security users in that SWMA, so that total water use in the basin remains within cap limits.

Management goals and objectives:

The management goals and objectives that apply to this SWMA have been defined as part of the NSW Water Reform process.

The water reform process began in the 1980s, with increasing recognition of environmental needs and changes to institutional and pricing arrangements. Overall the reforms aim to achieve a better balance in the sharing of water between all water users and the environment. The initial NSW water policy reforms were announced in 1995, with more extensive reforms in 1997. With better information and understanding the focus of some of the original initiatives has changed yet the major intent remains. The three primary goals of the Water Reforms and some of the specific management strategies for each are given below:

Goal 1 - To better share the available water. Specific strategies have been developed for:

1. Environmental flows for regulated rivers and the Barwon Darling

2. Continued implementation of the Murray- Darling Basin cap

3. Statewide environmental flow objectives

4. Detailed inquiries into specific catchments

5. Managing unregulated rivers

6. Managing groundwater

7. Water planning framework

8. Wetlands

9. Impacts of weirs

10. Monitoring of environmental flows and status reports

Goal 2 - To enhance support to the rural water sector. Specific strategies have been developed for:

1. Clarifying water users rights

2. Separation of access and use rights

3. Resource security

4. Trading opportunities

5. Farm dams policy

6. Management of sleeper and dozer licences

7. Management of high security access

8. Sharing of off-allocation water

9. Riparian rights

10. Floodplain harvesting

11. Process for volumetric conversions

12. Continuous accounting/capacity sharing

13. Structural adjustment

14. Water efficiency and water conservation

15. Land and water management plans

16. Government investment strategies

17. Country town water supply and sewerage

18. Stormwater initiatives

19. Socio-economic impact assessment

20. Water pricing

Goal 3 - To reshape how water management is delivered in NSW. Specific strategies have been developed for:

1. Community-based decision making

2. Consultation mechanisms

3. Institutional reform - State Water

4. Licensing of Sydney Water and Hunter Water

5. Amnesty arrangements

6. Review of the water licensing system

7. Monitoring requirements

8. Compliance planning

9. Legislative review

10. Appeal and objections mechanisms

11. Information requirements

The development, implementation and management of the water reforms has taken place through a whole of government approach invloving primarily the Department of Land and Water Conservation, the Environment Protection Authority, NSW Agriculture, National Parks and Wildlife Service and NSW Fisheries.

Full details of the issues related to each strategy, past practice and progress on the water reforms can be found on the Department of Land and Water Conservation website http://www.dlwc.nsw.gov.au.

See NSW Water Resources Assessment 2000 Report and Water Resources Assessment 2000 Technical Report for comment on methods and assumptions.

Comments on Management Responses in the Hunter River - Regulated Surface Water Management Area

Current Management Response:

Desired (Current) Management Response:

2020 Management Response:

The water reform process in NSW began in the 1980s, with increasing recognition of environmental needs and changes to institutional and pricing arrangements.

This was recognised formally in 1995 and again in 1997, with the development of Water Reform Policies. These policies have been developed and implemented through a whole of government approach with the involvement of other key natural resource agencies. The 1995 water policy reforms aimed to:

- commence development of interim river flow and water quality objectives

- provide guidance in this task by the establishment of the Healthy Rivers commission

- provide water to the environment in the Macquarie and Gwydir River systems

- introduce water pricing reform

- establish a Water Advisory Council of Community and industry representatives to advise Government on reform policy

- separate the roles of operator, regulator and manager

The 1997 water policy reforms aimed to:

- introduce better sharing of available water by

- developing and implementing environmental flow rules on the regulated rivers and the Barwon-Darling River

- working with the community to establish environmental flow objectives

- identifying stressed unregulated rivers and groundwater systems, and preparing ,management plans to meet agreed environmental objectives

- enhance investment strategies for rural sector by

- providing stronger investment confidence for water users through water access rights and better water markets

- providing Government support for a range of water related activities including structural adjustment

- ensuring balance in cost sharing arrangements through the Independent Pricing and Review Tribunal (IPART) process

- change the way water management is delivered by

- setting up a partnership approach through water management committees

- creating efficiencies in Government water management

- having more efficient administration of Government processes

While major changes to the existing policies are not expected, these policies are not static and can be expected to change with time. The present management and planning horizon is 10 years which will take the state to 2010.

2050 Management Response:

No additional information supplied, see above.

See NSW Water Resources Assessment 2000 Report for comment on management responses.

Assessment of Monitoring

Efficacy of the network:

The Department of Land and Water Conservation undertakes extensive monitoring and data collection of the States water resources. These activities include monitoring of surface and groundwater resources (quantity and quality), water diversions and usage and biological monitoring. In addition it maintains registrars of information on structures on watercourses used for water storage and diversion.

The data is collected to meet the objectives of the states Water Reform Programs and to satisfy the needs of other stakeholders including industry, local government and the community. Data use includes surface and groundwater assessments, river operations and flood warning, water quality and river health auditing.

A review of the Departments surface water monitoring network has recently been undertaken. This showed that

90% of current surface water sites (700 sites statewide) are currently meeting water reform or stakeholder objectives. Of these 700 sites, approximately 350 sites are on unregulated watercourses in coastal and inland catchments. It is anticipated, that in the medium term, additional surface water monitoring sites will be established in unregulated stressed coastal catchments to support Water Reform objectives. These reforms include water trading and water and environmental assessments to improve water use efficiency and environmental sustainability.

Data management requirements:

The major trend in data mangement requirements relates primarily to the data access and data delivery.

There is now the perception among managers that they must have the "latest", "real-time" data. This is pushing the development and implementation of "real-time" data collection and data delivery systems.

This also creates a set of data management issues related to the handling and storage of real time data as well as integration of real-time data as opposed to the traditionally collected "assessment" data.

The LAN/WAN systems and the Inter/Intra-net are also now seen as a major data delivery system, typically via a spatial interface. This has increased the already important links between water resources data and spatial/GIS systems. It has also increased the need for more flexible data storage facilities with data access transparency to a wide range of external applications and systems.

Additionally there has also been the need to develop a range of other data dissemination options including voice, e-mail, fax-back, etc. All these requirements impact on the data storage and data management.

Technology itself, or rather its rate of change, is also impacting on data management requirements

Use and allocation data

Level 1 Annual Use data is based on actual historical DLWC usage data. Mean annual Use and Allocation is from the Hunter Valley IQQM simulated for current conditions with Environmental Flow Rules.

The allocation data provided is based on the entitlement data used in the Hunter Valley IQQM.

Divertable/Developed/Sustainable Yield Data

NSW was unable to determine the divertable and developed yeilds for this Basin.

Protective management:

There are a number of issues that will effect NSWs ability to achieve sustainable management of its surface water resources. The following are some of the important issues:

1. As the use of water in water resource management units approach sustainable development levels, there will be increasing need for experienced personnel, information and decision tools, particularly with NSW approach to management of environmental flows. Therefore the ability to achieve effective and reliable management across NSW will require continued financial of government.

2. The development and implementation of water resource management plans for unregulated flow rivers throughout the NSW will remain a high priority for a number of years. The challenge for water managers and the community will be to resolve the contentious sharing issues and adopt plans and implementation rules that are simple and easy to implement. Because of the small number of users in unregulated valleys many with marginal economic value, the cost of managing unregulated rivers for sustainable outcomes may be beyond the ability of user to pay.

3. NSW will focus on achieving sustainable management of surface resources by managing the access to use over the full flow regime and not by using a cap on water use as the only management tool.

4. As knowledge on the links between flow and the river environment is still developing, as is the operational implementation, NSW will not lock up valley sharing rules in perpetuity. However, as sharing plans enter their second implementation phase they will operate for periods up to ten years to give users security for financial planning.

5. NSW will continue to market operation to offset the limits on additional growth through infrastructure development. A key issue for effective water trading will be clarification of access and use rights and the security of those rights. The proposed provision of a register of water entitlements with details of volumes, security, third party interests and full disclosure of prices paid will assist market operation.

6. The expansion of dryland salinity in the uplands of the NSW portion of the Murray-Darling basin will place increasing pressure on maintaining flows within those river valleys for dilution needs. Dealing with the problem at its source is the preferred solution.

7. As the implementation of flow sharing rules are being undertaken by separate operational bodies the water resource manager will require improved performance indicators for flow and environmental outcomes. Annual operating plans will be an increasing requirement of the regulator with annual disclosure of performance as an important compliance tool. Sanctions or penalties for non-compliance are an area that needs further work.

8. It is unlikely that there will be many major government funded infrastructure developments in the foreseeable future. Water needs to be freed up for sustainable development through privately funded water savings and new development schemes facilitated by transfers. The community attitude to reclaimed water needs to be improved and on farm water use efficiency needs to be accelerated.

9. Community acceptance of drought as a reality rather than an abnormality also needs some attention. Users need to understand the reality of the trade-off between security, the price of water and the risk of restrictions. Annual availability of water for use on rivers is subject to climatic variability; user decisions are assisted by information on future water availability. The opportunity to use improving seasonal climate

forecast methods need s to be added to the existing forecasts that are based on historical flow data.

10. Water resource system models have been the main management decision tools. These tools provide information on water shares and availability to assist economic assessment. To achieve sustainable management of water resources, future decisions will need a balance between economic, social and environmental outcomes. These decisions will require economic, financial, social and environmental response models linked to water shares and availability in the water resource system models.

11. Water resource system models will be increasingly used for audit purposes, requiring reliable information on water use, crop types, irrigated areas and user management decisions.

Options for monitoring:

At a meta data level there is a need for an Australian wide body similar to the AWRC to co-ordinate, promote and disseminate a range of water related information.

For example NSW as part of its Stressed Stream review and assessment of the State has revised parts of its inland catchment boundaries.

NSW thinks that the AWRC basin boundaries should be changed as well. These AWRC boundaries have been recognised as the "official" catchment boundaries and are displayed in all national and state water resources publications. There is no path for the communication of these changes to other federal and state agencies so that there copies of NSW's AWRC basin boundaries are adjusted.

See NSW Water Resources Assessment 2000 Technical Report for an assessment of monitoring

Data Availability, Gaps and Recommendations

Data Availability:

Data availability for the regulated streams is generally very good.

In the regulated section of this basin there are some 31 surface water gauging stations sites run by the Department of Land and Water Conservation.

As well there are 2 water quality sites which are part of a regular monitoring program (Key Sites Program) and a further 13 sites where salinity is being continuously monitored.

All water usage in the regulated section of this SWMA is metered and monitored. Data is available on an annual basis and is kept on the official DLWC database (referred to as the Resource Management System or RMS).

Current Gaps and Recommendations:

Data Gaps: Better knowledge of water usage has been identified as a major gap in all basins. Currently NSW is unable to define level 1 or 2 usage types for its historical data.

Recommendations: Submissions have been made to the National Heritage Trust for additional funding to improve the Departments knowledge of water usage.

Future Gaps:

Water resource system models are the main management decision tools, which in future will need to be linked to improved economic, financial, social and environmental response models. Obviously good data and information are fundamental to the accuracy and validity of these tools. Some of the general gaps in this area are:

1. Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics (ABARE) data does not match SWMAs.

2. Links between environmental health and river flows that are representative of regional ecological populations.

3. Financial data (cash flow, equity etc) for representative water user units in SWMAs or groups of SWMAs.

4. Representative user risk management decision criteria in SWMAs or groups of SWMAs.

5. Reliable and cost effective methods of obtaining information on water use, crop types and irrigated areas for unregulated rivers, which are not metered, and GMUs.

6. Water resource system models for unregulated rivers and accuracy of those models where they are not supported by stream flow data.

7. Operational decision tools for unregulated rivers.

8. Environmental flow performance measures.

9. Interrelationships between surface water and groundwater, i.e. impacts on stream flow losses.

10. Forestry and other land use impacts on stream flow.

11. Cumulative impacts of farm dams on the hydrology of rivers and basins.

12. Environmental impacts of flow pulsing in regulated rivers to mimic natural flow patterns in regulated rivers.

13. Ecological value of small streams in providing colonisation and food supply to main stream ecology.

14. Level of management uncertainty derived from models based on long term climatic data but calibrated with short water system management data.

15. The collection and storage of time series salinity data

16. Establishment of effective groundwater data systems that address quality control, accessibility and timeliness

See NSW Water Resources Assessment 2000 Technical Report for a review of data availability,gaps and recommendations.

Further information

• New South Wales Water Resources Assessment 2000 Technical Report
• Link to data available for download on the Surface Water Management Areas
• Link to the Map Maker to make a map using this information.