Northern Australia Water Futures Assessment - Water Resources program
Northern Australia is renowned for its high rainfall, intact tropical environments and relatively low levels of development. Around two-thirds of Australia's runoff occurs in northern Australia. However rainfall in the north is highly seasonal, with intense monsoonal rains in summer and little rain through winter. The Water Resources program of the Northern Australia Water Futures Assessment aims to develop a better understanding of water availability in northern Australia.
Aerial view of the Kimberley Rangelands, WA.
Dragi Markovic and DEWHA.
Northern Australia Sustainable Yields project
The Northern Australia Sustainable Yields (NASY) project is one of three sustainable yields projects taking place in Australia which build on the groundbreaking work of the Murray-Darling Basin Sustainable Yields project, led by the CSIRO for the Australian Government.
The project provides the first consistent, robust and transparent assessment of current and likely future water availability across the three jurisdictions of northern Australia, including an assessment of possible future climate implications. The project investigated water resources on a catchment-by-catchment basis, using four different climate and development scenarios. The NASY project provides the science to help governments, industry and communities consider the environmental, social and economic aspects of the sustainable use and management of the water resources of Northern Australia.
The outputs from the Water Resources program will be integrated with those from the Ecological and Cultural and Social programs in the Knowledge Base, to be useful to decision-makers. The outcomes of this program will also inform broader natural resource management issues in the north.
Further information on the NASY project can be found on the Sustainable yields projects page.
Assessment news
The NASY reports were released by the Parliamentary Secretary for Water on 21 September 2009.
The project found that, despite popular perceptions that northern Australia has a surplus of water, the climate is extremely seasonal and the landscape may be described as annually water-limited.
Other key findings include:
- Northern Australia experiences high rainfall during the wet season but most falls near the coast, where there are few opportunities for storage or diversion, and year to year amounts can be highly variable.
- Runoff follows a similar pattern to rainfall; hence potential inland dam sites receive less water and suffer very high evaporation rates.
- In the near future, potential evapotranspiration is likely to increase whilst rainfall is likely to be similar to historical levels, which were generally drier than the last decade, especially in the west.
- Groundwater may offer potential for increased extractions but shallow aquifers rapidly fill during the wet season and drain through the dry season, and provide little opportunity for increased groundwater storage.
- There are few river reaches that flow year-round and those that do have high cultural, social and ecological value and are generally sustained by localised groundwater discharge.
Copies of the reports are available for download on the CSIRO website at http://www.csiro.au/partnerships/NASY.html
Contact us
For further queries or to receive updates, email northern.assessment@environment.gov.au or phone 02 6274 1111.
See also
- NASY Factsheet
- NAWFA Ecological program
- NAWFA Cultural and Social program
- NAWFA Knowledge Base program
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