Perth Laboratory – Public Seminar Series 2007

Water Accounting: A tool for integrated water resources management and scenario analyses

Dr Judy Eastham
Research Scientist
CSIRO Land and Water

Thursday 4 October 2007 at 3.30pm, CSIRO Auditorium

Abstract

Water use accounts provide a tool for integrated water resources management, and a basis for integrating hydrology, environment, social and economic issues and policy and institutional issues in a river basin. This seminar will introduce the concepts of water use accounting, and the spreadsheet modelling approach we have developed to estimate major water uses in a river basin. We are applying the approach to river systems within Australia and to a range of river basins across the developing world for the CGIAR Challenge Program for Water and Food. The program aims to explore threats, opportunities and trade-offs in water access and their impact on poverty, food security, health and environmental sustainability. Our project is producing overview water use accounts for 11 river basins which are the focus of the program. These accounts, produced in the same way for each basin, allow comparison and synthesis of information across these basins. They may also be used to investigate the likely impact of major changes such as climate change, population growth, land use changes, increasing dam storages, and irrigation development including improvement in system efficiencies. Application of the water accounts and various scenarios will be illustrated using examples from the Challenge project river basins.

About the speaker

Judy Eastham is a research scientist with CSIRO Land and Water in Canberra, and is currently leading the project “Water use accounts for the Challenge program for water and food basins”. Judy’s expertise is in water balance measurement and modelling of various land use systems, including forestry, native vegetation, irrigated agriculture and horticulture. She has applied this expertise at a range of scales from plot, paddock, hillslope, and now at a river basin scale. Her interests now lie in applying her expertise across different systems and scales to tackle issues of sustainable water resources management.

For seminar information email Perth Seminars or phone (08) 9333 6221
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