Our allocation planning process

Allocation planning can be a complex task. The level of detail that feeds into each water management plan depends on the size of the resource and its current and/or future demands. This means that the Department of Water may put more time and resources into a plan for an over-allocated resource with many competing demands, as opposed to one that has low use and low competition.

We generally develop plans according to three major phases. In some cases these phases are not consecutive and we can be doing a number of activities at any stage.

Phase A: Collect information

This phase involves building our understanding about the water resources.

We gather information such as how much water is present in the system; what the demands are on the water resources; and how much people value the resources in terms of social use, cultural importance, or economic output.

As part of completing this phase we develop a range of documents including hydrogeology reports, hydrology summaries and issue scoping studies.

Phase B: Decide water availability

This phase involves decision-making based on the information gathered in the first phase.

Once we understand how much water resource exists in the system(s), how the resource is valued, and how much demand there is, we are able to make assumptions about the water availability. Allocation limits take into account how much water is available, what the environment needs, and demand.

Phase C: Specify management actions

Once we have decided how much water is available and set our allocation limits, we specify management actions to ensure the resources are managed according to best practices.

This includes details on monitoring the resources, monitoring use, assessing environmental targets, and evaluating the success of the allocation limits and the water management plan itself.

Working with our community and stakeholders

Stakeholders will have opportunities to participate into the plan's development by:

• contributing to the issue scoping and social values assessments
• ensuring that the management framework reflects issues raised in the scoping phase
• commenting on the content of the draft plan.