Future environmental water management

Water for human-centric consumptive use has a long history in water planning in Australia but managing water for environmental benefit is relatively new. While there have been significant advances in scientific understanding, environmental water planning and system operation, there is still much to learn. We propose five focal areas for investment to advance environmental water management over the next 30 years: 1) Develop agreed and quantifiable long-term objectives for environmental water; 2) Shift to landscape-scale planning and delivery of environmental water; 3) Shift to managing for ecosystem processes rather than individual species; 4) Develop a strategy to inform long-term environmental water use, especially during water scarcity; and 5) Address physical, social and operational issues that constrain how environmental water can be delivered. In doing so, we propose a framework for tackling these issues in an integrated and systematic way which will lead to better outcomes from environmental water management.