The Australian public's preferences for further environmental and cultural water recovery options in the Murray-Darling Basin

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dc.contributor.authorZuo, A.
dc.contributor.authorWheeler, S.A.
dc.date.issued2024
dc.descriptionAvailable online 28 February 2024
dc.description.abstractThe Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) Plan in Australia legislated in 2012 represents the largest recovery of water, from consumptive use to environmental use in the world – with the aim of restoring rivers and ecosystems back to health. To date, although billions of dollars have been spent, the Plan’s water recovery targets have not been achieved and will not meet their original target dates for full recovery, with governments needing to continue to make difficult water policy choices and trade-offs. This study explores a survey of Australian public preferences for five different water reallocation options in the MDB (and methods to be used for recovery) and identifies individual characteristics associated with various policy options. Almost a quarter of those surveyed did not support further water recovery; 17 % favoured recovering water to current goals only; 22 % favoured recovering environmental water beyond current goals; while 38 % favoured recovering both environmental and cultural water beyond current goals. For those wanting further recovery, a third preferred using irrigation infrastructure subsidies as the main method, while the majority favoured buying water directly back from irrigators (either through voluntary buyback or compulsory acquisition). Trust levels, location, age, climate change perception and gender all played a part in influencing respondent preferences for various water recovery options.
dc.description.statementofresponsibilityAlec Zuo, Sarah Ann Wheeler
dc.identifier.citationJournal of Hydrology, 2024; 633:130983-1-130983-11
dc.identifier.doi10.1016/j.jhydrol.2024.130983
dc.identifier.issn0022-1694
dc.identifier.issn1879-2707
dc.identifier.orcidZuo, A. [0000-0003-0425-4633]
dc.identifier.orcidWheeler, S.A. [0000-0002-6073-3172]
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/2440/142570
dc.language.isoen
dc.publisherElsevier
dc.relation.granthttp://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP220101506
dc.rights© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
dc.source.urihttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2024.130983
dc.subjectWater recovery; Water markets; Buyback; Irrigation subsidies; Environmental flows; Multinomial logit model; Basin Plan
dc.titleThe Australian public's preferences for further environmental and cultural water recovery options in the Murray-Darling Basin
dc.typeJournal article
pubs.publication-statusPublished

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