Land and Water Link

November 2003

A new publication maps what has long been uncharted territory in understanding and managing salinity. Groundwater Flow Systems Framework: Essential tools for planning salinity management provides a useful reference for resource managers working at local and regional scales.

This booklet introduces the importance of groundwater flow systems for salinity management at a catchment scale in the Murray-Darling Basin. It also provides an overview of how best to combine different sources of salinity, groundwater and local expert information to target ongoing monitoring and identify how best to use resources to manage salinity.

The Groundwater Flow Systems Framework is a decision-support tool for a consistent approach to managing and preventing salinity across Australia. It was developed to bring groundwater into salinity management at the catchment scale.

‘The framework builds on an understanding of the importance of groundwater in driving salinity. This understanding has grown and consolidated into a national approach over the last five years’, observes Mat Gilfedder, co-author of the booklet.

Across many parts of the Murray-Darling Basin, regional salinity province maps have been produced. This framework approach suggests how these maps can be combined with local expert knowledge to help catchment managers predict and manage the timing and magnitude of changes in salinity.

It aims to help catchment managers prioritise broad areas where more detailed investigations for activities such as stream monitoring and tree planting for the best outcomes might occur.

The framework combines maps (salinity province), knowledge from case study catchments across southern Australia, conceptual models of the different ways salinity arises in different groundwater systems, monitoring data and mathematical models and an understanding of groundwater movement.

It provides insights into the drivers of salinity, the risks it poses and the most appropriate planning and management options at different scales for different outcomes.

Further information:

Copies of the booklet – Groundwater Flow Systems Framework: Essential Tools for Planning Salinity Management by Glen Walker, Mat Gilfedder, Ray Evans, Phil Dyson and Mirko Stauffacher, MDBC Publication 14/03 – are available from the Murray-Darling Basin Commission.

A six-page summary report is available on the CSIRO Land and Water website.