Geoscience report caveat

Mapping the Growth, Location, Surface Area and Age of Man Made Water Bodies, including Farm Dams, in the Murray-Darling Basin

This report provides snapshots of the level of man-made water body development including farm dams for the years 1994 and 2005.  The report does not quantify the volume of water retained in these dams, the subsequent impact of these dams on stream flow or the purpose for which the dams have been built. This will be determined from future studies.  A number of regulatory controls were introduced by jurisdictions on farm dam development between 1994 and 2005.  Therefore the effectiveness of these changes in addressing the risk of farm dam development cannot be determined from this study.  To understand the impact that introduced regulatory measures have had on the rate of growth of farm dams, will require additional analysis of appropriate years between 1994 and 2005.

The man-made water bodies identified in this study are generally referred to in this report as “dams” and include farm dams (a term generally used to describe dams on freehold land that have their own catchment), off-stream dams, irrigation reuse storages, public storages and storages contained within water delivery systems. In dryland areas the vast majority of the man-made water bodies identified will be farm dams whereas in irrigation districts that share common headworks (such as those in northern Victoria) the majority of man-made water bodies identified will be reuse storages. Off-stream dams, irrigation reuse storages and storages contained within water delivery systems do not have any significant catchment area and therefore do not take additional water from the environment. In those States of the MDB that require new farm dams in specific categories to hold a water entitlement, the construction of these types of farm dams will not take additional water from the Murray system as a cap and trade system is used.

Link to the report - Mapping the Growth, Location, Surface Area and Age of Man Made Water Bodies, including Farm Dams, in the Murray-Darling Basin