Transcript Benchmarking Northern Australia`s rivers before further degradation

Ensuring the wise use of
Australia’s tropical rivers and wetlands
Benchmarking Northern Australia’s Tropical
Rivers Before Further Degradation: Practical
Approaches & Constraints
Max Finlayson, George Lukacs, John Lowry, Rick van Dam, Renee
Bartolo & Rudolf De Groot
International Water Management Institute, Colombo, Sri Lanka; Environmental Research Institute of
the Supervising Scientist, Darwin, Australia; James Cook University, Townsville, Australia;Wageningen
University, Wageningen, The Netherlands
A Project of the National Rivers Consortium
Aim & Objectives
Aim: to better inform natural resource managers and
decision-makers about the status of the rivers and
wetlands in northern (tropical) Australia
Objectives: provide an information base for
determining management priorities
1. undertake (collate) a multiple-scale inventory of the
habitats and biota of the rivers and wetlands
2. undertake risk assessments of the major pressures on the
habitats and biota of the rivers and wetlands
3. develop and test a framework for analysis of the
ecosystem services (e.g. provision of water for multiple
uses), provided by the rivers and wetlands of northern
Australia
Practical Approaches & Constraints
Constraints:
-
information base is fragmented, and/or inaccessible, and insufficient
for addressing management needs
-
research/assessment capacity is limited, centralised and bureaucratic
and/or academic
-
local communities and indigenous people often not effectively
engaged and/or empowered
-
driven largely be agendas from southern Australia
Practical Approaches:
-
invest in ongoing stakeholder relationships
-
recognise, share and exchange information from multiple sources
-
make better use of and identify weaknesses in existing data
-
use (and improve) proven structured data collation and analytical
approaches
Tropical Rivers Project Area
FOCAL CATCHMENTS
Daly (NT)
Fitzroy (WA)
Land & Water Australia (2004)
 51 catchments
1,190,973 km2
 3 focus catchments –
Fitzroy, Daly & Flinders
Flinders (Qld)
Integrated framework for wetland inventory, assessment and
monitoring at multiple-scales.
Broad-scale
Broad-scale
Detailed
Assessment
Inventory
Environmental
Impact Assessment
Monitoring
Risk Assessment
Strategic Environmental
Assessment
Rapid Assessment
Vulnerability Assessment
Economic Valuation
An integrated information base (inventory):
Built upon:
 consultation – involvement and recognition of
multiple knowledge sources
 sharing/exchange and analysis of existing
information, and
 specific investigations to provide further data
As a reference for assessing change in the
ecological character of the rivers/wetlands
(habitats, species, and the ecosystem
services they provide)
Inventory of the biological, chemical and physical
features of rivers/wetlands
1.
Consultation (ongoing)
2.
Mapping:
3.
Collate existing river-reach attribute data for GIS
(geomorphology, water quality, hydrology, vegetation, birds,
fish, invertebrates, reptiles and amphibians)
4.
Determine classification for ecological characterisation and
inventory of rivers, and extrapolate to GIS
5.
Ground-truthing and sampling regimes for focal catchments
(where identified and necessary)
6.
Reporting
— includes 1:250 k across northern Australia
— finer scales for focal catchments (1:100 k – 1:50 k)
Tropical Rivers Project
Landform Data
Location of gauging stations throughout the project
area with a period of record at least 20 y.
Location of gauging stations within the Daly river catchment with at
least 20 y of complete annual flow data.
G8140151
G8140011
G8140068
G8140044
G8140159
G8140063
G8140067
G8140161
G8140158
G8140040
G8140152
G8140008
G8140001
0
0.5
1
1.5
Coefficient of variation
2
0
100
200
300
400
Mean annual runoff (mm)
Inter-annual variability of runoff (Left) and mean annual runoff
(Right) of the streams within the Daly river catchment area.
Identifying & compilation of base drainage data
Validation / cleaning of base drainage data
Broad scale
classification
Focus-catchment scale
classification
Bedrock channel
Bedrock channel
Bedrock confined
Bedrock-confined
Alluvial
Low sinuosity rivers
Meandering rivers
Floodouts
Multiple channel rivers
Wandering channel rivers
Lake / swamp
Non-channelised
Swamp / waterbody dominated zone
Estuarine
Tidal
Records of seasonal occurrence of Little Curlew
Sept
Oct-Jan
Feb-mid March
mid March - April
Aboriginal cultural landscape – a living, cultural environment
Assessment of major pressures on
rivers/wetlands
1.
Within selected major catchments and at
important sites
2.
Collation of information on pressures (after
consultations with stakeholders)
3.
Database development and quantitative ecological
risk assessments
4.
Recommendations for risk reduction/management
steps and monitoring
Problem formulation
Issue/Hazard
Assessment
Risk assessment &
ranking
Monitoring
• Effects/hazard assessment
• Likelihood assessment
Decision processes
Risk
management
Making risk
management
decisions
Further
investigations
Alternative
scenarios
Conceptual model for multiple pressures
Scale 3
Scale 2
Scale 1
Infrastructure
Fire
Ferals
Pr (Risk) = Pr (effects) x Pr (exposure)
Mining
Weeds
Climate change
Transition states for wetland vegetation - water drawdown &
flooded conditions - based on reproductive features.
Annual, short-lived
species
Perennial, short-lived
species
seed
seed
seed
seed
adult
adult
adult
adult
extinct
extinct
extinct
extinct
Flooded
Water
drawdown
Flooded
Water
drawdown
How will increased external pressures affect the vegetation
patterns and ecological character?
Project 3:Development of a framework for the
analysis of ecosystem services provided by
rivers/wetlands
1. Derive a framework and an initial database
for analysing ecosystem services provided
by aquatic ecosystems
2. Conducted by students from University of
Wageningen (Netherlands)
3. Small budget project, regarded as a pilot
study with no resources to apply
elsewhere (outside of NT)
Integrated assessment framework for project overview
(6) Planning &
Management Measures
(5) Policy Analysis
and Institutional
Aspects
Sub-project 1: Function analysis &
.
Ecological valuation
(Sophie)
(1) Ecosystem
Functions/
Goods &
Services
(1) Ecological Values
Based on ecological
integrity
DecisionMaking
Process
1. Regulation
2. Habitat
3. Production
(2) Socio-cultural values
Based on equity and
cultural perceptions
4. Information
5. Carrier
(3) Economic Values
Based on efficiency and
cost-effectiveness
(4) Integrated
Cost-Benefit
Analysis
Stakeholder
Involvement
Sub-project 2: Socio-cultural valuation
(Bas) .
Sub-project 3: Socio-economic
.
valuation
(Clement)
Sub-project 4: Integrated cost-benefit .
analysis
(Olga)
Sub-project 5: Policy analysis &
.
Institutional aspects
(Pujan)
Sub-project 6: Planning &
Management measures
.
(Matt)
Daly and Mary Rivers (NT) - 27 different functions (goods and
services)
•Provisioning services - agriculture (cattle, buffalo), horticulture, crocodile
farming, aquaculture, mining; harvesting natural resources such as food,
commercial and subsistence fishing, medicinal resources, ornamental
resources
•Supporting services - habitat for wildlife and as nursery areas
•Regulating services - climate regulation, water supply (for flora, fauna and
human use), regulating runoff, soil retention, soil formation, nutrient
regulation and waste treatment
•Cultural and amenity services: aesthetic information, recreation & tourism,
spiritual and historic information, cultural and artistic information, and use
in science and education.
Economic value of 10 of 27 main goods and service - estimated
A$50.7 million for Mary River catchment (~A$ 450/ha) and
A$82.4 million for Daly river catchment (~A$230/ha)
Low figure compared to literature ~ A$4000/ha/year
Economically most important functions - carbon sequestration
A$87 million; water use A$46 million; agriculture/horticulture
A$26.5 million; tourism A$21 million
Conservative approach - contribution of these wetland goods
and services to the local community and the regional economy is
much higher than the shown values
Thank you