Situation

Over-extraction of water from the Murray River has led to the degradation of many areas of significant environmental value along the river’s 1,500 miles. The river basin is also home to an agricultural area that produces over one-third of Australia’s food supply.

The Living Murray program was established to restore health to key areas of the river system through environmental water recovery, while balancing this with the competing need for sustainable agricultural production. A key focus of the program was the modernization of inefficient irrigation infrastructure.

The Shepparton Irrigation Area, typical of many areas in the basin, lost 30% of the water it diverted from the river during transmission. It also provided a poor service to irrigators, which resulted in inefficient on-farm water use. The main problems included:

• Conservative (generous) canal regulation and manually controlled check regulators resulted in water in excess of farmers’ needs being spilt out the end of the canal system
• These same practices caused oscillating canal water levels resulting in inconsistent flows through turnouts. This increased wastage through excess soil infiltration and runoff
• Inflexible operations that required water to be ordered four days in advance meant that farmers could not easily get water to crops when needed
• Infrequent and inaccurate flow measurement made good canal management impossible
• Inaccurate metering and leakage at turnouts led to inequitable distribution
• Difficulty in identifying sections of canal that experienced high leakage

Results

Automating customer-facing operations
Rubicon’s software enables Shepparton customers to place water orders via internet or phone, 24 hours a day, and they now benefit from a system that can supply water with as little as one hour’s notice. On receipt of an order, the software automatically manages all aspects of planning and scheduling, from verifying that the customer is entitled to the requested water, through to instructing the farmer’s turnout to open and close at the allotted time and requested flow rate. Actual usage is automatically measured and recorded and made available on the internet and phone to help customers manage their water better.

Automating channel regulation

The two year Shepparton modernization project was completed in late 2009 and has resulted in major operational improvements:

• Delivery efficiency improved from 70% in the 2007/08 season to 90% in the 2010/11 season
• Improved management control and planning with rich, real-time information
• Compliance with new metering and reporting regulations demanded by government
• Farmers benefiting from a reliable system with delivery almost on-demand, which means they can now maximize the productive output of every galln of water used
• Greater water use accountability, transparency and distribution equity for all stakeholders

The 29% improvement in delivery efficiency has resulted in the annual recovery of 32,000 acre-feet of water. Of this, 24,000 acre-feet have been permanently transferred to the Living Murray program for environmental use. This water is retained in storage and is periodically released into the river system in a controlled manner to maximize environmental benefit to downstream wetlands and lakes.

The Living Murray’s annual environmental watering plan outlines how the recovered water is used each year and can be downloaded here.