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 How to read the seasonal watering plan
How to read the seasonal watering plan
Under the Victorian Water Act 1989, the VEWH can only authorise the use of water for the environment where it is consistent with a seasonal watering plan. This is to ensure transparency about what environmental flows are planned and how they are managed.
The plan must ensure that the scope, objectives and potential watering activities for each waterway are clear, and it must enable decisions about possible water use to be made effectively and transparently.
Sections 2 to 5 of the seasonal watering plan represent four broad geographic regions of Victoria: the Gippsland, central, western and northern regions. Each regional overview includes:
• a description of the region
• an acknowledgement of the role of Traditional Owners of the area
• a description of how communities and program partners are engaged
• examples of the community benefits of environmental watering
• examples of integrated catchment management in the region
• a description of how risks are managed
• a seasonal outlook for the region.
Each region is divided further into system sections for waterways and wetlands that are supplied with water
for the environment from an environmental entitlement. Each system’s environmental values, recent conditions, environmental watering objectives and planned actions for the year are presented in its section.
Information in the system sections includes:
• a system introduction page, which includes:
– the names, if applicable, of the one or more waterway managers, storage managers and/or environmental water holders for the system
– images of the system and some of its important environmental values
– an interesting fact about the system or an Aboriginal name or definition for the system
– a pie chart showing the proportion of water entitlements in the system for environmental, urban, industry and irrigation uses
• a system overview, which describes the location of the system, its waterways and major features
• environmental values, which outlines the primary water-dependent species, communities, ecological processes and habitats that rely on healthy waterways and form the basis for environmental objectives
• a table of environmental objectives in the system, which summarises the measurable outcomes that are sought for each environmental value in the system. Each objective will likely rely on the ongoing implementation of one or more watering actions as well as complementary actions (such as control of invasive species or installation of fishways). Target outcomes may take years or several decades to achieve. Figure 1.5.1 is an example of this table
• Traditional Owner and recreational values, which have been considered as part of the planning for environmental flows, including opportunities to support these values provided environmental outcomes are not compromised
• recent conditions, which describes the factors that will be considered when planning environmental flows in the coming year (such as the past watering regime, climate and rainfall, water availability, system operations, monitoring results and environmental observations)
• scope of environmental watering, which is a table of potential environmental watering actions in 2021-22, their expected watering effects (that is, the intended physical or biological effect of the watering action) and the longer-term environmental objective they support. Achievement of each environmental objective relies on one or more potential environmental watering actions and their expected watering effects. Figure 1.5.2 is an example of this table
• scenario planning, which indicates in table form the range and priority of potential environmental watering actions that might be delivered in the coming year under different climate and water availability scenarios. The text accompanying the table describes the rationale
or need for the proposed combination of potential environmental watering actions under each scenario. For example, the table may show which environmental flows may be most important if there is less water for the environment available in a dry year, compared to
an average year where there is more water available, and the text will explain why those flows are important. The climate scenarios considered in most cases are drought, dry, average and wet but occasionally more or fewer scenarios are used. Section 1.3.4 explains how seasonal conditions are considered in planning. Figure 1.5.3 is an example of the scenario planning table.
    2 | Victorian Environmental Water Holder | Seasonal Watering Plan 2021–22





































































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