Next month the 15 owners of the CRC for irrigation Futures meet in Sydney to review our progress to date. The core participants (to use the formal description) are the organisations who had the foresight and resources to support the formation of the CRC five years ago. I’m sure they will be pleased with the progress we have made in addressing the skills shortage in irrigation research as we are on track to support over 50 postgraduate students to completion of their studies.

A quick scan our completed students study topics demonstrates the breadth of their work, from “Ownership in the Integrated Water Resources Management Planning Process: A cross country validation of Methods” to “The effect of irrigation on surface and ground water interactions: quantifying time dependent spatial dynamics in irrigation systems.” There are also plenty of examples of their outputs in this edition of INFLO.

Likewise I’m sure they will appreciate the volume and quality of research being carried out by our two Research Programs;

The Annual Report for the CRC's fifth year is now available online at the link below.

We encourage you all to take a look at Annual Report to see what CRC members have been up to in the last 12 months. If you are not a CRC member and would like a hard copy of the Annual Report email comms@irrigationfutures.org.au or contact Olivia Louis.

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The WISER project team is holding a community forum at the University of Western Sydney's Hawkesbury Campus on 29 November. The forum aims to unite broader community groups to achieve greater sustainability of water resources, local food production and improved river health in peri-urban landscapes.

The day will include presentations from Council Mayors, State and Federal Agencies and CRC IF staff, with researchers on hand to discuss relevant issues with the community.

Community members will have the chance to learn about issues and challenges from the perspective of Councils and State and Federal Agencies, particularly in view of National Water Initiatives and the Water for Future program.

CRC IF Board Member and ABC TV reporter Ticky Fullerton will facilitate a lively ‘Hypothetical’ panel discussion titled ‘Water for Western Sydney - Who will miss out?.

The Hypothetical in particular will explore some key questions focusing on what we want, what we fear, what are the costs of getting what we want and avoiding what we fear, and the consequences of doing nothing.

After considering a ‘worst-case-scenario’ about water in Western Sydney, the hypothetical will feature time for questions and answers to explore positive actions that can be taken for a brighter regional future.

Registrations close Thursday 20 November. Click here to register online now or download the registration form at the link below.

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CRC for Irrigation Futures Irrigation Matters Series No.s 01-1/08 and 01-2/08, A review of Basin (Contour) Irrigation Systems I and II is now available online.

This is a pair of reports aimed at improving the performance of basin (contour) irrigation systems in the Southern Murray-Darling Basin:

1. A review of Basin (Contour) Irrigation Systems I: Current design and management practices in the Southern Murray-Darling Basin, Australia
2. A review of Basin (Contour) Irrigation Systems II: Research needs for evaluation and design.

There are at least eight different types of basin layout currently in use in the Southern Murray-Darling Basin. These variants have been designed to accommodate different water supplies, crops, soils, machinery and management styles. However, there is little guidance available as to the benefits of any one of these systems over another. Thus farmers have been left to undertake their own experimentation. The aim of this exercise has been to collate our existing understanding of basin (contour) irrigation systems in the Southern Murray-Darling Basin areas and make this available to anyone with an interest, whether farmer, agency staff or academic. This has been undertaken as:

The CRC IF would like to congratulate David Essaw for successfully completing his PhD. David's research looks at ownership in the Integrated Water Resources Management planning process focussing on a cross country validation of methods.

"The purpose of my research is to explore improved ways of engaging stakeholders in the IWRM planning processes that can serve as a framework to advance the IWRM GWP agenda," David said.

The methodological synthesis of the study incorporates ideas from broad theoretical areas to inform the design of what is described as the appreciative systems planning (ASP) methodology used in this study. The methodology was tested in the Macintyre Brook Catchment in Australia and Savelugu Nantom Catchment in Ghana.

The major contribution of this study is the design of a framework to overcome the dilemma of facilitating stakeholder involvement in IWRM planning processes.

David is currently working as a Consultant with Ghartey Associates, a Development Planning and Management, Organisation Development, Facilitators and Trainers Firm based in Accra, Ghana.

Read more about David's findings by clicking on the link below.

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CRC for Irrigation Futures Irrigation Matters Series No. 02/08, Transition in Global Water Resources Management Regimes - A Review is now available online.

This paper is a literature review on the transitions in water resources management regimes. It presents a coherent discussion on water governance and provides an account of the shift in water resource management paradigm across the world with particular emphasis on Australia and India.

Sustainable water management has become a major global issue. Much of this water crisis can be attributed to poor governance. Water governance can be viewed as a framework of political, social, economic, and legal structures within which societies choose and accept to manage their water related affairs. It includes governments, the market forces that help to allocate resources, and any other mechanisms that regulate human interactions.

Reforms to address the pressure on water resources have lead to paradigm shifts in water resources management policy around the world. We discuss the policy shifts in United States of America, Europe, Australia and India. One of the most notable changes is the shift from water resource development to management.

To effect these changes institutional change is required. Institutional change not only refers to a change in the relationships between agencies and organisations but also incorporates the changes in value systems, informal and formal norms and rules of behaviour between agents, and also between agents and organisations.

There is need for a new approach to govern the water resources and the concept of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is accepted as a means to ensure sustainable management of water resources.

This paper is part of the doctoral research project titled “Urban Wastewater Reuse for Agriculture: Governance Paradigms and Institutional Arrangements in Australia and India”. A complete copy of the thesis and other related publications can be obtained from the CRC IF website under Publications/Theses.

Click on the link below to download the report.

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The CRC IF have commenced a new round of recruiting for 2009 Honours students, with four scholarships available. This will be the last round of Honours for the CRC.

The Honours Application Form can be found at the link below.

The closing date for applications is November 28, 2008.

For further information, please contact Kelly Salas.

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The FAO56 method of estimating Evapotranspiration (ET) was put under the microscope by 28 people at the CRC IF’s first MasterClass in Brisbane.

The two day MasterClass featured Professor Jim Shuttleworth from the University of Arizona and Professor Jim Wallace from CSIRO. The two Jim’s between them have more than fifty years research experience looking at ET!

A global and Australian overview of water use in agriculture was given by Keith Bristow before Jim Wallace took us deep into the Penman-Monteith equation to gain an understanding of how the weather affects ET. Jim Wallace's presentation is available at the link below.

Highlighting that crop factors are a complex mix of crop and weather variables, the practical implications of this were, the conditions under which crop factors are developed need to be made available. This will help in assessing if the crop factor is suited to other climates and crop management system.

The two Jim’s provided the group with the latest thinking on ET estimation. The new approachs to adjusting pan evaporation to reference crop evaporation was outlined based on a new application of the Penman-Monteith equation, which takes climate into account, to adjust pan evaporation rates. For Australian conditions this increased the traditional correction factor of 0.7. For example, in Narrabri a correction factor, which varies over the season, of 0.87 was more appropriate.

Their current work on a “one step” method for estimating crop evaporation from Penman-Monteith equation was given which promises a way forward from the inherent limitations of empirical crop factors.

The development of crop factors and their application in a crop management model WaterSense were outlined by Geoff Inman-Bamber and Steve Attard. This helped link together a number of areas including measurement of ET by Bowen ratio and the importance of soil hydrology.

The CRC IF will be running another ET MasterClass in 2009. This MasterClass will have a greater focus on the practice of ET estimation. If you would like to be notified of this MasterClass please contact us.

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By Saud Akbar

Flow measurements have been taken at South Creek in Western Sydney to understand the variation in flow along the Creek and verify the accuracy of existing flow gauging records. These measurements were then used to calculate losses along different reaches of the South Creek and the likely impact on groundwater recharge and quality. This helped to find the backflow reach from river to Creek at low flow conditions and also provided measured data for water balance modelling research.

Water Flow measurements in the South Creek were undertaken to know the spatial variations of water flow and losses of water at different locations. South Creek receives the majority of surface water from rain and St Marys STP and Eastern Creek.

The discharge analysis of that data indicated that the discharge records at the gauging station were consistently greater than that observed at real time monitoring.

Water flow measurements were undertaken on different dates at four sites along the South Creek on Kings Way Rd (site one), St Mary Road (site two), Richmond Road (Site three) and to the end where it joins back flow from Hawkesbury River near Windsor Road (site four and five). Locations were selected using the criterion that a large amount of the water including STPs discharge that flows through South Creek must pass these sites. The RiverCat was used to measure the flow measurements and results were also compared with STPs and stream flow-gauging station data.

The measured South Creek and STPs flow balance (gain or loss) for each sub-section were calculated. The analysis of data also suggests that water flow varied considerably on different dates at all the five monitoring sites.

For example, the discharge was 37.5 Ml/day on 17 June and only 17.28 ML/day on 7 July 2008 at the first monitoring site before St Mary STP. The losses of water occurring in between one site to another site also varied considerably on different dates. The major water losses occurred in between the second and third location covering about about a 4.3km length. There was 14.6% (11.21 ML), 17.9% (10.36 ML) and 11.1% (6.92 ML) of surface water losses respectively on 17 June, 19 June and 20 July in between the second and third sites of South Creek. There were only minor losses of water (0.48% to 0.69%) occurring along site one and site one covering about 13.4 km of South Creek.

Hawkesbury River created tidal influences within the river that caused backflow into South Creek. There are fair chances of silt build-up and accumulation of debris that could cause significant flooding in future.

Photo: Saud Akbar and Harsharn Grewal (Real-time Discharge Measurement in South Creek)

The first edition of the Lower Burdekin Water Futures (LBWF) newsletter is now available.

The LBWF is the lower Burdekin version of the "Regional Irrigation Partnership" which was formalised back in mid 2006.

The Northern Australia Irrigation Futures project is working closely with the LBWF developing and implementing the Lower Burdekin Knowledge Platform and also developing a lower Burdekin groundwater science plan.

To find out more click on the link below and download the newsletter.

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The new Chief Executive Officer of Irrigation Australia Limited (IAL) is Mr Chris Bennett.

The National Chair of IAL, Mr Peter Toome, said the appointment had been made following an extensive nationwide search and Mr Bennett was chosen from a strong field of candidates.

“With a history of association management in both aquaculture and horticulture industries, as well as a very strong background in industry training and in working with government agencies and funding bodies, Chris is well qualified to take on the CEO role,” said Mr Toome.

Prior to this appointment, Mr Bennett was CEO of the Almond Board of Australia.

“I am very interested in the development and expansion of industry organisations for the benefit of their members. My experience across a wide range of industries reliant on irrigation, as well as irrigation research and design, will also assist me in the CEO role,” said Mr Bennett.

Among Mr Bennett’s achievements include the establishment of a processing and marketing co-operative for the NSW oyster industry to overcome product quality issues, establishing an RTO to provide specific industry training needs and developing and managing a research program which doubled the almond industry’s strategic productivity objectives.

Peter Toome added that “with climate scientists forecasting that the current water crisis is looking more likely to be a permanent change rather than just a drought, pressure on the irrigation sector to improve water use efficiency can only increase.”

“This makes it vital for the IAL to have a CEO in Chris Bennett who not only understands the issues facing the industry, but has the strategic vision to ensure that we are seen as part of the solution,” he said.

Mr Toome also paid tribute to the contribution Ms Alison Carmichael had made as Acting CEO over the previous three months.