• There are 22 water resource plan areas for groundwater in the Murray–Darling Basin region (see Water management). Most of the region's water entitlements are associated with six of these water resource plan areas. More information is available on the Bureau's Water Information Dashboard.

 

Figure S12 Groundwater rights and extractions in the Murray–Darling Basin region for the years ending 30 June, from 2012–2017

 

• Groundwater entitlements for consumptive use (individual users and the urban system) were similar to last year.
• 100% of the groundwater entitlements for individual users were for irrigation supply, which includes both private irrigators and irrigation schemes.
• Groundwater extractions for consumptive use decreased from last year, which could be attributed to the improved rainfall conditions that decreased users' reliance on water supplied directly from the aquifers during the year.
• There were no groundwater extractions for environmental purposes, similar to the previous years.

 

Landscape water rights

• Runoff harvesting entitlements, which relate to landscape runoff that is harvested into farm dams, were not available for inclusion in the 2017 Account.
• Harvesting by runoff dams was estimated to be 1,952,000 ML, which excludes Victorian volumes and interception by plantations.

 

Water restrictions

• Information on limitations related to available water for New South Wales sustainable diversion limit resource units are available from the NSW Department of Industry – Lands and Water available water determinations for 2016–17.
• Information on limitations on allocations for high- and low-reliability water shares (non-urban use) in Victorian sustainable diversion limit resource units for 2016–17 is available from the monthly water report from the Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning.
• More information on current restrictions is available on the Bureau's Water Restrictions website.

 

Water market activity

 

Table S7 Summarised information on entitlement and allocation water trade within the Murray–Darling Basin region during the 2016–17 year

Description	Volume ML
Surface water entitlement trade and lease	1,434,205
Surface water allocation and tagged trade within region	6,648,673
Groundwater entitlement trade and lease	158,238
Groundwater allocation and tagged trade	179,753

 

• Allocation and tagged trade was 24% higher than the previous year reflecting the improved rainfall conditions, and consequently higher water availability, across the region.

 

Table S8 Net inter-state allocation trade within the southern Murray-Darling Basin during the 2016–17 year

Description	Volume ML
New South Wales to South Australia	37,861
New South Wales to Victoria	46.353
Victoria to South Australia	187,729

 

 

Figure S13 Direction and volume (ML) of interstate allocation trades in the Murray–Darling Basin region during the 2016–17 year

 

• Inter-state allocation trade within the southern Murray–Darling Basin during the year resulted in net inward movement of water for South Australia and net outward movement for New South Wales and Victoria (Table S8 and Figure S13). A similar trend of net allocation trade was observed during the previous three years.
• Over 75% of water transferred to South Australia from the other States was for environmental purposes.

 

Water use

 

Economic and social benefits

• For a summary of the water used for economic and social purposes within the Murray-Darling Basin region, refer to the Surface water rights and Groundwater rights above.

 

Environmental and cultural benefits

• Water for the environment in the Murray-Darling Basin region is delivered through two broad environmental water scenarios: planned environmental water and held environmental water.
• In general, cultural water values are considered within the environmental water provisions.

 

 Planned environmental water provisions

• Planned environmental water provisions are defined in the overarching Basin Plan as well as the individual water management plans throughout the region (see Water management note).
• In groundwater systems, water provisions to protect environmental values include annual extraction limits, trading rules, extraction restrictions based on local water level responses, and restrictions on water supply works near environmental and cultural sites.
• In unregulated rivers, water provisions include annual diversion limits and daily access rules to maintain environmental flows and ecological values.
• In regulated rivers, in addition to annual diversion limits, water provisions include rule-based requirements for active release of environmental flows at given locations on the rivers.

 

Figure S14 Lower lakes at the downstream end of the River Murray

 

• The lakes at the downstream end of the Murray–Darling river system integrate impacts from water diversions and planning provisions across the whole region.
• One key environmental objective in the Basin Plan is to maintain water levels in the lower lakes to ensure sufficient discharge to the Coorong and Murray Mouth, prevent river bank collapse and acidification of wetlands, and provide connection between Lakes Alexandrina and Albert (see the Basin Plan for more detail).

 

Planned environmental water outcomes

• In 2016–17, about 1,000,000 ML of environmental surface water was delivered under plan provisions, excluding information for Victoria which was not available for this account.
• In water resource plan areas within Queensland, there was a 200,000 ML increase of planned deliveries compared to the previous year, which reflects the improved rainfall conditions and higher water availability across the region during the 2016–17 year.
  

 

Figure S15 Water level in lower lakes at River Murray mouth

 

• The Basin Plan includes an objective for the lakes at the River Murray mouth to keep water levels above 0.4 m Australian Height Datum (AHD) 95% of the time and above 0.0 mAHD 100% of the time.
• In 2016–17, the lakes remained above both targets 100% of the time.

 

Held environmental water provisions

• Held environmental water refers to licensed water entitlements that are used exclusively for environmental purposes such as wetland watering or provision of environmental river flows.

• There were about 4,400,000 ML of environmental entitlements held within the Murray-Darling Basin region at 30 June 2017. More than 99% of these were for surface water sources.
• The Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder (CEWH) held about 60% of these entitlements. Some Basin states, the Living Murray program, and other smaller governmental programs also held their own environmental entitlements.

 

Held environmental water outcomes

 

 

Figure S16 Held environmental water deliveries in rivers within key sustainable diversion limit (SDL) resource units in the 2016–17 year.

 

• Over 2,200,000 ML (gross) of held environmental water was delivered by environmental managers in the Murray–Darling Basin region in the 2016–17 year. Allowing for estimated return flows, net environmental deliveries were about 2,000,000 ML.
• Allocated environmental water releases accounted more than 90% of held environmental water deliveries during the 2016–17 year.