RMCG working with the MDBA to deliver the Basin Plan
As part of developing the Basin Plan http://www.mdba.gov.au/basin_plan, the Murray Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) has engaged a consortium, including RMCG and lead by Marsden Jacob Associates to develop socioeconomic profiles of communities of the Basin, and to assess the resilience and adaptive capacity of Basin communities in the context of the Basin Plan.
The consortium also includes EBC (http://www.ebc.net.au), DBM (http://www.dbmconsultants.com.au), Anthony Hogan (http://nceph.anu.edu.au/Staff_Students/staff_pages/hogan.php) and Geoff McLeod.
The project forms a major component of the Authority’s strategy to develop a sound understanding of the social and economic circumstances of the Basin communities, and to assess the likely social and economic impacts of setting alternative Sustainable Diversion Limits (SDLs) for those communities as part of the Basin Plan.
SDLs are environmentally sustainable limits on the amount of water that can be taken in future from the Basin’s water resources. The MDBA will develop SDLs in the proposed Basin Plan, to be published once the MJA-led consortium’s work is complete in mid 2010.
More than 20 regional consultations, and a survey of approximately 2,500 Basin households are planned as part of the project.
The understanding gained from our work will assist the Authority to maximise the economic, social and environmental outcomes of SDLs, within the constraints of the physical hydrology of the Basin, and the water reform objectives of the Water Act (2007)(Cth) and Water for the Future.
After the proposed Basin Plan is published the MDBA will launch extensive consultation with Basin communities to finalise the Plan in 2011.
RMCG project contact: Matthew Toulmin (03) 9882 2670
