UC EVENTS

The Murray-Darling Basin has some of the most sophisticated water management in the world, which deals well with the very high variability of water availability from year to year. Some argue this will make water management adaptable to climate change while others argue the opposite on the basis of impacts of recent droughts. In this talk I will summarise the projections of future water availability in the Basin under climate change and how they compare to recent extreme droughts. This illustrates the conditions to which water management will need to adapt. I will then describe some of the limits of adaptability of current management practices and suggest some new approaches that could be taken, starting with the required review of the Basin Plan in 2026.

Speaker details: 

Dr Prosser is an Adjunct Professor at the Centre for Applied Water Research, University of Canberra. He was previously manager of the Water Information Services Branch at the Bureau of Meteorology and Science Director for the CSIRO Water for a Healthy Country Flagship Program. He has 30 years’ experience in research and program leadership, leading national R&D programs in water resources, riparian management, and catchment water quality. He is lead author of the popular book, Water: Science and Solutions for Australia; won the CSIRO Chairman’s Medal as part of the Murray-Darling Basin Sustainable Yields project team; and is author of over 150 scientific publications. He recently assisted the Murray-Darling Basin Authority in designing their Water and Environmental Research Program from which some of the ideas presented in this seminar originated.