Integrating social and physical data for water cathment management

Abstract

Even in the relatively high rainfall zone of the Australian eastern seaboard, water is a scarce resource. This has been brought home to many in recent years by the regular imposition of water use restrictions, the installation of water meters in almost all dwellings connected to mains supplies and in some cases, the imposition of some form of s cost-based pricing on all units of water consumed. One reason for the scarcity of water is the large number of alternative uses to which water can be put. The potential users compete amongst themselves for the available supplies - irrigators and miners, householders and industrialists all demandsons T water but all are subject to the various rationing devices established by society. These devices are frequently based on administratively determined quotas but are aw also market based, with willingness to pay being the rationing criterion. However, there is a further source of water scarcity, other than the ultimate constraint of rainfall/groundwater availability, and that involves the scarcity of sites suitable for the collection and storage of water. Water catchments which are capable of producing water of a quality suitable for human consumption are limited in availability and are often sought for many purposes other than water supply, some of which may be incompatible with their role as water sources. For instance, the runoff from farm land which is used for intensive animal husbandry or which is heavily fertilized or treated with insecticides/weeatcides may be unsuitable for human consumption. In the case of the Tantawanglo Creek catchment area, located on the south coast of New South Wales, it is argued by members of what may be broadly called the environmental movement, that potential forestry operations in the catchment are incompatible with its current role as the source of a large proportion of the domestic water supply of the Merimbula-Pambula - Eden community. Proponents of the extension of forestry operations into the catchment argue to the contrary. It is the purpose of this paper to provide an outline of a study which was designed to provide some insight into this point of disagreement.