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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Visitors/Collaborators

Dr Ken Knox

During February 2010, Dr Ken Knox, a consultant with URS Corporation, and formerly the Chief Deputy State Engineer for the State of Colorado, USA and adjunct professor with the University of Denver, visited Queensland.

The initial motivation for Dr Knox's 10 day visit was an invitation for him to be a guest speaker at the Burdekin Water Forum held in Ayr on 15 and 16 February.

Dr Knox's extensive experience in water resources research, engineering, management and policy, made him a perfect choice as one of the international experts and draw card for this regional event.

Hosted by Burdekin Water Futures, the Burdekin Water Forum brought together water resource stakeholders from across the region, state and nation to discuss the complex and difficult challenges being experienced by those involved in integrated water resources management. System harmonisation, working together, collaboration, participation and transparency were some of the main themes to come out of the forum.

Dr Knox, together with Professor Shahbaz Khan (UNESCO, France), set the scene during the Monday evening session with their opening addresses highlighting international trends in irrigation and water management, and international groundwater challenges and initiatives. The workshop the following day continued the high level interactive discussions, with a focus on challenges being experienced within the different stakeholder sectors and ended with a lively panel discussion on positioning for the Burdekin's future prosperity.

Following his time in the Burdekin, Dr Knox presented his work on surface water / groundwater interactions to an enthusiastic audience at CSIRO Davies Laboratory in Townsville. Dr Knox spoke on

• the lack of or a failure to recognise hydrological information and how this can result in water problems,
• how scientific data has been used to influence water management policy and legislation, and
• learning how we can do better in future.

A day spent in Brisbane prior to returning to Colorado allowed Dr Knox to hold lengthy discussions with Queensland Department of the Environment & Resource Management senior staff, and to meet with Professor David Lockington from the University of Queensland.

As well as his northern visit in February 2010, Dr Knox visited southern Australia in November 2009, and has written a report on these two experiences. View his Report (PDF, 413kB) and see his short biography (PDF, 20 kB)

Dr Knox’s visits were funded by the CSIRO Water for a Healthy Country Flagship and the CRC for Irrigation Futures.

Professor Roland Schulze

Professor Roland Schulze from the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa spent a busy and highly productive two weeks during September interacting with various groups and organisations across Australia. Organised by Dr Keith L. Bristow and funded by the CRC for Irrigation Futures, Professor Schulze travelled to Canberra, Townsville, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth to meet and interact with staff from a range of organisations and give a number of seminar presentations.

Professor Schulze has had a long and distinguished career and is an internationally recognised expert in hydrology. He has worked and lectured in several countries around the world and is particularly well known for his work on the ACRU hydrological model, the South African Atlas of Agrohydrology and Climatology, and more recently on climate change impacts on the water resources of South Africa.

Professor Schulze delivered a range of seminars on topics including: Projecting impacts of climate change at the local scale is what matters; The estimation of Daily Penman-Monteith based reference crop evapotranspiration at one arc minute resolution; and Climate Change and the Agriculture Sector in South Africa: To Stress or not to Stress? . . . That is the Question.

Professor Schulze has many accolades to his name, including the SA Institute of Agricultural Engineers Gold Medal for “outstanding contributions to hydrology in SA”, Fellowship of the University of Natal in recognition of “distinguished academic achievement”, Fellowship of the Royal Society of South Africa for “distinguished contribution in the furtherance of science in South Africa”, Life membership of the International Water Academy of Norway, and Agricultural Researcher of the Year for KwaZulu-Natal.

Professor Schulze’s time in Australia and the many interactions with researchers across our country proved highly valuable and those who participated in meetings, conversations and seminar presentations were delighted with the opportunity to connect with the Professor Schulze and are keen to continue the dialogue and build further linkages with the work going on in South Africa.

Read Professor Schulze’s report on his general observations, impressions and perceptions from the scientific exchanges undertaken during his visit. (PDF, 172 kB)

Dr Mark Dent

Dr Mark Dent, a bio-resources engineer and management development professional who co-ordinates the Masters in Environmental Management program at the Centre for Environment, Agriculture & Development at the University of KwaZulu-Natal Pietermaritzburg, South Africa visited Australia during late February and early March 2008 to share experiences from South Africa’s Water Reform Program.

Dr Dent’s experience suggested that most water management failures are the result of mismatches between:

• The nature of the water resources
• The institutions that manage them
• Policy goals and capacity to implement, and
• The scientific and policy instruments used

Dr Dent presented seminars and participated in workshops and meetings in Perth, Adelaide, Sydney, Canberra, Brisbane, Townsville and Ayr.

The following organisations provided assistance and support to make this trip possible:  the International Centre of Excellence in Water Resources Management (ICEWarm), the Co-operative Research Centre for Irrigation Futures, the National Water Commission, the Natural Resources Commission of New South Wales, the Western Australia Department of Water, the Australian Water Association, CSIRO Water for a Healthy Country, CSIRO Land and Water, the University of KwaZulu-Natal.

Please see the report generated from this research work - Implementing the National Water Initiative:  Benefiting from Lessons Derived from a Cross-Comparison of Australian and South African Experiences. (PDF, 3.5 MB)

Professor Henrique Chaves

Professor Henrique Chaves, from the University of Brasilia, Brazil visited Australia between 14 August and 8 September 2006.

Professor Chaves visited Perth, Kununurra, Darwin, Brisbane, Townsville, Ayr, Canberra, Sydney, holding presentations and meetings with scientific, technical and government institutions.  This trip also included visits to two large irrigation districts (the Ord River Irrigation Area in Western Australia and the lower Burdekin catchment in Queensland).

Whilst in Brisbane Dr Chaves attended Riversymposium as a guest speaker, presenting the watershed sustainability index he has developed and applied to several river basins in latin America.

The NAIF project team hosted Professor Chaves during his visit, which was sponsored by Riversymposium, CSIRO, CRC for Irrigation Futures, WA Department of Water.

More information is available from Professor Chaves’ “Report on a Working Trip to Australia”. (PDF, 2.6 MB)

Dr Mike Bonell

Dr Mike Bonell, Chief of the Hydrological Processes and Climate section of the UNESCO Division of Water Sciences, Paris, France, visited north Queensland on 17 February 2004.

The aim of Dr Bonell’s visit was to provide an overview of HELP (Hydrology for the Environment, Life and Policy), a joint initiative of the United Nations Educational Scientific Organization (UNESCO) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) - to an audience of CSIRO and external parties. HELP is creating a new approach to integrated catchment management through the creation of a framework for water law and policy experts, water resource managers and water scientists to work together on water-related problems.

During this visit Dr Bonell participated in meetings and gave a seminar at CSIRO Townsville Davies Laboratory.  Dr Bonell then travelled to the lower Burdekin to meet with representatives from the North and South Burdekin Water Boards, BBIFMAC, Sunwater and other organisations, as well as visit some of the field sites, weirs and river pump stations.

Dr Bonell also attended the Lower Burdekin Water Forum that evening at the Burdekin Theatre which provided an opportunity to experience first hand the integrated approach science, industry, government and the community are using to debate and develop a range of issues aimed at improving management of water resources and water quality in the lower Burdekin.
More information on the UNESCO HELP Program can be found at http://portal.unesco.org/science/en/ev.php-URL_ID=1205&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html