Better Information for Better Results –
Enhancing Water Planning in Tasmania
Final Project Report
December 2010
Water Assessment Branch
W ater and Marine Resources Division
Department of Primary Industries, Parks, W ater and Environment
Prepared by:
Martin Read
Contact Details:
Water Assessment Branch
Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment
Water Assessment
13 St Johns Avenue, New Town.
Phone: 03 6233 6834
Web: www.dpipwe.tas.gov.au
Email: Martin.Read@dpipwe.tas.gov.au
The Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment
The Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment provides leadership in the
sustainable management and development of Tasmania’s resources. The Mission of the
Department is to advance Tasmania’s prosperity through the sustainable development of our
natural resources and the conservation of our natural and cultural heritage for the future.
The Water and Marine Resources Division provides a focus for water management and water
development in Tasmania through a diverse range of functions including the design of policy and
regulatory frameworks to ensure sustainable use of the surface water and groundwater resources;
monitoring, assessment and reporting on the condition of the State’s freshwater resources;
facilitation of infrastructure development projects to ensure the efficient and sustainable supply of
water; and implementation of the Water Management Act 1999, related legislation and the State
Water Development Plan.
Final Project Report
Better Information for Better Results – Enhancing Water Planning
in Tasmania
Background
Since the introduction of the National Water Initiative in 2004 as the key instrument
of water reform in Australia, states and territories have undertaken a suite of
activities that have advanced jurisdictional water resource management and
planning to address commitments made within each state implementation plan. A
key aspect of this has been the development of water planning tools to inform
decision making regarding water allocation, sustainable water development and the
management and protection of key freshwater ecosystem values in water
catchments.
The Intergovernmental Agreement on a National Water Initiative (NWI) was signed at
the 25 June 2004 Council of Australian Governments meeting (COAG). The NWI
represents a shared commitment by governments to increase the efficiency of
Australia's water use, leading to greater certainty for investment and productivity, for
rural and urban communities, and for the environment. The Tasmanian Government
joined the Agreement in June 2005 and submitted the Tasmanian NWI
Implementation Plan in September 2006.
Under the NWI, state governments have made commitments to:
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Prepare water plans with provision for the environment;
Deal with over-allocated or stressed water systems;
Introduce registers of water rights and standards for water accounting;
Expand the trade in water;
Improve pricing for water storage and delivery; and,
Meet and manage urban water demands.
In 2005, Tasmania had made some progress with developing water management
planning tools to inform decision making regarding the sustainable allocation of
water consistent with National Water Initiative objectives. The then Department of
Primary Industries and Water (now the Department of Primary Industries, Parks and
and Environment) was finalising the development of 13 surface water hydrological
models for catchments within the National Action Plan region of Tasmania and had
recently developed the Conservation of Freshwater Ecosystem Values (CFEV)
database – a unique planning tool for the management of freshwater ecosystem
values across the state.
However, hydrological models did not exist for the majority of the states’ agricultural
catchments and limited understanding of the States groundwater resources existed
at that time. In addition, while the CFEV database provided a method for meeting
the objective based planning process inherent in the National Water Initiative and
allowed clear and strategic identification of the environmental objectives within the
water planning process, the tool required validation to effectively engage catchment
communities and ensure confidence in the information it provided. The CFEV
database was complex and required specialist skills to manipulate and interpret the
data contained within it meaning accessibility to a suite of users was limited.
The “Better Information for Better Results – Enhancing Water Planning in Tasmania”
project was funded under the Australian Government Water Fund under Water
Smart Australia and the Tasmanian Government to address these issues and
elements of Tasmania’s commitments under the State NWI Implementation Plan.
The project commenced formally in December 2005 with the signing of the funding
agreement by both parties. The project’s overall objective was intended to provide
the best available information on catchment hydrology and environmental values to
ensure successful water management planning outcomes in Tasmanian catchments
and this information was delivered via four sub-components of the project. These
sub-components collectively have provided a consistency in water management
planning and accounting for Tasmanian catchments as tools have been developed.
The project components were as follows:
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The development of 54 surface water hydrological models for the state’s
agricultural catchments;
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The development of a user friendly interface for the Conservation of Freshwater
Ecosystem Values (CFEV) database;
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The groundtruthing of environmental information in the CFEV database in
targeted water planning catchments;
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The development of up to 20 groundwater hydrological models in priority
groundwater management areas.
Two progress reports (November 2007 and March 2009) with individual technical
reports on CFEV validation and individual groundwater and surface water
hydrological model reports were submitted to the then Department of Environment,
Water, Heritage and the Arts (DEWHA) now the Department of Sustainability,
Environment, Water, Population and Communities. Technical issues associated with
the progress of the project were fully discussed at that time. On this basis, the final
report focuses on the achievements of the project against the overall project
objective and specific project objectives as set out in the funding agreement.
Integration of project activities into NWI reporting frameworks
A final deliverable under the project which was not scoped as part of the original
funding proposal was to integrate modelling outcomes into routine monitoring and
reporting frameworks for the National Water Initiative. There are a number of
reporting frameworks that are either directly relevant to the NWI or have evolved
since the inception of the NWI in 2004 (principally as part of Bureau of Meteorology
responsibilities under the Water Act 2007 to create National Water Accounts and
undertake National Water Resource Assessments).
Within the project extension proposal (discussed below) these “reporting
frameworks” were specified as follows:
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Development of water accounts identified under Tasmania’s NWI
Implementation Plan and a key responsibility for the Bureau of Meteorology;
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Provision of information for water resource assessments from groundwater
and surface water modelling outputs for the Bureau of Meteorology’s water
resource assessments;
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Provision of information of yield information for NWI reporting mechanisms
such as biennial assessments;
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Provision of jurisdictional information to populate NWI Performance Indicators
for the 2010-11 biennial assessment including;
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3.1 Proportion of water used for consumptive and non-consumptive
purposes (output from surface water models)
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3.4 Number and proportion of water systems for which High conservation
value aquatic ecosystems have been indentified (outputs from CFEV)
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The derivation of Flow Stress Ranking components for any hydrological
reporting required for the National Framework for the Assessment of River
and Wetland Health (FARWH). Flow Stress Rankings are directly derived
from the surface water hydrological models and provide a hydrological
indicator for the degree of ecological stress on an aquatic ecosystems
arising from over-allocation.
The surface water and groundwater models and the Conservation of Freshwater
Ecosystems database provide the primary platform for delivery of resource condition
information to support NWI Performance Indicator reporting and surface and
groundwater models in particular provide yield information as inputs to water
accounts and water resources assessments.
A proposal was submitted to DEWHA to undertake further work to integrate project
outputs and tool development to allow reporting consistent with NWI reporting
frameworks and those frameworks that had also evolved since the NWI commenced.
The proposal outlined work that would be required to maximise the delivery of
outputs for NWI related reporting for water accounting, water resource assessment
and NWI performance indicator and biennial assessment purposes. The proposal
was divided into two components that focus on different information products. These
are 1) Hydrological model outputs and 2) outputs from the Conservation of
Freshwater Ecosystem Values Database. Both components were completed in
October 2010.
Component 1 – Hydrological model outputs
Under Component 1 the surface water hydrological models were automated to allow
the provision of relevant data and water information on a catchment by catchment
basis to various external Australian Government stakeholders (Bureau of
Meteorology or National Water Commission) for the preparation of water balances,
resource assessments or water accounts. This involved modification of the Excel
user interface to each catchment model developed in the original project. Flow
Stress Ranking procedure were also refined.
This work was also consistent with the original project clause 1.10i of the Funding
Agreement related to integration activities to “developing macros to collate various
statistics on a single spreadsheet for reporting purposes from all model outputs,
development of formulas to derive hydrologically relevant statistics on water use on a
sub catchment and catchment scale and increase the functionality of the excel “front
end” interface to the HYDSTRA model”. The derivation of statistics for water
accounting and water balances was also consistent with the development of national
reporting products since the commencement of the National Water Initiative in 2005.
The project activities under Component 1 were as follows and have now been
completed:
1. Enhancement of the current user interface to deliver water balance and
accounting flow statistics on a catchment basis;
2. Enhancement of the current interface to deliver yield estimates on a sub
catchment and catchment basis;
3. Refinement of Flow Stress Ranking procedure and inclusion of new
environmental water requirements estimates;
4. Further Development of Flow Stress Ranking outputs on a sub catchment
basis
Component 2 – Revision of the CFEV database
Component 2 of the project extension revised the CFEV database to build on the
work that has already been completed by the CFEV Program, including the outputs
previously developed in the initial stages of the project. The revision included the
following:
1. Restructuring the Oracle database that houses all the CFEV data to enable
the long-term storage and management of the CFEV data.
2. Review of which components of the CFEV data required updating, using:
 Recommendations from validation projects conducted in 2007,
 Feedback from current users of the database, and
 New data that has been collected or updated since the original 2004
version of the CFEV database, where appropriate.
3. Establishing a system to assist ongoing updating and maintenance of the
CFEV database into the future.
The CFEV database (and subsequent restructure) supports the NWI implementation
plan in a number of ways by:
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Assisting water management planners to identify high conservation freshwater
ecosystems for consideration in developing water management plans;
Helping ecologists set priorities for establishing environmental water
allocations in rivers, wetland and estuaries;
Identifying high conservation value freshwater ecosystems which need to be
adequately considered in sustainable water resource development; and
Increasing knowledge, within government and with external stakeholders, of
Tasmania’s freshwater ecosystems.
The outputs from the CFEV component of the project have been completed and are
as follows:
1. A restructured and normalised database with the following enhancements:
 Amended links between the CFEV interfaces;
 Improved data querying and updating facilities;
 Links to CFEV documentation;
 Links to external data sources;
 Input of ancillary CFEV data needed for updating aspects of the assessment
data.
2. A document that has reviewed existing resources relating to updating various data
sets within the CFEV database (Attachment 1), including:
 Interpretation and synthesis of the CFEV validation reports (DPIW and NRM);
 Summary of feedback provided by users of the CFEV database;
 Entries in the CFEV errors register;
 An appraisal of the availability/quality of alternate data sets that could
potentially be used in a revision of the CFEV database.
3. A documented plan for updating the CFEV database into the future (beyond this
project), (Attachment 2) which includes:
 a work plan for updating specific data sets within the CFEV database which
has prioritised key findings from output 2; and
 A broad methodology for updating various parts of the database, including
supporting infrastructure and data agreements, and highlighting areas which
for automation.
In summary all deliverables in terms of development under the initial project funding
agreement have now been completed. Extension components relating to surface
water hydrological model refinement and CFEV database restructure have also been
finalised.
Reporting against project objectives and evaluation against key performance
indicators
Reporting against project objectives
The funding agreement provides detail in Section 5.8 and 5.10 on the requirements
of the final report. The final report must cover the entire project period and describe
the conduct, benefits and outcomes of the project as a whole. The final report must
also evaluate the project by including a detailed discussion of whether each of the
objectives of the project was achieved. The final report must contain an explanation
of why any objectives were not achieved. Achievements against a) the overall
objective and b) the specific objectives of the project are provided below.
Overall objective of the project
Clause 1.8 of the funding agreement identifies the overall objective of the Project as
follows:
“To enhance the strategic planning, measurement, monitoring, management,
accounting and trading of water resources and catchments in Tasmania through the
provision of the best available scientific hydrological and environmental values
information in a manner that is consistent with the objectives and principles of the
National Water Initiative”
Collectively, the development of both surface water and groundwater hydrological
models and the validation and refinement of the CFEV database have significantly
improved Tasmania’s ability to strategically plan and inform water resource
management, planning and development in the state.
Hydrological models inform both water allocation decisions required for the
development of water management plans by determining water available for
sustainable allocation on a sub-catchment basis within a planning catchment.
Models are also used in the statutorily based allocation of water in the Farm Dams
and Water Licence approvals process under the Water Management Act 1999.
Groundwater models have been used to determine the status of groundwater
resources for water management planning and depending on this, the requirement to
declare groundwater management areas within catchment and implementation of
catchment groundwater licensing systems.
Hydrological models and CFEV information underpins decision making and business
case development for Tasmania’s major irrigation development agenda. All
developments feasibility and water reliability scenario’s are assessed using the
models developed under this project and information on the freshwater
environmental values within catchments that may be potentially impacted by water
development are sourced from CFEV using the user interface and the reports
generated by this.
Under the Implementation Plan for supporting more efficient irrigation in Tasmania,
as part of conditions of investment under the Federal Governments election
commitment of $140 million dollars, all irrigation development projects must take into
account the outcomes of the CSIRO Tasmanian Sustainable Yields as part of
Business case development. Furthermore water management planning is required
to take into account these findings in order to set sustainable NWI – consistent
diversion limits. The CSIRO Tasmanian Sustainable Yields project determined a
number of climate scenario’s using different Global Climatic Models (GCM’s) to 2030
for Tasmanian regions and the reliability of each water development under these
scenarios. The project also assessed the potential impacts of climate scenarios on
freshwater ecosystem values across the state’s agricultural catchments using both
CFEV and the hydrological models developed under this project.
A separate project (Climate Futures) undertaken by the Antarctic Climate and
Ecosystems Co-operative Research Centre (ACE CRC) extends climate change
scenario’s and associated predicted changes in runoff to 2100.
The surface water models developed in this project form the basis to assess
reductions in runoff resulting from climate change projections in both of these
projects. Run-off predictions can now be incorporated back into each surface water
model to allow an additional assessment of water reliability in 2030 and 2100 when
making water allocation decisions. Groundwater models were also used to underpin
the assessment of groundwater resources as a result of climate change/
Both CFEV and hydrological modelling were used to inform the Australian Water
Resources Level 1 and 2 Assessments in 2005 and are discussed below against
specific objectives.
In summary, the tools developed under this project have significantly enhanced
Tasmania’s ability to strategically plan water resource development in the state and
inform water management planning. The models are expected to provide important
information to underpin water accounts and water resource assessments currently
being developed by the Bureau of Meteorology. Tasmania has not been involved in
the water accounting process to date as the state did not participate in the pilot
National Water Account or will be participating significantly in the development of the
National Water Account but it is expected that model outputs will provide the bulk of
information for these reporting frameworks.
Specific project objectives
Clause 1.9 of the Funding Agreement provides detail of specific project objectives.
Each individual objective is provided below with discussion on the achievements of
the project activities against these:
a. Provide information to allow informed and expedient water management
planning decisions based on sound science;
The development of surface and groundwater hydrological models, CFEV
validation and the development of the user interface have contributed
significantly to water management planning in Tasmania. This has been
achieved by collectively providing detailed scientifically robust information to
underpin the planning process in individual priority catchments.
Surface and groundwater hydrological models provide information on the
water availability in catchments once environmental watering needs have
been taken into account. Elements of environmental flow regimes are also
determined using hydrological models. Surface water models also provide
long term modelled information on environmental flow regimes to allow cease
to take thresholds and opportunistic flood harvesting rules to be developed.
Since the project has been completed, both surface water and groundwater
models have informed the development of water management plans for the
Ringarooma, Ansons, Little Musselroe, Great Musselroe, South Esk,
Macquarie and Wesley Vale Sassafras catchments.
The validation of the CFEV database has indirectly allowed the confident
engagement of catchment communities by water planners and has directly
informed the development of the South Esk and Macquarie draft water
management plans given validation activities were undertaken in these
catchments. The CFEV user interface developed under this project is used
directly at different tiers of water planning and water resource management.
The user interface is used by senior scientists and water planners within the
Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and Environment to identify
freshwater ecosystem values for conservation management priority to inform
the environmental objectives of water management plans and target
environmental flow investigations. The CFEV user interface is used by a suite
of external users to investigate freshwater ecosystem values as part of dam
proposals, large scale irrigation development, local government planning
processes, natural resource management planning and crown land approval
processes.
b. Significantly improve Tasmania’s ability to strategically manage water
resources consistent with the objectives of the NWI’
The overall objective of the National Water Initiative is to achieve a nationally
compatible market, regulatory and planning based system of managing
surface and groundwater resources for rural and urban use that optimises
economic, social and environmental outcomes.
At the highest level, implementation of the National Water Initiative will achieve:
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clear and nationally-compatible characteristics for secure water access
entitlements
transparent, statutory-based water planning
statutory provision for environmental and other public benefit
outcomes, and improved environmental management practices
complete the return of all currently over-allocated or overused systems
to environmentally-sustainable levels of extraction
progressive removal of barriers to trade in water and meeting other
requirements to facilitate the broadening and deepening of the water market,
with an open trading market to be in place
clarity around the assignment of risk arising from future changes in the
availability of water for the consumptive pool
water accounting which is able to meet the information needs of
different water systems in respect to planning, monitoring, trading,
environmental management and on-farm management
policy settings which facilitate water use efficiency and innovation in urban
and rural areas
addressing future adjustment issues that may impact on water users and
communities
Recognition of the connectivity between surface and groundwater
resources and connected systems managed as a single resource.
Bolded elements above identify those NWI objectives that are of relevance to
this projects activities. Models developed under this project have significantly
progressed water management planning in the state and the hydrological
reports underpinning the planning process provide the information
transparency consistent with the objectives of the NWI.
The validation of freshwater ecosystem values and the accurate determination
of hydrology and water allocation within a catchment has allowed the
determination of environmental flow regimes with a focus on those freshwater
ecosystems where significant values exist. Flow Stress Ranking procedures
developed in the projects have allowed an accurate determination of
hydrological condition that can be used to inform decisions regarding
achieving improved environmental outcomes.
Accurate determination of the degree of allocation within a catchment and the
determination of available yield has allowed and facilitated a more effective
water allocation process designed to prevent the over allocation of water in
Tasmanian catchments.
Accurate modelling will also underpin the
development of either catchment or regional water accounts for Tasmania and
informed basic water accounting undertaken for Level 1 and 2 assessments of
water availability and use in the Australian Water Resource Assessment in
2005 (AWR2005).
The concurrent development of surface water and groundwater models has
provided a greater understanding of groundwater – surface water connectivity
and groundwater outputs can be used directly within surface water models to
understand connectivity of the combined resource.
c. Better understand the sustainable yield of, and the relationship between,
Tasmania’s surface water and groundwater systems to enable more efficient
and effective management of these resources;
The development of 54 surface water models combined with the previous
development of 15 surface water models under the National Action Plan and
individual DPIPWE programs has significantly increased the understanding
and determination of sustainable yield. This also applies to numerical
groundwater models that have been directly used to identify the groundwater
resource.
While conceptual groundwater models and semi-numerical
groundwater models provide partial understanding of yield, these models
have contributed significantly to our understanding of groundwater resources
in these areas and the relationship with the surface water resource. The 69
surface water models contributed directly to the determination of sustainable
yield within the Australian Water Resources 2005 Baseline Assessment
undertaken by the National Water Commission, provided the foundation for
surface water modelling under different climate change scenario’s under both
the Tasmanian Sustainable Yields project undertaken by CSIRO and more
recently, the Climate Futures project undertaken by the Antarctic and Coastal
Ecosystems Co-operative Research Centre (ACE-CRC). Both projects have
significantly enhanced our understanding of current sustainable yields of
Tasmanian catchments and yields predicted to change under future climate
change scenario’s in 2030 and 2100. This is a significant achievement.
d. Develop robust surface water and groundwater models and collect surface
water and groundwater data ( and identify and prioritise gaps in that data), to
improve Tasmania’s ability to measure, monitor and manage its water
resources;
The projects primary objective was to develop surface water models for the
majority of the state’s agricultural catchments and groundwater models for
priority groundwater management areas and this has been achieved. The
vast majority of surface water models can be regarded as robust given
excellent calibration relationships between observed and modelled stream
flow. Some models (particularly those for regulated catchments) require
improvement over time with additional data and some outstanding issues
remain regarding low flow calibration particularly in summer.
The Department has taken a number of steps to address these issues.
Firstly, Departmental hydrologists will be participating in a recently
commenced project by the National Water Commission to identify modelling
and calibration issues related to low flows
In terms of the identification of information gaps on surface water and
groundwater data and a prioritisation of which information requirements need
to be addressed, the Department has undertaken a significant expansion
through the SMART Farming budget initiative funded by the Tasmanian
Government in 2006 which provided funding to expand both the state surface
water and groundwater baseline monitoring networks. This has been
complemented by augmentation projects funded under the Bureau of
Meteorology Modernisation and Extension of Hydrologic Monitoring Systems.
Spatial gaps in monitoring have been identified in the Strategic Water
Information Monitoring Plan for Tasmania for both surface water and
groundwater networks and with the assistance of Bureau funding Tasmania is
currently addressing these. Over the medium to long term, this information will
improve the accuracy of the surface water and groundwater models
developed under this project. In particular significant expansion of the
groundwater monitoring network will allow the conversion of current seminumerical and conceptual groundwater models to numerical models for direct
application within Tasmanian water management planning processes.
e. Identify stressed and over-allocated water systems and obtain the information
needed to enable the implementation of sustainable allocation and
management of water resources (including implementation of groundwater
entitlements system);
The primary vehicle for the sustainable allocation and management of water
resources is water management plans and the surface water and groundwater
hydrological models developed under this project determine water availability
and sustainable allocation within each plan area. Surface water models are
also routinely used to assess any farm dam proposal where water
management plans have not been developed. On this basis, the development
of 54 models under this project and the previous 15 models underpin
sustainable allocation of water resources. Wholesale assessment across the
state of sustainable yield have only been carried out in 2000 as part of the
National Land and Water Resources Audit and in 2005 as part of the
Australian Water Resources Assessment undertaken by the National Water
Commission. Neither study identified over-allocated systems and hydrological
modelling undertaken since that time indicates that no river systems are over
allocated in Tasmania. The summer period during the irrigation season
(November to April) is generally regarded as the period when river systems
suffer a degree of stress from water abstraction. Since 1994, a state-wide
moratorium on the allocation of summer water has been in place. It is
expected that the models developed under this project will be used in any
state-wide water resource assessment to identify sustainable yield or overallocation in the future.
f. Obtain the information required to implement appropriate environmental flow
regimes for all key water resources;
Surface water models provide hydrological information that is used directly to
determine environmental flows within the water management planning
process. Given the majority of the state is now covered by surface water
models, modelled flow record can be used to identify environmental flow
regimes in conjunction with field studies. Modelled stream flow information
has been used to determine environmental water requirements and holistic
environmental flow regimes in the water management planning process for
the Ringarooma, Clyde, Macquarie, Ansons, Little Musselroe, Great
Musselroe, South Esk, Inglis Flowerdale and Sassafras Wesley Vale
catchments.
g. Obtain the information required to monitor the impact of land use changes on
catchment hydrology at a catchment level;
Hydrological models developed under this project and indirectly the work
undertaken on CFEV provide two important components to the Water
Availability and Forest Landuse (WAFL) Tool. The WAFL tool was developed
by the department using the surface water hydrological models developed
under this project. Both the models and CFEV are “plug ins” to the tools which
allows an assessment of how changes in forest land use impact on water
availability. This can be undertaken at the catchment or sub catchment scale
and also allows an assessment of the impact of changes in water availability
though changes in forest cover on freshwater ecosystem conservation values
as identified by CFEV. The tool has state-wide application and has been
used within the water management planning process where significant
plantation estate exists or where increases in plantation forestry development
are planned. The development of the tool also allows Tasmania to meet
forest interception related commitments under the National Water Initiative
Implementation Plan and the NWI Intergovernmental Agreement to monitor
forest interception activities on a catchment basis and manage them
accordingly.
h. Identify freshwater conservation value priorities based on sound information
and strategic management tools;
The refinement and further development of the CFEV database under this
project has allowed more efficient identification and prioritisation of freshwater
conservation values for a suite of water management planning processes.
The validation component of this project in a number of priority water
management planning catchments has provided community confidence in the
identification of freshwater ecosystem values as part of the water
management planning process. CFEV reporting has now become a standard
report undertaken as part of water management planning and the refinements
made to the CFEV database and development of the CFEV user interface
have allowed CFEV to become a routinely used strategic management tool in
water resource management and planning in Tasmania. CFEV has also been
used to identify interim High Ecological Value Aquatic Ecosystems (HEVAE’s)
for the National Framework/list of Freshwater Ecosystem assets.
i.
Obtain the information required to derive hydrological disturbance indicators
to allow Regional NRM Committees to assess and report on river conditions
under the NRM Monitoring and Evaluation Framework;
The initial development of hydrological disturbance indicators in surface water
hydrological models and the subsequent update of these to a full suite of
“Flow stress ranking” indicators has allowed comprehensive assessments of
how changes in flow regime components depart from a natural unregulated
condition and have been used by Regional NRM bodies to report on
hydrological disturbance. The hydrological disturbance indicators were used
to report under the Hydrology Change Index in the Australian Water
Resources Assessment undertaken in 2005 by the National Water
Commission. The indicators were tested on all Tasmanian catchments using
the modelled information developed in this project. Detailed testing was
undertaken on the Ringarooma, South Esk and Pittwater – Coal catchments.
Since the Project commenced the NRM Monitoring and Evaluation
Framework under which river condition indicators which include the
hydrological disturbance indicators discussed here has largely been
superseded by the MERI reporting framework. However, the Framework for
the Assessment of River and Wetland Health (FARWH) remains the primary
platform for national reporting of riverine condition.
The Hydrological disturbance indicators that are provided by the surface water
models developed in this project can be fed directly into the Tasmanian River
Condition Index (TRCI) under the Hydrology Index. The Tasmanian River
Condition Index is consistent with the National Framework for the Assessment
of River and Wetland Health (FARWH) which has now superseded NRM
reporting for Inland Aquatic Systems under the Monitoring and Evaluation
Framework in a National context. Hydrological Disturbance Indicators have
been generated for northern, cradle coast and southern Natural Resource
Management Regional projects to report on river condition in the North West
Bay, Huon and Coal catchments in NRM South, Flowerdale and Leven
catchments in NRM Cradle Coast and St Patricks and Lake Rivers in NRM
North. The reporting of hydrological disturbance would not have been possible
without the capacity to generate these within the surface water hydrological
models developed under this project.
j.
Enable the effective and objective decision-making about Tasmania’s
freshwater ecosystems;
Collectively the development of surface water models, groundwater models
and refinement of the CFEV database has allowed more effective
management and objective decision making regarding the management of
Tasmania’s freshwater resources.
k. Accelerate progress in the development and implementation of catchment
water management plans across the State, including by refining the CFEV
Database to enable greater engagement of, and more informed discussion
and negotiation engagement with, communities in the Groundwater
Catchments and Surface Water Catchments.
Tools have been developed to support and inform the water management
planning process and the completion of these and use of them to derive
hydrology, groundwater and freshwater ecosystem reports has in many
respects accelerated the water management planning process. The scientific
reporting process and accurate derivation of sustainable yields has provided a
certainty in terms of negotiating environmental water provisions and potential
water volumes available for allocation. The availability of freshwater
ecosystem value information thought the CFEV user interface has resulted in
widespread use of the CFEV database in many aspects of water resource
management and provides the basis for more discussion of CFEV values
within the consultative stage of the water management planning process. On
this basis individual plan development has been accelerated. However the
negotiation phase over water available to allocate, flood harvesting rules and
the level of cease to take provisions continues to be prolonged. The tool suite
developed under this project has allowed more effective engagement of
catchment communities in the water management planning process.
Evaluation against performance indicators in the Funding Agreement:
a. Completion of a surface water hydrological model and catchment
report for each of the 54 Surface Water Catchments.
Completed with surface water catchment reports provided on cd to
SEWPC.
b. Completion of a groundwater model and report for each of the
Groundwater Catchments determined in accordance with item 1.10/m.
Completed with groundwater catchment reports provided on cd to
SEWPC
c. Availability of scientifically robust data from CFEV for the conserving of
critical freshwater ecosystems and integration into water management
planning processes;
Completed as discussed in main body of the report and previous CFEV
technical reports provided to SEWPC with Attachments 1 and 2
completing delivery of CFEV related reporting. CFEV has now been
fully integrated into the water management planning process and is
currently being considered within the development stages of
Tasmania’s new Water Allocation Policy.
d. Uptake of hydrological disturbance indicators from model outputs into
NRM activities and M&E reporting; and
Completed as discussed in main body of the report against specific
objective i.
e. Integration of models and use of CFEV data into routine monitoring and
reporting frameworks consistent the requirements and objectives of the
NWI.
While the development of surface water hydrological models,
development of groundwater models and further refinement of the
CFEV database are not explicit reporting elements within NWI Biennial
Assessments which is the principle reporting platform on jurisdictional
progress in meeting commitments under the National Water Initiative,
their use in other reporting frameworks or processes has been
significant. The NWI Biennial Assessments undertaken in 2007 and
2009 largely focus on the progress of jurisdictions meeting a number of
objectives. The outputs of this project (groundwater and surface water
models, CFEV refinement, accessibility and validation) and the
applications of these in the water resource planning area are not
relevant to many of the objectives on which the assessment is based.
However Tasmania’s ability to meet the following objectives will be
greatly enhanced by the development of the modelling tools under this
project:
 Transparent, statutory-based water planning;
 Complete the return of all currently over-allocated or overused
systems to environmentally-sustainable levels of extraction;
 Water accounting which is able to meet the information needs of
different water systems in respect to planning, monitoring,
trading, environmental management and on-farm management;
 Recognition of the connectivity between surface and
groundwater resources and connected systems managed as a
single resource.
Within both the 2007 and 2009 Biennial Assessment reports, hydrological
modelling is not specifically mentioned as jurisdictional progress is discussed
at a higher implementation level (i.e. how Tasmania has progressed water
management planning across the states catchments and generic progress
against water availability milestones and improved environmental outcomes).
The Water Availability and Forest Landuse Tool (WAFL) and the Tasmanian
Environmental Flows Framework (TEFF) have both been identified as tools
that have addressed both water planning and forest interception related
objectives within these assessments. Hydrological models and CFEV are
critical elements of both tools.
For the 2011 biennial assessment, the NWI also requires that the National
Water Commission will comprehensively review the NWI and assess the
extent to which actions under the NWI have improved the sustainable
management of Australian water resources and have contributed to the
national interest. One of the issues considered under this assessment will be
“have the NWI commitments had an effect on the condition and health of
surface and groundwater systems, and their ecosystems”? Tasmania’s
development of models and CFEV under this project will significantly inform
this assessment.
Another primary reporting instrument against the National Water Initiative is
the Australian Water Resources Assessment undertaken in 2005.
Hydrological models outputs were fundamental reporting elements in the
Level 1 initial assessment of water availability and use. The Level 2 detailed
assessment of water availability use and river and wetland health also relied
significantly on model outputs in terms of determining sustainable yield and
using CFEV condition data layers to provide a state-wide picture of riverine
condition. Without the development of models and refinement of CFEV under
this project, Tasmania would have had limited ability to provide the
information required for AWR2005.
The incorporation of Hydrological
disturbance indicators and the refinement and update of these to allow
derivation of flow stress rankings will further enhance Tasmania’s ability to
provide relevant information for any subsequent assessments.
It is also anticipated that hydrological models will be used to provide
hydrological statistics in the creation of water accounts and Australian Water
Resource Assessments in future assessments.
Section 5.12 of the Funding deed identifies that a discussion of any other
matters, relating to the evaluation of the Project, that the Australian
Government request for inclusion in the final Report should be considered and
that any such requirement will be notified to you at least 30 days before the
final Report is due. The Australian Government have not identified other
matters to be reported on at this stage.
Summary
The project has greatly enhanced Tasmania’s ability to undertake water
management planning and make informed water allocation decisions. The
project has also provided the state with the tools to deliver information into
national reporting frameworks to measure Tasmania’s water reform progress,
allow the creation of water accounts and undertake water resource
assessments.
All project elements underpin water resource management, planning and
development in Tasmania and without the project, Tasmania would have has
a limited capacity for water resource assessment and planning. The project
outputs have also underpinned significant external projects such as the
CSIRO Tasmanian Sustainable Yields project, Climate Futures, the
development of the Tasmanian Environmental Flows Framework and national
projects such as the Australian Water Resource Assessment in 2005. It is
envisaged that with the phased introduction of the Bureau of Meteorology
reporting tools in the next 18 months, models developed under this project will
provide critical information to those reporting processes. Tasmania is
committed to maintaining the currency of the tools developed in this project so
they continue to be relevant to water resource management in the state and
inform national reporting frameworks into the future.