Murrumbidgee selected area monitoring, evaluation and research plan

The Monitoring, Evaluation and Research program (MER program) builds on the
previous Long Term Intervention Monitoring (LTIM) program (2014 - 2019). In order to protect the integrity of the long-term dataset that was developed under the LTIM program (Wassens et al. 2018) much of the methodology employed in this program is a direct continuation of the previous LTIM program. This new MER program will therefore be the primary mechanism to evaluate the outcomes of Commonwealth Environmental Water (CEW) actions undertaken between 2019 and 2022. The MER program will continue to be implemented at seven Selected Areas over a three year period (2019 - 2010 to 2021 - 2022) to deliver five high-level outcomes (in order of priority):
 Evaluate the contribution of Commonwealth environmental watering to the
objectives of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority’s (MDBA) Environmental Watering Plan.
 Evaluate the ecological outcomes of Commonwealth environmental watering
at each of the seven Selected Areas.
 Infer ecological outcomes of Commonwealth environmental watering in areas
of the Murray-Darling Basin not monitored.
 Support the adaptive management of Commonwealth environmental water.
 Monitor the ecological response to Commonwealth environmental watering
at each of the seven Selected Areas