2020 Basin Plan Evaluation: reports and data

The Basin Plan Evaluation is an opportunity to assess Basin Plan implementation and identify areas for improvement. The report presents the Evaluation findings and recommendations on the effectiveness of the Basin Plan and how it can be improved in order to protect social, economic, First Nations cultural and environmental values across the Murray–Darling Basin.

This report was updated on 29 January to correct the following errors

• Figure 6 (p21) – graphic contains data for whole of Australia instead of the Murray–Darling Basin.
• Figure 7 (p21) – graphic presents median flows instead of mean (average) flows.
• Figure 29 (p75) – graphic includes data related to number of agricultural businesses irrigating.

These figures have been revised and updated in this current version of the document.

This report describes the contribution of key Basin Plan activities to changes in the river’s environmental conditions in the southern Basin. The report includes analysis of flow, native fish communities, riparian vegetation and water quality.

This report describes the contribution of key Basin Plan activities to changes in the condition of Lower Lakes, Coorong and Murray mouth since implementation of the Basin Plan. The report includes analysis of flow, water quality, vegetation, native fish communities and waterbirds.

This report details the contribution of key Basin Plan activities to changes in conditions related to agriculture and economy, community adaption resilience, water markets and trade and First Nations.

This report documents the hydrological analysis undertaken for the 2020 Evaluation by Murray–Darling Basin Authority. The purpose of the report is twofold. Firstly, to provide a sufficient level of detail for suitably knowledgeable and informed stakeholders to comprehensively understand the details of the analysis, and secondly to document procedures to inform the direction of future hydrological analysis.

This report describes model scenarios that track the range of anticipated future climates that could be experienced across the Basin. This report from CSIRO also describes the flow changes that could also occur. Climate change will continue to result in hotter temperatures, and reduced flow across most of the Basin is the most likely outcome.

The Stand Condition Tool (SCT) is a process by which a combination satellite data, field surveys and machine learning algorithms are applied to infer the condition of stands of key tree species across the entire Murray–Darling Basin. The MDBA has run the SCT on the 30 years of available Landsat imagery (a Hindcast).

All scientific datasets used to inform the findings, recommendations and commitments of the 2020 Basin Plan Evaluation have been published as part of the MDBA’s open access policy. Most of these sets have been published on the secure site: data.gov.au.

In addition to publishing the datasets, the MDBA has, for the first time, made use of the data visualisation tools Story Maps and Power BI. These tools interpret selected datasets so it is more accessible to the public. Power BI has been used to create dashboards interpreting the data related to:

• Hydrology
• Fish
• Vegetation condition
• Ruppia
• Water for the environment