How is the Basin Plan restoring environmental flow regime in the Murray-Darling?
Watch the video of Water Security Series: How is the Basin Plan restoring environmental flow regime in the Murray-Darling? held on Wednesday 18 November 2020.
In the Murray-Darling Basin, significant volumes of water have been recovered from irrigators to provide environmental flows and protect the basin's environment. Over the last few years there has been a lot of media discussion about the performance of the Basin Plan and particularly the delivery of environmental flow outcomes. Both the Murray Darling Basin Authority and Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder provide regular reports on progress in delivering environmental flows. In fact just this month, the Murray Darling Basin Authority is releasing its most recent report on progress with the Basin Plan. The seminar provided various perspectives on progress with this ambitious program to deliver environmental flows across a 1 million km2 river basin.
Panelists
Paul Marsh
Director of Science team, Commonwealth Environmental Water Office
Paul Marsh is the Director of the science team in the Commonwealth Environmental Water Office which oversees a program of monitoring, evaluation and research focussed on the outcomes of environmental watering in the Murray Darling Basin. Paul has worked in various government roles over the last 30 years implementing policies and programs to protect Australia's biodiversity, land and water.
Jacqui Hickey
General Manager, Applied Sciences, Murray-Darling Basin Authority
Jacqui Hickey is the General Manager for Applied Science at the Murray Darling Basin Authority. Jacqui oversees the investment and application of science as a key foundation for water management and policy within the Murray-Darling Basin Authority. Prior to this, Jacqui headed up the River Murrays Operations team at the Authority, responsible for the operation of the River Murray System including the delivery of water for the environment along the River Murray. Throughout her career, which includes a range of surface water management roles in public and private sectors across Victoria and Western Australia, science has always played an important role. For the Basin, this has been in helping improve river operations, inform robust policy settings and guiding the delivery of water for the environment.
Michael Stewardson
Professor, Hydrology & Water Resource, Infrastructure Engineering, The University of Melbourne
Over the last 25 years, Michael's research has focused on interactions between hydrology, geomorphology and ecology in rivers. This has included physical habitat modelling, flow-ecology science, and innovation in environmental water practice. Over this same periods, environmental water management has grown to a multi-billion dollar sector in Australia. Michael has participated in this evolution through many advisory roles at all levels of government. More recently, his research has focused on the physical, chemical and biological processes in streambed sediments and their close interactions in regulating stream ecosystem services. He leads the Environmental Hydrology and Water Resources Group in the Melbourne School of Engineering. He is also lead academic for the Water Environment and Agriculture Program in MSE, and Director of the Mallee Regional Innovation Centre.
Dr Sharon Davis (Chair)
Senior Enterprise Fellow, The University of Melbourne
Dr Sharon Davis is a Senior Enterprise Fellow at the University of Melbourne, with a PhD in Catchment Hydrology. As a Director of Water Practice Consulting, Sharon has over 20 years of experience in the public sector leading water and natural resource management policy, technical and R&D programs. Sharon's research interests focus on bridging science and policy to inform decision making.