The National Water Commission has released a new report, Recognising the broader benefits of aquatic systems in water planning: an ecosystem services approach.


Water planning in Australia has a well-established tradition of incorporating benefits associated with consumptive uses of water from aquatic systems, for example irrigation and bulk town water supply.


Less emphasis has been placed on identifying and incorporating additional “ecosystem service” benefits such as flood mitigation, improved drainage, better water quality and lower water treatment costs.


Because of their ‘non-market’ nature, these benefits are difficult to value quantitatively. Other non-extractive “ecosystem service” benefits of aquatic systems that support our wellbeing, for instance recreational amenity and cultural values, are even more difficult to quantify.


The Waterlines report aims to encourage a more comprehensive, systematic and transparent consideration of the multiple benefits of aquatic systems in water planning.


It will better equip water planners and managers to account for these broader ecosystems services and apply this concept in practice, by helping them to identify, describe, explain and communicate their public benefits.


The approach has been designed to complement current planning practices by providing ideas, tools and examples that can be taken up at several points in water plan development.

It will support explicit identification and consideration of public benefits and ecosystem services, as is recognised in Australian water policies including the National Water Initiative.


Recognising the broader benefits of aquatic systems in water planning: an ecosystem services approach is available at www.nwc.gov.au