River Murray system operations
View the video of Water Security Series: River Murray system operations held on Thursday 17 October 2019.
Overview
Since the early 2000s, there has been substantial change in the River Murray System and its tributaries, including the introduction of the Basin Plan, recovery of water for the environment, emergence of new irrigated agricultural products, channel erosion and climate variability. River operations have adapted to these changes. However, there is concern about whether the risk of not being able to meet all demands is increasing. The Murray-Daring Basin Authority and River Murray states have been working closely on a program to understand if these system changes have increased the risk of not being able to meet all demands and if the appropriate management measures are in place.
In this seminar, Joe Davis, Senior Director of Operations Improvement at the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, will provide an overview of the work program, including the modelling being undertaken to investigate how delivery risks are changing and the key factors driving that risk. Mark Bailey, Head of Water Resources at Goulburn-Murray Water, will present the current Victorian Murray system outlook and what is being done to manage the delivery risk this year. Grace Mitchell, Executive Director Water Resource Strategy will provide an update on the steps the Victorian Government is taking to make sure arrangements are in place to manage delivery risks that provide certainty to water entitlement holders about their supply risks, including reviewing the works licence application process and the Goulburn to Murray trade rule.
Speakers
Dr Joseph Davis
Murray-Darling Basin Authority
Dr Joseph Davis is the Senior Director of Operations Improvement at the Murray Darling Basin Authority. As Senior Director, Joe is responsible for strategic and policy directions of River Murray Operations and ensuring the approach and the tools remain contemporary. This includes being involved in and supporting the current work undertaken by the joint governments regarding challenges around system capacity, environmental water delivery, interstate trade and river operations data management and system tools. Joe has been in his current role for six months but previously was the Senior Director River Murray Operations at the MDBA for over 5 years and has been with the MDBA/MDBC since 2005.
Dr Grace Mitchell
Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning
Dr Grace Mitchell is the Executive Director, Water Resources Strategy, at the Victorian Government’s Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning (DELWP). Grace is an engineer by training, who built a successful research career before making a shift to the government sector, working for the Bureau of Meteorology and more recently the Victorian government. She has a technical background in water resource management within the Australian context, with over 20 years’ experience in both the urban and rural sectors and including experience in water policy, analysis and reporting, hydrologic software development, training and implementation.
Dr Mark Bailey
Goulburn-Murray Water
Dr Mark Bailey is GMW’s Head of Water Resources. He leads the Water Resources Unit, which manages groundwater and surface water resources across the entire GMW region. This includes river operations, groundwater management plans, water quality, and drainage systems.
Mark is also the Resource Manager for northern Victoria’s water systems and makes seasonal determinations that tell entitlement holders what percentage of their entitlement that they’re able to use. The Minister for Water appointed GMW to this role under the Victorian Water Act.
Chair
Dr Sharon Davis
The University of Melbourne
Dr Davis is a Senior Enterprise Fellow at the University of Melbourne. She has more than 20 years experience in the public sector at both the state and federal level leading water and environmental policy, technical and R&D programs. She spent 13 years working on Murray-Darling Basin issues with the MDBC and MDBA and more recently was the Executive Director, Water Resources in Victoria from 2014-2018.
Throughout her career she has focussed on bridging science and policy to inform decision making. In 2011 Sharon was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to Harvard University where she worked within the Harvard Water Security Initiative and taught at the Kennedy School of Government. She has a PhD in Catchment Hydrology.