The Basin-scale Project is a three-year investment in monitoring, evaluation and research (MER) to enable reporting on the outcomes of Commonwealth environmental water and to support adaptive environmental flow management over time. The purpose of the project is to:
- Demonstrate the outcomes of Commonwealth environmental water across the Basin.
- Support adaptive management of Commonwealth environmental water.
- Support the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder to fulfil legislative requirements under the Basin Plan.
The Basin-scale Evaluation – formerly the Long Term Intervention Monitoring (LTIM) Project – is undertaken in conjunction with the Flow-MER Program Selected Area-scale project teams. The Selected Area-scale Projects provide data at the Selected Area-scale that is used in the Basin-scale Evaluation. Basin-scale Research – formerly the Environmental Water Knowledge and Research (EWKR) Project – is an investment in new and ongoing research to support environmental water management and inform and enhance Basin-scale Evaluation. Research is being undertaken throughout the Basin.
Flow-MER provides the CEWO with evidence to inform our understanding of how water for the environment is helping maintain, protect, and restore the ecosystems and native species across the Murray–Darling Basin. This evidence exists in the form of publicly available data, models, model outputs and reports. Reports are delivered each year at the Basin-scale and by the Selected Areas. Past reports provide an ongoing record of the outcomes from the delivery of Commonwealth Environmental Water, as well as the knowledge to inform adaptive management of environmental water.
We will produce:
- Selected Area reports in 2020, 2021 and 2022.
- A 2020 Basin-scale Synthesis Report covering the evaluation for the 2018/19 environmental water year combined with previous years. This will be published by Latrobe University and accompanied by Basin-scale reports for each Theme.
- A 2020 Basin-scale Research Report to be published by CSIRO and documenting Basin-scale research undertaken during 2019/20. This Report will also summarise the intended outcomes from future research to be undertaken over three years to 2022.
- Future Basin-scale reports to be published by CSIRO and due in July 2021 and 2022 will comprise:
- A Basin-scale Synthesis report summarising new knowledge generated in the previous year from research investigations, as well as providing an evaluation of the ecological outcomes from the prior water year (2019/20 and 2020/21 respectively) and combining this with a cumulative evaluation of prior water years.
- Basin-scale Theme reports covering research and evaluation for each of the six Basin Themes.
The Basin-scale MER Project is being undertaken from 2019 to 2022 and is led by CSIRO in partnership with the University of Canberra, and collaborating with Charles Sturt University, Deakin University, University of New England, SARDI, Arthur Rylah Institute, DPE Environment and Heritage Group, Australian River Restoration Centre and LitePC Technologies.