Oral Presentation Australian Freshwater Sciences Society Conference 2024

Priority actions and costs to repair Australia's inland waters (112993)

Samantha J Capon 1 , Celine M Steinfeld 2 , Jamie Pittock 3 , Bradley J Moggridge 4 , Adrian Ward 5 , Buamgartner J Lee 6 , Fran Sheldon 1 , Debbie L Medaris 7
  1. Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University, Nathan, Queensland, Australia
  2. Centre for Ecosystem Science, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia
  3. Fenner School of Environment and Society , Australian National University, Acton, ACT, Australia
  4. Faculty of Science, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, NSW, Australia
  5. Accounting for Nature, Sydney, NSW, Australia
  6. Gulbali Research Institute, Charles Sturt University, Albury, NSW, Australia
  7. , Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists, Sydney, NSW, Australia

Already heavily overexploited, modified and degraded, Australia's inland waters face growing pressures from anthropogenic activities and climate change. Here, we present and cost priority actions to repair these critical parts of our landscape focusing on actions that are not currently being implemented at all or not at a sufficient scale. Developed as part of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientist's recently released "Blueprint to Repair Australia's Landscapes, these actions encompass: 1.) riparian revegetation, 2.) incentivisation to retire riparian farmland, 3.) water recovery to achieve sustainable levels of take in the Murray-Darling Basin, 4.) restoration of riverine connectivity through constraints management, 5.) removal/modification of fish barriers, 6.) installation of cold-water pollution device on priority large dams, 7.) installation of fish diversion screens on all irrigation pumps, 8.) capping of open bores and conversion of open bore-drains remaining in the Great Artesian Basin and 9.) restoration of groundwater extraction in the Murray-Darling Basin to a sustainable level of take. The scale of benefits and costs of each action will be presented with anestimate of approximately $3.3 billion per year from 2025 to 2054 calculated overall.