Summary of main alluvial aquifers and groundwater use potential in the Murray–Darling Basin

The hydrology theme enhanced hydrological knowledge and advanced modelling capacity to inform water resources management and planning in the Murray–Darling Basin.

Science and research

MD-WERP theme	Hydrology
MD-WERP research question	How can our understanding of groundwater management be used to improve our water resources practices?
Project title	Groundwater as an adaptation to current water resources management
Research lead	CSIRO
Authors	Rodrigo Rojas, Dennis González and Guobin Fu
Author contact details	Sreekanth Janardhanan
Date of publication	November 2021
Report full title	Summary of main alluvial aquifers and groundwater use potential in the Murray–Darling Basin
Keywords	Alluvial aquifers; NSW; Murray–Darling Basin; aquifer prioritisation, aquifer sensitivity, groundwater; adaptation
Summary of output	This document summarises progress of investigating groundwater as an adaptation option to current water resources management. It provides a status update on how the prioritisation approach and characterisation approach are progressing. This work has developed a prioritisation approach for the alluvial aquifers in the Murray–Darling Basin by combining aquifer importance and sensitivity indices. Also outlines an approach to characterise groundwater trends in key alluvial aquifers which have been prioritised according to the system.
Key findings / recommendations	The importance of alluvial aquifers in terms of groundwater extraction, in particular the large alluvial systems located in NSW. Also being improved to better account for the presence of GDE’s (groundwater-dependent ecosystems). Methods for large-scale groundwater level analysis might not capture specific declining trends, so potentially missing the occurrence of localised hotspots in aquifers under heavy groundwater use.
Target audience	Water managers, river managers, catchment managers, researchers, hydrological modellers, groundwater modellers, Australian Government, state governments, local governments

Report
Publication title	Published	File type	File size
Summary of main alluvial aquifers and groundwater use potential in the Murray–Darling Basin	04 Nov 2022	PDF	2.74 MB

Published date: 19 May 2025