• There are 19 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 2012–2018

• 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 increased from last year, which was largely influenced by the drop in surface water availability across the region. The dry conditions meant users had to rely more on water supplied directly from the aquifers.
• There were no groundwater extractions for environmental purposes, similar to 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 2018 Account.
• Harvesting by runoff dams was estimated to be 800,000 ML during the 2017–18 year.

Water restrictions

• Information on restrictions related to available water for New South Wales sustainable diversion limit resource units for the 2017–18 year is available from the NSW Department of Industry website.
• Information on restrictions on allocations for high- and low-reliability water shares (non-urban use) in Victorian sustainable diversion limit resource units for 2017–18 is available in 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

• Surface water allocation and tagged trade was 7% higher than the previous year. This increase reflects an increased demand due to the below-average rainfall conditions across the region during most of the year.

Figure S13 Direction and volume (ML) of interstate allocation trades in the southern Murray–Darling Basin during the 2017–18 year

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

Cultural and environmental water

Cultural benefit

• Cultural water values are considered within the region's water resource plans (see Water management note), generally as part of the environmental water provisions. 

Environmental benefit

• 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.

 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 2017–18, over 500,000 ML of environmental surface water was delivered under plan provisions, excluding information for Victoria which was not available for this account.
• Planned deliveries in all jurisdictions (except Victoria) decreased compared to the previous year, which reflects the below-average rainfall conditions and lower water availability across the region.

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 2017–18, 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 over 4,500,000 ML of environmental entitlements held within the Murray-Darling Basin region at 30 June 2018. More than 99% of these were for surface water sources.
• The Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder (CEWH) held about 60% of these environmental entitlements. The remaining entitlements were held by some Basin states, the Living Murray program, and other smaller governmental programs.

Held environmental water outcomes

• In 2017–18, 2,423,735 ML of held environmental water was delivered by environmental managers in the Murray–Darling Basin region. Allowing for estimated return flows, net environmental deliveries were 1,763,451 ML.
• Allocated environmental water releases accounted for 99% of held environmental water deliveries during the 2017–18 year.