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The Australian Water Project
Author(s): John Langford Am, John briscoe Produced by: CEDA: Committee for Economic Development of Australia Publication type: Report Keywords: ecosystem, risk, agriculture
Description about the research publication
Australia’s climate is one of the most variable in the world and the historical record since European settlement has been punctuated by severe droughts and floods. Australia’s uncertain climate is both a threat and an opportunity. While frequent droughts and floods cause great hardship to communities, they stimulate adaptation and generate the political will for reform. Australia’s recognised management skills in adapting to an uncertain climate, and record of innovative water reform is due in no small measure to its uncertain climate.
The recent extended drought from the mid 1990s to 2009 has been the worst in recorded history for the vital catchments of the Murray-Darling Basin, and several of the capital cities. This drought has provided a “stress test” for Australia’s water reforms and there are many valuable lessons to be learnt from hard experience. The international water community looks to Australia as an exemplar of water reform and is keen to learn from this experience. While there are many success stories of water management
throughout this difficult period, a rigorous examination of the outcomes of the recent drought is also required to avoid the risk of repeating costly mistakes in water policy and management.
The Committee for the Economic Development of Australia (CEDA) initiated the Australian Water Project with Uniwater (a joint venture between the University of Melbourne and Monash University), and Harvard University to explore water reform in Australia. The outcome of this collaboration will be realised in two research volumes, this being the first.
Volume 1: Crisis and opportunity: Lessons of Australian water reform
Volume 1 is now a “draft for discussion” paper. A series of workshops will be held in Adelaide, Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne during the early part of 2012 to engage water policy experts, including the authors, CEDA’s Water Panel and CEDA Trustees. These workshops will be focused on the reform agenda identified by the contributors to the discussion paper and will be incorporated into the final version by the editorial team.
Source of text, figures and link: CEDA website
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