Restoring a healthy environment in the Murray-Darling Basin

Challenge

Studies by CSIRO and other research groups have shown the Murray-Darling Basin is stressed through lack of flows.

There is an urgent need to identify ways to protect, preserve, and improve the health of ecosystems across the Basin through quantifying the amount of water required by the ecosystems and improving its delivery.

Response

CSIRO has been conducting ecological research in the Basin for decades and has delivered a range of research projects across the Basin including:

• partnering with other research and policy agencies in the Murray-Darling Freshwater Research Centre
• investigating how the ecosystems of the Basin’s floodplains function
• studying how ecosystems respond to changing water availability and how aquatic animals respond to these changes
• supporting the Murray Darling Basin Authority’s (MDBA) Basin Plan through the development of river models that support water delivery across the Basin

Outcome

CSIRO has developed a suite of tools and information that brings together the best environmental monitoring, risk assessment and modelling tools and integrates biophysical and socio-economic approaches to help develop improved methods to monitor the health of ecosystems across the basin.

This research is vital in assisting water managers administer water in a way that best supports the needs of the environment, irrigators and other users over the Basin.

For more information download the environmental rehabilitation  fact sheet on page eight.