- The states in the Murray Darling Basin have done extensive work in determining and defining a set of environmental water requirements (EWRs) for each valley in the Basin, which are detailed in their respective Long Term Watering Plans. The EWRs in these PDF documents represent a significant wealth of environmental science. We needed a way to harness this environmental science in our analytical workflows to enhance our management practices in the Basin.
- We have developed a python tool to access an EWR database. The tool has two modes:
1. Observed: observed flows are accessed for sites of interest, and checked against EWRs.
2. Scenario testing: model scenarios are loaded into the tool and checked against EWR requirements, for assessing the environmental impact of changes to variables including of policy settings, infrastructure, or the climate.
- There are a considerable amount of EWRs in the Murray Darling Basin. When setting the Basin Plan settings we had just over 100, now there are thousands across the Basin. The next challenge will be working out how to communicate results of this volume to policy managers in a meaningful way.
- The tool is reproducible, reusable and demonstrable, ensuring transparency and better communication with other water managers, as well as the public. Having the tool allows for more of the conversation to move away from analytical methods and interpretation issues to the implications of the results.