The Murrumbidgee Long-Term Water Plan (LTWP) is an important step to describing the flow regimes that are required to maintain or improve environmental outcomes in the Murrumbidgee. This plan identifies water management strategies for maintaining and improving the long-term health of the Murrumbidgee’s riverine and floodplain environmental assets and the ecological functions they perform. This includes detailed descriptions of ecologically important river flows and risks to water for the environment.
Importantly, the LTWP does not prescribe how environmental water should be managed in the future, rather it will help water managers and advisory groups, such as the Murrumbidgee Environmental Water Advisory Group, make decisions about where, when and how available water can be used to achieve agreed long-term ecological objectives.
The LTWP looks at all sources of water and how these can be managed to help support environmental outcomes in the catchment. This recognises that the Murray–Darling Basin Plan (Basin Plan) specifically requires environmental water managers to act adaptively by making timely decisions based on the best-available knowledge and monitoring and evaluating the outcomes from water use.
