The Intersecting Streams 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 Intersecting Streams. The LTWP identifies water management strategies for maintaining and improving the long-term health of the Intersecting Streams riverine, floodplain and wetland 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 aims to help water managers make decisions about where, when and how available water can be used to achieve 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 system. 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 from monitoring and evaluating the outcomes from water use.
