Posted 21 May 2007
Rivers and catchments of southwest Australia and the southeast corner of the Murray-Darling Basin are most likely to be affected by climate change.
Annual streamflow into the Murray-Darling Basin is likely to fall by 10 to 25% by 2050, and by 16 to 48% by 2100 according to one of Australia's leading experts on the effects of climate change on our river systems.
"Our ongoing water security problems in southern and eastern Australia are likely to increase by 2030," said Dr Bryson Bates, Climate Science Leader for CSIRO's Division of Marine and Atmospheric Research.
"There are no integrated assessments of the impacts of climate change on runoff quantity and quality, biodiversity, salt interception revegetation policies, and water pricing and trading policies. Such assessments are essential if we are to adapt to climate change in an informed manner."
Dr Bates was a keynote speaker on 'Climate change and what it means for river management' at the 5th Australian Stream Management Conference, hosted by Charles Sturt University's Institute for Land, Water and Society in Albury, NSW.
According to Dr Bates, the rivers and catchments of southwest Australia and to a lesser extent of SA and the southeast corner of the Murray-Darling Basin, were the ones most likely to be affected by climate change.
"The likely situation for northern Australia is unclear in terms of both the direction and the magnitude of change," he said.
Dr Bates said little was known about likely impacts on groundwater resources.
"The current drought has demonstrated that we need to reconsider how we manage our water resources to better balance supply and demand and provide water for the environment," he said. "It is not too late, but we must act now rather than later. It is no longer an issue that we can put off for the next 20 to 70 years. Further climatic change is already locked-in; we will need to learn how to adapt to that and any additional change that might be incurred in the future.
"Past approaches to water planning have relied on the historical record. Given that we appear to be moving out of the historical 'envelope' we need to consider scenario-based approaches to planning wherein we explore the consequences of alternative and plausible futures, identify key decision points and develop contingency plans. This will involve the expenditure of more thought and effort on risk management and more dependence on seasonal forecasts provided the underpinning science can deliver an increase in predictive skill above the level that is currently available."
Links:
Professor Andy Baker features in American Water Resources Association ‘Water Resources Impact’, September 2020 edition.
The Connected Waters Initiative (CWI) is pleased to welcome Taylor Coyne to its network as a postgraduate researcher. If you’re engaged in research at a postgraduate level, and you’re interested in joining the CWI network, get in touch! The CWI network includes multidisciplinary researchers across the Schools of Engineering, Sciences, Humanities and Languages and Law.
The Grand Challenge on Rapid Urbanisation will establish Think Deep Australia, led by Dr Marilu Melo Zurita, to explore how we can use our urban underground spaces for community benefit.
On the 21 August 2020, CWI researchers made a submission to the National Water Reform Inquiry, identifying priority areas and making a number of recommendations as to how to achieve a sustainable groundwater future for Australia.
Results published from a research project between the Land Development Department (LDD) Thailand and UNSW has demonstrated how 2-dimensional mapping can be used to understand soil salinity adjacent to a earthen canal in north east Thailand (Khongnawang et al. 2020).
