A Decision Support System for Planning Environmental Flow Allocations

There is widespread agreement amongst most selections of the Australian community that action needs to be taken to restore, where possible, the ecological value of Australian rivers. Probably the biggest change that has occurred since European arrival 210 years ago is the regulation of most inland (and some coastal) rivers, principally to supply water for irrigated agriculture. The environment is now accepted by the highest levels of government as having as much right to water as consumptive water users such as irrigated agriculture and town and domestic supply. In this chapter, we describe the design of a Decision Support System (DSS) that has been commissioned by a major water resource management agency to help establish what those environmental water needs are. This system has been designed to combine existing hydrological models with the scant information available about environmental water needs. It is planned that the system will be used by community groups to help establish an acceptable balance between consumptive and environmental water allocations.