Irrigation Ecological Risk Assessment Project

Product Information

Irrigated agriculture is a major contributor to the economic and social well being of Australia. Each year it produces around $10 billion of agricultural output or 50% of the country’s net agricultural profit.

However, the sustainability of this important activity is currently under serious challenge. Irrigation uses 75% of the water extracted from Australia’s rivers and groundwater systems. It also contributes to the pollution load in these rivers.

In response to these challenges, National Program for Sustainable irrigation (NPSI) has established an Ecological Risk Assessment Project (ERA), the overall objective of which is to develop a generic framework for assessing the ecological risks associated with Australian irrigation systems.

This new decision support tool should help the Australian irrigation industry quantify and prioritise the ecological risks from their activities, and better focus management actions to minimise these risks. This information should also provide ways for regulatory authorities (such as environment protection authorities) to better determine what needs protection and to use this as the basis for licensing and monitoring requirements.