Resource assessment process

Assessing water resources

When determining how much water will be allocated to water users on regulated rivers, the department considers four key parameters:

• How much accessible water is held in headwater and any intermediate storages.
• How much water is expected to flow into the storages over the assessment horizon, using the lowest inflows recorded before the first water sharing plan.
• How much water is already allocated for all licences, planned environmental water, and storage reserves, where applicable.
• How much water is required to run the river system, such as end of system flows, transmission losses, evaporation and other operational overheads.

Any remaining water is shared according to rules in the relevant water sharing plan,  published in the water allocation statement, and credited by an Available Water Determination (AWD) order.
 

Water allocation guides for major river valleys

To help people understand the way in which water is allocated to the various priorities and licence types, the department is developing guides on how the water allocation process works in each of the major regulated river valleys – see respective guides below.

Process map of how water is allocated

Download a larger diagram (JPG, 272.09 KB) 

Fact sheets

Detailed information on how water is shared in the regulated Murrumbidgee and Murray valleys, as well as the Hunter regulated river water source in NSW is provided in the fact sheets below.