The challenge
Protecting ecosystems in the Murray-Darling Basin
The Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder (CEWH) manages the Commonwealth-owned water in the Murray–Darling Basin. The CEWH delivers water for the environment with the aim of improving outcomes for plants, animals and ecosystems across the Basin. We need to understand how this water for the environment is helping to maintain, protect and restore ecosystems and native species, and whether environmental water is providing cultural outcomes for Aboriginal people. This understanding helps the CEWH to manage their water holdings to achieve the best environmental outcomes across the Basin.
Our response
Improving and evaluating environmental outcomes
The Flow Monitoring, Evaluation and Research Program (Flow-MER) is a collaboration of people from several fields of research and many partner organisations. Flow-MER is providing the critical evidence to demonstrate environmental outcomes from the delivery of Commonwealth environmental water across the Murray–Darling Basin. CSIRO leads the Basin-scale evaluation and research, evaluating and improving our understanding of these outcomes. Our work is organised across five themes and four cross-cutting activities.
The five themes are:
The four cross-cutting activities are:
- Foundation analysis and reporting
- Data management
- Knowledge exchange
- Aboriginal peoples' monitoring, evaluation and research
The Basin-scale evaluation reports on the outcomes of the delivery of Commonwealth water for the environment. The Basin-scale research program improves the knowledge underpinning the evaluation and provides understanding to improve when and where Commonwealth environmental water is delivered.
The results
Supporting better water management
Every year, the Flow-MER Basin-scale Project evaluates the ecological responses to the delivery of Commonwealth environmental water. These evaluations report on the most recent water year and on cumulative outcomes since monitoring began in 2014.
All reports and other resources can be found on the CEWH’s Flow-MER website.
The evaluations:
- Support legislative requirements under the Basin Plan
- Inform adaptive management
- Support environmental water managers
The Basin-scale Project also conducts research through projects.
The research:
- Leverages research already being undertaken in the Basin
- Informs the evaluation of outcomes of Commonwealth environmental water
- Informs the adaptive management of Commonwealth environmental water
- Complements science being undertaken across the Basin and integrating across the Basin and across Basin themes.