Edwards, Jane, Cheers, Brian, and Bjornlund, Henning (2008) Social, economic, and community impacts of water markets in Australia's Murray-Darling Basin region. In: Proceedings of the 13th IWRA World Water Congress 2008. pp. 1-11. From: 13th IWRA World Water Congress 2008, 1-4 September 2008, Montpellier, France.

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Abstract

[Extract] The Murray Darling Basin (MDB) is Australia's major river system and makes a significant contribution to the Australian economy (Bjornlund 2004a). It is an extensive system—covering almost a seventh of the continental landmass—and supports a large number of rural communities. The water extracted from the system is crucial to agricultural production (accounting for about 40% of the nation's agricultural income and supports approximately 75% of irrigated land in Australia. There is now a consensus that the MDB is in crisis. The amount of water extracted from it, in tandem with a severe and prolonged drought, has seriously depleted the amount of water in the system, with serious implications for the basin's long-term ecology. The ecological threat poses, in turn, a challenge to the sustainability of the agriculture it supports and, therefore, to the rural communities in its ambit (Tisdell and Ward 2003; Bjornlund 2004a). Many agricultural enterprises are receiving only a fraction of the water they were once allocated, with significant implications for output and the generation of locally based wealth.

Item ID:	29481
Item Type:	Conference Item (Non-Refereed Research Paper)
Related URLs:	Organisation
Date Deposited:	22 Oct 2014 22:56
FoR Codes:	05 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES > 0502 Environmental Science and Management > 050204 Environmental Impact Assessment @ 70% 16 STUDIES IN HUMAN SOCIETY > 1608 Sociology > 160801 Applied Sociology, Program Evaluation and Social Impact Assessment @ 30%
SEO Codes:	96 ENVIRONMENT > 9609 Land and Water Management > 960999 Land and Water Management of Environments not elsewhere classified @ 100%
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