Northern Australia Irrigation Futures

Providing new knowledge, tools, and processes to support debate
and decision making regarding irrigation in northern Australia

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Case studies - Katherine-Douglas-Daly

Background

The Katherine-Douglas-Daly Region in the Northern Territory is widely recognised for its conservation values but has also been subject to increasing demands for irrigated agriculture and horticulture. At the same time, community concerns and pressures are mounting for better planning to protect water-dependent and terrestrial ecosystems.  Natural resource management challenges in the Daly River Region represent the range of planning needs for sustainable water resource development based on controlled access to natural river flows and groundwater in northern Australia.

Research undertaken by the NAIF team in the Katherine-Douglas-Daly region has included:

• Improving understanding of the hydrogeological settings, groundwater systems, and surface water – groundwater interactions in northern Australia
• Improving current understandings of hydrogeochemical processes in dry tropical catchment areas and the impacts of irrigated agriculture on groundwater chemistry
• Understanding what (if any) benefits irrigation mosaics (smaller patches of irrigation distributed spatially within the landscape) can deliver in a northern Australia context
• Application of the Ecologically Sustainable Development (ESD) Component Tree System (link to http://www.clw.csiro.au/publications/science/2007/sr78-07.pdf)
• Various meetings, presentations and workshops held with Northern Territory stakeholders

Useful Links

Northern Territory Department of Natural Resources, Environment, Arts and Sport
http://www.nt.gov.au/nreta/index.html

Daly River Management Advisory Committee (DRMAC)
http://www.nt.gov.au/nreta/water/drmac/index.html

Tropical Rivers and Coastal Knowledge Program (TRACK)
http://www.track.gov.au/

Charles Darwin University
http://www.cdu.edu.au/

Tropical Savannas CRC
http://savanna.cdu.edu.au/