Summary

The Goulburn Broken region faces significant challenges and opportunities. Issues such as free-trade agreements, climate change, water reform, and technological developments will have a significant influence on the future. As one of the oldest gravity irrigation systems in Australia, Goulburn-Murray Water’s irrigation system needs substantial renewal of its ageing infrastructure in the next 20 years. The consequences of these pressures are highly uncertain and will impact on the region’s economy, environmental assets and social fabric. It is therefore critical that the region develops a sound plan to strategically position itself for irrigation in the future.

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Aims

• Facilitate key stakeholders to develop a shared vision for the future of irrigation in the Goulburn Broken Region over the next 30 years, and to identify scenarios of major constraints and opportunities and of regional response options.
• Understand the social, economic and environmental consequences of various scenarios through impact assessment that integrates the best available knowledge.
• Facilitate key stakeholders to build consensus on preferred regional options for future irrigation, and recommend regional follow-up actions.
• Develop a methodology that can be applied elsewhere in Australia for sustainable irrigation planning at a catchment scale.

Outcomes

A wide cross section of the community and stakeholder organisations contributed their knowledge and ideas to the exploration of the future of irrigation in the region.

The community and organisational stakeholders articulated their aspirations for the future of the region, the challenges and opportunities that the future may present, and strategies to build the region’s capability to manage those potential opportunities and challenges.

The project team collaborated with stakeholder groups to identify regional and agency-specific strategies for the future of the region, embed these findings in their strategic plans, and to develop practical tools to support the adoption of these findings.

The project has demonstrated that scenario planning can be used by communities for regional planning. It has documented a regional scenario planning methodology which can now be used by others, and has supported the use of the methodology in other regions.

Background

This project evolved from the scoping study undertaken by Peter Watts (FSA1), which looked at Reduction of Evaporation from Farm Dams. One area recommended for further work was the development of a simple computer model (a ready reckoner) which would allow site-specific assessment of evaporation mitigation technologies.

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