River Basin Planning

Planning at the basin level enables the interconnections and interdependencies between the different elements of the water resources base and between the water sector and other sectors to be made explicit.

Australia’s most well-known basin management experience is the development of the Murray-Darling River Basin Plan. The Basin Plan provides a coordinated approach cross the Murray-Darling Basin’s five sub-national jurisdictions. Cooperation and coordination between central and state governments was critical to the success of the plan and its ongoing implementation. The Basin Plan is a major step forward in Australia that is aimed at balancing environmental, social and economic considerations by limiting water use to environmentally sustainable levels.

Icon

Do you have these challenges?

  • Trying to decide which basin institutional arrangement is the most appropriate
  • Problems with sediment and/or salt management
  • Trying to implement IWRM at the basin scale
  • Are you developing scenarios for different basin development pathways
  • Interested in improving/strengthening cooperation over shared water resources across international or state boundaries
  • Allocating water to different users and uses
  • Integrating surface and groundwater management
  • Understanding impacts of climate change
  • Developing basin plans

Want to learn more about…

  • Basin planning
  • Modelling platforms to support basin water management
  • Appropriate legal and policy frameworks
  • Governance arrangements
  • Upstream – downstream cooperation
  • IWRM
  • Stakeholder engagement
  • Deliberative governance
  • Mapping water-related assets and resources
  • Hydropower
  • Dams
  • Sediment management
  • Water-food-energy nexus
  • Pollution – water quality guidelines
  • Climate change
  • Implementation – regulation and enforcement
  • Source-to-sea
  • Sustainable water use
  • Water for the environment
  • Water infrastructure (connecting urban, peri-urban and rural)
  • Basic human needs
  • Basin visioning and scenario planning
  • Adaptive management
  • River health – environmental reporting
  • Extractive industries
  • Managed aquifer recharge
  • Transboundary water management

Find out more about what the Australian Water Partnership is offering through
related knowledge products, activities, news and events below

Related AWP knowledge products

River Basin Planning: An Indian Guide – Summary
River Basin Planning: An Indian Guide – Summary (cover)
River Basin Planning: An Indian Guide
India River Basin Planning Policy Frameworks cover
BasinGuide cover
BasinGuide Summary cover
Hydrogeology of the Dry Zone cover
Ayeyarwady SOBA Synthesis Report (Volume 1)
Ayeyarwady BESS Report

Related AWP activities

Related news and interviews

Related events

AWP Partners with this expertise

Coming soon

Further resources