Poh-Ling Tan

Cumulative risk management, coal seam gas, sustainable water, and agriculture in Australia

Australian communities are lobbying governments to improve regulation of the Coal Seam Gas (CSG), a fast growing industry. This article examines the effect of CSG extraction on agriculture, water resources and ecosystems in Queensland where CSG development is most intense. Supporters of the industry view Queenslands regulatory framework as ‘best-practice’. Whilst policy documents adopt an ‘adaptive management’ framework, legislation provides an enabling environment for industry, allowing unlimited volumes of groundwater to be extracted as a by-product. In an important agricultural region, the Darling Downs, irrigators who access groundwater in the same area as the CSG mining are experiencing water quality and quantity problems. Regulation provides limited ‘make-good’ arrangements for individuals if groundwater wells suffer impact. While potential impacts on individual wells and farmers are locally significant, there is limited recognition of cumulative risk management of CSG development at the regional scale. Contrasting two risk assessment approaches, the authors suggest a more appropriate pre-emptive regulatory framework for a stronger focus on cumulative risk management to satisfactorily address sustainable water management, irrigated agriculture and development issues. Lessons may assist other countries grappling with managing impacts on agriculture and the environment.

Legislating for Adequate Public Participation in Allocating Water in Australia

Abstract In the mid-1990s, Australia embarked on a program of reforms including the introduction of private property rights in water, the allocation of water for the environment, and increased public participation where new initiatives are proposed. Many of the water allocation and management practices adopted in the country have originated from states in the Murray-Darling Basin. This article considers the different approaches taken in NSW, Queensland and Victoria. In each of these states public participation has been an evolving process, giving rise to difficulties of a slightly different nature. The article outlines the policy and theory behind public participation, and sets out the legal provisions for its inclusion in water planning. It explores the main issues in the implementation of the legislation. The Australian experience suggests that policy makers and legislators did not initially draw upon the extensive research that was in existence on effective public participation. However, changes were made to make the processes more inclusive. Capacity building of participants, independent scientific support, and access to data were some of the most critical factors in effective public participation. Because the public had the opportunity to participate and influence decision-making in water allocation, some potential legal conflict was avoided. Of the states examined, Queensland had the best legislative template for public participation, although improvements could be made in many areas.

Finding Diamonds in the Dust: Community Engagement in Murray-Darling Basin Planning

Abstract Effective community engagement is an essential component of any water resources reform process. This chapter reviews the community engagement process adopted by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) during the 4-year period leading up to the successful adoption of the Basin Plan in 2012. This period is divided into two periods: Phase 1 (2009–2010), a period of considerable conflict, which followed the release of the Guide to the Basin Plan, and Phase 2 (2011–2012), a period when new leadership of the MDBA radically changed the engagement process and successfully completed the Basin Plan. This review, together with a review of the literature, has allowed identification of the key elements that underpin an effective community engagement process. These include engaging in places where people are on familiar territory and in places that people care about, taking the time to listen and share information, accepting that compromises will need to be made, seriously organizing and planning the process and showing leadership in settings. Perspectives of engagement need to be blended to provide a model with an emphasis on ongoing multiway communication and relationship building.

Adaptive or aspirational? Governance of diffuse water pollution affecting Australia's Great Barrier Reef

ABSTRACT The natural attributes of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, a UNESCO world heritage site listed for its natural beauty and biological diversity, are rapidly declining due to major threats from diffuse water pollution and climate change. The environmental, social, political and legal conditions that have enabled or blocked successful management of diffuse water pollution are analyzed. We find that the management approach has transitioned towards resilience-focused adaptive management of impacts from outside the marine park. Despite key enablers of adaptive governance, deep-seated political ideology is a major barrier to transformational adaptive governance to improve reef water quality.

Identifying needs and enhancing learning about climate change adaptation for water professionals at the post-graduate level

Using a participatory learning approach, we report on the delivery and evaluation of a climate change and risk assessment tool to help manage water risks within the agricultural sector. Post-graduate water-professional students from a range of countries, from both developed and emerging economies were involved in using this tool. Our approach included participative learning tools – group discussion, software, and risk matrices. The materials developed met the needs of the students, allowing these students to incorporate their learning and adapt the package of materials for use in their home countries. Analysis of evaluations show that the tools and materials are particularly useful and emphasizes the need for sound learning materials and tools, funding to deliver training, and policy support to accelerate education and adoption of authentic climate change adaptation practices. The expected benefits for water professionals about climate change will be translated into improved socioeconomic and environmental outcomes if adopted.

OECD principles on water governance in practice: an assessment of existing frameworks in Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa and South America

ABSTRACT Through the lens of the 12 OECD Principles on Water Governance, this article examines six water resources and water services frameworks in Europe, Asia-Pacific, Africa and South America to understand enhancing and constraining contextual factors. Qualitative and quantitative methods are used to analyze each framework against four criteria: alignment; implementation; on-ground results; and policy impact. Four main target areas are identified for improving water governance: policy coherence; financing; managing trade-offs; and ensuring integrity and transparency by all decision makers and stakeholders. Suggestions are presented to support practical implementation of the principles through better government action and stakeholder involvement.

Research priorities and best practices for managing climate risk and climate change adaptation in Australian agriculture

ABSTRACT The challenges of climate change adaptation in agriculture are examined through the lens of priorities for research, and the use of best management practices (BMPs) to better manage climate risks. The methods and results have two parts. Firstly, a case study from the northern grains region examines the use of BMPs for managing climate risks associated with both climate variability and climate change. A series of industry workshops developed and tested a suite of 24 BMP standards for growing dryland grain crops, including four BMPs on risk management based on the Australian Standards for Risk Management. Secondly, priorities for research on climate change adaptation in the primary industries sector are described and evaluated to assess needs for updating, in response to industry and environmental changes. The analysis reveals strong reasons for increasing the priority given to education and extension on risk management and for developing BMPs for both incremental and transformative adaptation, and especially for deriving methods to achieve widespread adoption of BMPs for managing extreme climatic events. Collaborative development of BMPs involving farmers’/industry/scientists is the process most likely to derive robust BMPs to withstand the complexities of climate risk and build greater resilience of communities and ecosystems.

Law and governance of water resources: the challenge of sustainability

Douglas Fisher is the author of numerous texts on law relating to environment, natural resources and water. This latest book continues Fisher’s meticulous textual and linguistic analysis of legal doctrines and instruments in relation to water resources. Thematic organisation of material is Fisher’s forte and the structure of this book shows the thought put into achieving a rational presentation of the large amount of material on the subject. The book has seven parts, starting with the challenge of sustainable water resources governance, the formal structure of governance, the normative structure of international arrangements, the normative structure of national arrangements, evolving international arrangements, evolving national arrangements, and lastly, innovations for achieving sustainability. Readers will find the material relatively easy to locate because of this thematic framing and the detailed contents pages. In an effort to make the material accessible, each part also begins with a two page overview of its subject matter. Parts I and II which relate to the challenge of sustainability and the formal structures of water governance present material covered elsewhere, both in Fisher’s own work and in others’. What is useful is the brief presentation of models of governance, including in New Zealand through the Resource Management Act 1991, in the European Union, and through the Draft International Covenant on Environment and Development. Because this is a textual analysis, considerable attention is given to exploration of concepts such as ‘balancing norm’ (p. 32) and ‘interstitial normativity’ (p. 33). Normative structures are covered in Parts III and IV. In chapters relating to the international sphere, Fisher continues to explore what is meant by interstitial normativity the relationship between legal and paralegal rules and in language familiar to legal theoreticians explores norms and the Grundnorm underlying the management of international watercourses. With regard to the latter, Fisher postulates that the fundamental norm in international law appears to be the equitable and reasonable utilisation of water in conjunction with protection of the environment and prevention of pollution. In the same manner, Parts V and VI deal with evolving international and national arrangements. The sweep of material attempts to build a bridge across international law and domestic law, and this is no mean feat. Although one can see why material covering international law is separated between the normative structures (in Part III) and the chapters in Parts V, which deal with concepts such as the human right to water, conflict and cooperation, I suggest that the thematic Australasian Journal of Environmental Management Vol. 18, No. 1, March 2011, 61 68