How will it help?

The project will improve water planning effort at two levels:

Nationally – by developing a tool-kit of good practices to engage industry, Indigenous and rural communities; by setting guidelines and benchmarks to monitor and evaluate collaboration in water planning; by establishing procedures that integrate Indigenous values into water planning.

Regionally – by assisting water agencies to improve water planning approaches; by helping to minimise conflicts between parties; by providing models and case studies for good collaboration; by helping develop stronger long-term relationships between stakeholders.

One project, three phases

The project will be undertaken in three phases.

Phase 1 – will review water planning practices in Australia and overseas. It will assess how the community participated in water planning for the Gulf of Carpentaria, Queensland, and the Ord River region in Western Australia.

Phase 2 – will pilot various tools and techniques used in water planning in northern Queensland and the Northern Territory. The tools will have been used elsewhere in similar situations. Successful tools and techniques that foster collaboration will be widely promoted. Training materials and guidelines will be developed to help others learn how to adopt them.

Phase 3 – will broaden our findings to catchments across Australia through the pilot of tools for improving transparency in water planning and policy. We will be working with water planners around the country to devise innovative approaches that will be used to inform national benchmarks and guidelines.