Research Grant
Researchers: Barmuta, Leon (Principal investigator) , Davies, Peter (Principal investigator) , L A Barmuta (Principal investigator) , P E Davies (Principal investigator)
Full description A review of current Australian policies revealed a variety of responses driven by both water reform and climate change agendas. Many agencies are actively revising their policies to accommodate adaptation. However, we note that much of the reform of the water sector in the last 10–15 years has aimed to improve certainty for non-environmental water uses. Under the National Water Initiative, governments have agreed that entitlement holders should bear the risks of reduced volumes or reliability of their water allocations as a result of changes in climate. The key opportunity for adaptive uptake of climate adaptations is by developing and periodically reviewing water management planning tools. Pathways need to be developed for integrating the traditional evolution of planning and policy with the needs for climate change adaptation for aquatic ecosystems. Formal mechanisms for the uptake of knowledge about identified risks into policy and legislative instruments remain under-developed. An even bigger challenge is to integrate multiple adaptation strategies (sometimes at different scales) to achieve specific adaptation objectives within regions or catchments—especially where a mix of water management and non-water management is required.
