Environmental Flows Workshop

Watering decisions in a complex and unpredictable world

February, 2010 - TBC
Main Lecture Theatre, Building 6, Albury-Wodonga campus

Environmental water flows represent a small fraction of annual discharge. This means that difficult decisions need to be made about which assets will receive water – especially when combined with system capacity constraints. These decisions need to be based on objective and dynamic assessments of alternatives.

One approach to the issue of environmental watering has been to identify High Conservation Aquatic Ecosystems within the larger floodplain system, and allocate water to those assets. While this strategy provides a prioritized list of assets, difficult decisions are still required that would, in an ideal world, consider issues such as:

  • the ecological outcomes
  • potential risks
  • the way water should be allocated to optimize outcomes
  • environmental values
  • the opportunities for multiple uses of water
  • future implications of any decision.

While these considerations are entirely environmental, a recent survey of wetland managers revealed that watering decisions are often heavily influenced by the availability of water and the capacity to deliver water to particular assets. Given the increased scrutiny of environmental water allocations, it will be important that decisions are both transparent and defensible.

The Environmental Flows Workshop explores the decision-making process surrounding environmental watering, and aims to identify the strengths and risks associated with various approaches, as well as identifying the institutional, communication and knowledge requirements for effective decisions in a complex and unpredictable environment.

Please note: registration for this workshop is temporarily suspended.

Contact

For any enquiries, contact:

Dr Lin Crase
E: oed.aw@latrobe.edu.au
T: (02) 6024 9834