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Since November I've been working with the North Central CMA to roll out parts of the Natural Disaster Relief and Recovery Arrangements (NDRRA) funding. The fund of about $9M is in response to extensive flooding in late 2010 and early 2011 and is directed at various emergency response measures as well as ongoing recovery works. One year on from the floods, North Central CMA CEO Damian Wells speaks about the program on ABC local radio.

Recovery works include reinstatement of and repairs to sites of previous environmental works such as fencing repairs, levee breaches and structures previously built to prevent erosion. It is expected that the works may take 18 months to deliver.

Flood events are at the same time devastating to private landholders and local communities, and a tremendous bounty to the environment (for example the National Waterbird Survey has seen overall waterbird numbers in eastern Australia bounce back to well above the long-term average, reversing the long-term decline observed since 1983). From an engineering and personal perspective the challenge is to make the most of available funding to deliver sound environmental and community outcomes given timing constraints and the funding arrangements themselves.


The Loddon River (background) and Serpentine Creek (foreground) in flood, September 2010 (image courtesy of North Central CMA)
 

On 28th November the Murray Darling Basin Authority released the ‘Proposed Basin Plan’.




There is a long history to this issue, but a recent summary is:

• March 2008 - The Commonwealth Water Act 2007 was passed in Federal parliament (and corresponding legislation in relevant state and territory governments) stating that the MDBA be created and a Basin Plan be developed.
• October 2010 – Guide to the Proposed Basin Plan released for comment
• October 2010 – Parliamentary inquiry into Murray-Darling Basin Plan commenced 
• January 2011 – Craig Knowles appointed Chair of MDBA
• March 2011 – Parliamentary inquiry delivers its report into the Murray Darling Basin Plan
• November 2011 – Proposed Basin Plan released.

The Proposed Basin Plan is open for comment for 20 weeks. After this period the MDBA will revise the Plan and release a final Basin Plan which then goes to Federal Parliament to be passed by both houses. There is an opportunity to provide submissions on the Proposed Basin Plan here – so if you have an opinion, now is the chance to put it forward. As an aside I think it is far more valuable (and far more likely to be considered), if you write your own submission rather than sign some kind of generic petition.

There is no doubt that this is a major national reform that affects hundreds of thousands of people, industries and towns across Australia. And while there is agreement that things need to change, exactly how, where and who pays is another story. Some key points that get overlooked in this debate are that there are no compulsory acquisition of water licences, water rights or property rights, and that the implementation of the Plan is stretched over decades rather than months.  This is about a long term transition.

If you are interested in the future of the Murray Darling Basin, its rivers, the communities, its ability to sustain healthy communities and economies in an environment affected by climate change, then I think you should make the effort to put your views forward.   Here is the link to put a submission in. 

Engineers Without Borders Australia and Engineers Australia have launched the Snapshot of Pro Bono Engineering report to celebrate the Year of Humanitarian Engineering. 



The Year, and this report, has highlighted the power engineers and the industry have to make significant and lasting impacts on communities in need. Pro bono engineering provides opportunities for companies to make contributions to communities through the provision of engineering services at a significantly reduced, or no fee basis.

The great thing about this report is that it is the one the first efforts across the industry to encapsulate the work that people are doing in this area. Throughout the report there are various examples of how companies are getting involved. By examining different approaches to structuring pro bono engineering, the report is effectively a call to action for those people and companies who are yet to become engaged in the area.

Right now the Jackson's Creek is getting the best drink it's had in 15 years, with an environmental flow release of 200 megalitres over 10 days on the back of recent heavy rains.

Jackson's Creek is part of the Maribyrnong system in Melbourne's west and was the subject of a recent evaluation by Alluvium for the environmental flows team at Melbourne Water.

Given how close to the brink much of the Jackson's aquatic life came at the height of the recent drought, it is great news that the waterway's health is receiving a boost this summer.

Link to media release

The Bureau of Meteorology’s inaugural Australian Water Resources Assessment report (AWRA 2010) is now available. A large part of my three years at the Bureau was invested in the production of this information resource. Broadly, I was responsible for scoping and planning the report, leading the team that produced it and engaging with its many stakeholders, reviewers and contributors.
It took almost two years to produce, and represents a first but important step by the Bureau in providing water resources information in a consistent and coherent fashion across the country.


You can download a compressed version of the whole document, or separate chapters on each region. There’s also a Technical supplement, which I quite like, that helps understand how the various analyses were carried out.

The report is a part of the Bureaus obligations under the Commonwealth Water Act 2007. They are meant to be produced each year and aim to:

• monitor the hydrological state of rivers, storages, wetlands and aquifers and publish hydrometric statistics for key sites
• highlight patterns, trends and variability in water availability, quality and use at regional and national scales over time scales of months to decades
• provide analyses of varying complexity predominantly in the form of readily interpretable maps, graphs and tables.

The information is particularly intended to assist policy-makers and planners to understand the current state of the nation’s water resources and to gauge the impact of past and present water management practices.

Getting this report done was a massive job, particularly as we had to access almost all the data manually (climate, groundwater, surface water, soil moisture, streamflow, floods, water use, urban, irrigation etc...) from literally dozens of different sources, then check it, analyse it, interpret it, communicate it and publish it for 12 Drainage Divisions covering the continent, while at the same time publishing the National Water Account 2010.

I’m very proud of this report and the people involved. The dedication and commitment of almost every single person was well above and beyond the call. In fact, my experiences with a number of projects like this over the years in the APS is the reason I get angry when I hear people collectively dishing the work ethic of public servants!

Anyway, enjoy - and feel free to ask me about any of it if you’re interested.