Global water challenges River Basin Management Opportunities and Risks

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River Basin Management
Opportunities and Risks
Don Blackmore | 3 May 2013
Global Water Challenges

The reform agenda
Policy | Institutional | Instruments | Tools

Ratio of maximum annual flow to
minimum annual flow for selected rivers
15.5MURRAYAUSTRALIA
4705.2DARLINGAUSTRALIA
54.3HUN...

Evolution of Water Management in
Australia
Pioneering and Discovery Phase
1880 – 1920
Delivery Phase 1920 – 1985
Managemen...

Dams - How Many?
40,000 over 15m since 1950
• One every 2 days

Trans-boundry Rivers
Currently 261
• Covering: 145 nations
45.3% land surface of earth
80% available freshwater

Water Treaties
3600 Water related treaties since AD 805
6 minor water related skirmishes
1 major conflict
One new country

Murray-Darling
Indus
Ganges
Mekong
Nile
Euphrates
The clash of
PERCEPTION vs FACT
The Basins – Murray-Darling / Africa & A...

Driving Philosophy:
You can’t manage what you
can’t measure and describe
The Murray-Darling Basin
Must move from
perceptio...

Ganges River Basin

The River – South Asia Monsoons
A highly variable hydrology
Difficult to manage
Prone to drought and flood

Ganges Water Balance
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
Baseline High Dev.
Annual
volume
(km3)
Total flow
Active storage
Consumptiv...

Fact
The next 20+ major dams will have little impact on
mainstream Ganges floods
Major hydro electric benefits exist
Surfa...

The Mekong

Areas affected by salinity intrusion
Baseline results

Mekong Water Balance
0
100
200
300
400
500
Baseline High Dev.
Annual
volume
(km3)
Total flow
Active storage
Consumptive use

Fact
China dams deliver a much needed increase in low flow
and mitigate salinity intrusion in the delta. They also
provide...

The Australian Story

1. Diminishing water security
Climate change and drought
Urban population growth
2. Over-allocation of resources
Rapid and...

The reform agenda
Policy | Institutional | Instruments | Tools

The Murray-Darling Basin
70% of Australia’s
irrigated agriculture
However...
Serious over-allocation
of water between
1960...

Elements of the reform agenda

National water policy reform (1994-2004)
1994 COAG water reforms
Institutional reform (rural and urban)
Property rights an...

Trading volumes

Managing through drought: Alloc vs trade

Water productivity improvements in China
Cities now take almost all the water…. but agricultural output
relatively steady

Irrigation benchmarking

India is taking up the challenge
“Resilience of ecosystems to become a central plank of policy”
“20% increase in water use...

The Murray-Darling Basin Plan (2010-11)
Defines ‘Sustainable Diversion Limits’
For 20 River Valleys in MDB (in different S...

Building the new
integrated modelling system
for Australia

CLIMATE
LAND USE
ECOLOGICAL
ASSETS
DAMS &
WEIRS
IRRIGATION CITIES
IMS
Integrated modelling system (IMS)
for rural and urba...

Murray-Darling
Indus
Ganges
Mekong
Nile
Euphrates
The clash of
PERCEPTION vs FACT
The Basins – Murray-Darling / Africa & A...

Credit: NASA/Trent Schindler and
Matt Rodell
Punjab is a Global
Hotspot in GW over-
exploitation

Global water challenges River Basin Management Opportunities and Risks

Global water challenges River Basin Management Opportunities and Risks

Global water challenges River Basin Management Opportunities and Risks

Global water challenges River Basin Management Opportunities and Risks

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