Knowledge of the extent and quality of resources in the Alinytjara Wilurara NRM Region is limited and monitoring programs are focussed primarily on water sources critical to ongoing human habitation of the region. There are few permanent surface water resources and groundwater resources are often poorly understood and have low quality for domestic use. Water dependent ecosystems are also poorly understood and large seasonal and annual fluctuations in rainfall make these systems difficult to study and manage.
The remoteness of many of the water resources of interest adds considerably to the cost of investigation and monitoring and limits the extent and type of monitoring that can be undertaken. This review highlights specific knowledge gaps and issues for the establishment of an adequate monitoring program and recommends priority steps to enable evaluation of the potential use of water resources and the success of management programs.
The review covers information on six themes of resource data, surface water quantity, surface water quality, groundwater quantity, groundwater quality, aquatic ecosystems and catchment characteristics. These themes are convenient divisions of the total resource for the purpose of monitoring and fit the current division of responsibilities between agencies. However, these divisions should be used to aid the development of operations that view water resources as an integrated set of interacting components and not isolated resources to be managed individually. The review also outlines ongoing roles and responsibilities for water resource monitoring in South Australia and the Alinytjara Wilurara NRM Region to establish a framework for the development of information and cost sharing arrangements.
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