Abstract
The Murray-Darling Basin experiences frequent droughts and, at the time of this writing, parts of it are in the grip of the worst drought in the 110 years of comparatively high-quality records. In this chapter, we consider the term drought to be several years with less than median rainfall. The combined impacts of drought and over-allocation of water for irrigation use have led to severe stress on floodplains and wetlands. Climate change projections suggest that the Murray-Darling Basin will be on average drier in the future. The recent drought period has experienced lower autumn and winter rain and higher temperatures than past droughts, resulting in the lowest runoff totals on record in recent years. While these features may be associated with climate change, they may equally be a result of large, long-term climate variability. The recent drought and declining river health have exposed the inadequacy of current water management to cope with the variability of water availability in the Murray-Darling Basin. Future water management strategies should involve consideration of a range of scenarios, including those incorporating climate change.
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Notes
- 1.
A line from “My Country,” by Dorothea Mackellar, first published in 1908.
- 2.
The Murray-Darling Basin Sustainable Yields project was a major project commissioned by the Australian Federal Government, and undertaken by CSIRO in association with relevant state agencies and leading consultants (See Kendall et al. for further details). The project assessed water availability in the Murray-Darling Basin under four main scenarios: historic climate, the current severe drought, climate change (with dry, median and wet sub-scenarios), and climate change plus some anticipated developments which could change water availability (but which did not include changes to the locations or allocations of irrigation water use). The project modeled the water availability under current rules of water sharing, and linked surface water and groundwater use. The project was completed in 2008, the results of which are available in a series of reports (CSIRO 2008).
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Kirby, M., Chiew, F., Mainuddin, M., Young, B., Podger, G., Close, A. (2013). Drought and Climate Change in the Murray-Darling Basin: A Hydrological Perspective. In: Schwabe, K., Albiac, J., Connor, J., Hassan, R., Meza González, L. (eds) Drought in Arid and Semi-Arid Regions. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6636-5_16
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