Climate Change and Integrated Approach to Water Resource Management in the Murray-Darling Basin

Abstract

Provision of water resources is one of the most major elements to secure sustainable development for agriculture, industry, energy, and society. Climate change has raised concerns about the threat to water resources and increased international awareness of the importance of cross-border water resource management to confront such borderless problems. Integrated approach to water resource management for climate change is still a new field of study to develop an effective management framework even in the developed countries. This chapter presents one case study from the Murray-Darling Basin of Australia, which has recently engaged to apply the Basin Plan. The Basin Plan is the first case to introduce the integrated approach to water resource management in the Basin region. One of the major purposes of the Basin Plan is to restore long-term sustainable water quality and environmental development. The main objectives of this chapter are (1) to analyze mechanism of the integrated approach to the water resource management in the region of the Murray-Darling Basin under the federal political system and (2) to examine how this federal political system affects the process of negotiation within the Basin Plan. This chapter also raises several questions in order to provide some lessons from the case study and suggest applicable implications to other situation of the transboundary river management.