The Biodiversity component of the LTIM Project evaluated the contribution of Commonwealth environmental water to achieving diversity-related objectives of the Basin Plan by undertaking a qualitative evaluation of expected outcomes of watering actions undertaken by the CEWO.
The CEWO’s LTIM Project focused on examining the contribution of Commonwealth environmental water to the environmental objectives of the Basin Plan 2012 (Basin Plan), while assisting the CEWO to demonstrate environmental outcomes and adaptively manage the water holdings. Monitoring and evaluation was focused in seven Selected Areas: the Junction of the Warrego and Darling rivers, Gwydir river system, Lachlan river system, Murrumbidgee river system, Edward/Kolety-Wakool river system, Goulburn River and Lower Murray River. These areas will continue to be monitored through the CEWO’s Monitoring, Evaluation and Research (MER) Program.
Data collected by monitoring at Selected Areas is used to evaluate local outcomes from watering and also contributed to the analysis and evaluation of Basin Plan objectives.
The main data output of the Biodiversity evaluation is an aggregated list of species and communities that potentially benefitted from Commonwealth environmental water from 2014-15 to 2018-19. This is derived from other Basin Matter reports (Vegetation, Fish, Ecosystem Diversity), Selected Area monitoring, the Atlas of Living Australia and monitoring programs external to LTIM (e.g. the Living Murray, Bird Life Australia).
Please refer to the Murray-Darling Basin LTIM Project: 2018-19 Basin-scale evaluation of Commonwealth environmental water – Biodiversity Report for the detailed method on data used for evaluation.
###Acknowledgement
The Commonwealth Environmental Water Office acknowledge the First Nations peoples as the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the lands, waterways and skies of the Murray-Darling Basin. We thank them for their knowledge and science and respect their continuing connection to culture and Country and the values reflected in these data.