Measuring the effectiveness of environmental water allocations: recommendations for the implementation of monitoring programs for adaptive hydrological management of floodplain wetlands in the Murray-Darling Basin

"2001".

Project Number: Measuring the effectiveness of environmental water allocations - MDFRC Project M/03/5077; MDBC Project R6050; CRCFE Project C 310 / A703.

MDFRC item.

133 pages.

The central aim of this consultancy is to develop a generic monitoring program to detect short- (3-5 years) and long-term (10-20 years) change in wetland ecosystems in response to environmental water allocations (EWAs), and proposed water management strategies and/or plans (WMSs & WMPs), within wetlands of the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB). Associated with this central aim are two important practical considerations. The first is that the program is being developed so as to enable its application throughout the MDB. The recommendations are, therefore, of a general nature and it is assumed that the details of local monitoring programs will be established through pilot or trial studies. The second consideration is that field surveys will be carried out by the regional staff of relevant government agencies. These people are necessarily generalists, so the recommendations are made in the expectation that only minimal training will be required in order for these staff to carry out field surveys. This consideration is made more significant by the likelihood that there will be some turnover of regional staff during the life of the monitoring program.