Commonwealth Long-Term Intervention Monitoring Project: Stage 1 Mid-Term Review and Evaluation

1Introduction

This report contains an independent ‘program level’ Mid-Term Review and Evaluation (MTRE) of the Commonwealth’s Long Term Intervention Monitoring (LTIM) Project undertaken by Professor Barry Hart (Director, Water Science Pty Ltd) and Dr Rhonda Butcher (Principal, Waters Edge Consulting).

The LTIM Project is the main program for addressing the Commonwealth Environmental Water Office (CEWO) requirements under the Water Act 2007 (Cwlth) and Murray-Darling Basin Plan (hereafter Basin Plan). The LTIM Project commenced on-ground monitoring in June 2014, after an initial two-year scoping and development phase. The monitoring will occur over a five-year period, ending in June 2019.

The LTIM Project is world-leading in its scope, both spatially (the entire Murray-Darling Basin) and temporally (5 years), objectives and budget (over $30 million over 5 years). It is seeking to achieve an outcome – assessment of the effectiveness of Commonwealth environmental water delivery in achieving Basin-scale ecological outcomes – that has never been attempted before anywhere in the world. It is a highly ambitious project.

The objectives of this MTRE are (in brief): to assess the structure of the LTIM Project; to review progress, effectiveness, achievements and outputs of the LTIM Project from the first three years of monitoring (2014-15 to 2016-17); to assess what is working well and what can be improved in the short and longer term; and to provide a series of recommendations and associated management responses related to the review findings for the CEWO’s consideration.

The evidence for this MTRE was obtained from two sources: first, from a review of relevant reports (Program Logic documents; Area-scale Monitoring and Evaluation Plans (MEP); Basin-Matter Evaluation Plans; and Area-scale and Basin-scale 2015-16 evaluation reports – see Appendix A); and second, from interviews with CEWO staff (project managers, Water Delivery Teams), the Murray Darling Freshwater Research Centre (MDFRC) Director and Basin Matter leads; the leads of the seven Selected-Area teams and selected team members; and relevant staff from the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) (See Appendix C for discussion points). This review has been impressed with the large number of talented, highly skilled, experienced and committed scientists and water managers involved in the Project.

This MTRE report covers: the background to the LTIM Project; a review of the Project structure; a high level evaluation of the Project’s progress under three headings - Area-scale evaluation, Basin-scale evaluation, and Adaptive Management; possible modifications to the Project; some considerations for LTIM Phase 2; and finally a series of recommendation for CEWO’s consideration.

2Background

2.1LTIM Project objectives

Since 2008, the Commonwealth has acquired environmental water with the aim of rebalancing the water resources of the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) to ensure the environmental assets of the Basin are protected and where needed also restored. The Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder (CEWH) manages the Commonwealth’s environmental water portfolio. At the 31 January 2018, the portfolio totalled 1,836 GL (long-term average).²

The Water Act 2007 (Cwlth) requires the CEWH to perform its functions and exercise its powers consistently with and in a manner that gives effect to the Basin Plan (Commonwealth of Australia 2012). Specifically, the CEWH must ensure that Commonwealth environmental water is managed in accordance with the Basin Plan’s environmental watering plan (BWP; Commonwealth of Australia 2012) and the Basin-wide environmental watering strategy (BEWS; MDBA 2014). The CEWH is also expected to have regard to the Basin annual watering priorities as well. The Water Act (in part via the Basin Plan) places a number of obligations on the CEWH, including principles of monitoring, evaluation and reporting requirements.

In response to the requirements of the Water Act and the Basin Plan, the CEWO has established a Long Term Intervention Monitoring (LTIM) Project, with the aim of supporting improved decision making through the application of the principles of adaptive management, good governance and reporting.

Intervention monitoring is one of three types of monitoring included in the CEWO Monitoring, Evaluation, Reporting and Improvement (MERI) Framework (CEWO 2013) - the other two being operational and program level monitoring. Intervention monitoring is a key step in the MERI process that underpins evaluation, reporting of outcomes and improved decisions, and future monitoring through the adaptive management process. The CEWO MERI Framework includes two types of intervention monitoring: targeted monitoring of selected watering actions, and long-term monitoring of Selected Areas.

The LTIM Project objectives, in order of priority, are (Gawne et al. 2014):

• 
  Evaluate the contribution of Commonwealth environmental watering to the objectives of the Murray-Darling Basin Authority’s (MDBA) Environmental Watering Plan;
  
• 
  Evaluate the ecological outcomes of Commonwealth environmental watering at each of the seven Selected Areas;
  
• 
  Infer ecological outcomes of Commonwealth environmental watering in areas of the Murray-Darling Basin not monitored;
  
• 
  Support the adaptive management of Commonwealth environmental water;
  
• 
  Monitor the ecological response to Commonwealth environmental watering at each of the seven Selected Areas.
  

The Outcomes Framework developed by MDFRC represents a hierarchy of expected outcomes based around the environmental watering objectives stated in the Murray-Darling Basin Plan (MDBA 2012). Expected outcomes are referred to as Basin Matters, which were identified as achievable:

• 
  Within a one year timeframe (1 year expected outcomes);
  
• 
  Within a one year to five year timeframe (5 year expected outcomes).
  

Table : Objectives relevant to Commonwealth environmental water management (CEWO 2013).

Basin Plan Reference	Basin Plan Objective	Short label
Environmental watering plan	“to protect and restore water-dependent ecosystems of the Murray-Darling Basin” (Basin Plan, Chapter 8, Part 2, 8.04(a))	Biodiversity
	“to protect and restore the ecosystem functions of water-dependent ecosystems” (Basin Plan, Chapter 8, Part 2, 8.04(b))	Ecosystem function
	“to ensure that water-dependent ecosystems are resilient to climate change and other risks and threats” (Basin Plan, Chapter 8, Part 2, 8.04(c))	Resilience
Water quality and salinity management plan	“to ensure water quality is sufficient to achieve the above objectives for water-dependent ecosystems, and, for Ramsar wetlands, sufficient to maintain ecological character” (Basin Plan, Chapter 9, Part 3, 9.04 (1) & (2))	Water quality