Murray-Darling IDBM

Question 1

Geographical Context of the Murray-Darling Basin

Answer 1

Population of 2M

Area of over 1M km^2

Main rivers are Darling and Murray Rivers

Drains 14% of Australia

Supports 41% of commercially grown crops

Question 2

Problems with the Murray-Darling Basin

Answer 2

• Poor drainage due to flat gradient
• Makes it extremely dry (drought)
• 80% of rainfall becomes runoff and 94% evaporates or transpires

Government made allocations to extract water in wet periods in 1950s and 1970s, leading to overallocation in other periods

Old leached soils (65-200M years old) are infertile so fertilizers are used to compensate, which leads to algal bloom

Question 3

Administration of Murray-Darling Basin

Answer 3

Encompasses 4 states, 1 territory, Commonwealth Gov’t, and 166 local gov’ts

Question 4

Water sharing challenge Murray-Darling Basin

Answer 4

Currently not enough water to supply everyone’s needs

Must create fair system to ensure everyone in the basin has the water they need and the ecosystem also has enough freshwater to thrive

Rivers will not be sustained if community keeps taking large amounts of water out of irrigation

A limit is now placed on water taken out