Developing a farm optimisation model to measure the impact on groundwater use and farm profitability
Presented by: Claire Stephenson
Produced by: IAH NSW
Date: Tuesday 13 August 2024
Time: 17:30 for an 18:00 start
Where: AECOM Office – 420 George Street, Sydney, Level 21
Online: Teams link
Abstract
Groundwater is a key natural resource that is relied on to support agriculture and town water supply. In many countries including Australia, landholders have a right to access groundwater for stock and domestic purposes, with usage largely un-metered and un-monitored. This can create competing demand and unsustainable use of the resource in arid and semi-arid regions that have unreliable surface water resources and rainfall patterns. Groundwater management strategies largely focus on water access licensing within designated management areas, extraction caps and trading rules; however, there is limited research into the effectiveness of measures to sustainably manage groundwater resources in semi-arid regions. This research used current groundwater use and management practices in a semi-arid region and identified that actual groundwater use exceeded the sustainable target. This corresponds with observed decline in town water supply in the region.
A farm optimization model was developed to measure the impact on groundwater use and farm profitability by including stock groundwater use within the extraction limit, and introduction of a de-stocking incentive. Results suggest that sustainability targets could be achieved when stock groundwater use is included within the sustainable extraction limit, with the greatest influence achieved in water constrained areas. The research highlights the importance of region-specific inputs on the use of common pool resources in order to tailor policy and incentive schemes for sustainable management.
Bio
Claire is a Principal Hydrogeologist and has over 14 years of experience working as a hydrogeologist and conducting technical studies into groundwater resources across Australia. Claire is currently pursuing a PhD on sustainable groundwater management at the Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics in the Griffith Business School in collaboration with the Australian River Institute.
The study area is focused on the Surat Basin within the Mid Great Artesian Basin zone, around the townships of Roma and Surat. The research topic will explore how economic instruments can be designed and employed in concert with other measures to enhance sustainable groundwater management within a region with competing market and non-market groundwater demands. The research will be conducted over the next four years and will compile available data from different government agencies and sources, and collect new data on market and non-market water values. The research will utilize the Q method to reveal social perspectives on market and non-market values of groundwater. The work aims to distil current groundwater management practices, economic drivers and policy to identify key success criteria for achieving sustainable management.
These learnings will then be applied to develop an incentives program aimed to improve groundwater supply and quality within a regulated groundwater management area for current and future groundwater use and capture environmental and Indigenous groundwater values. The effectiveness of the approaches will be tested with hydro-economic modelling (HEM) under a range of socio-economic and environmental conditions.
