Water Planning
Water Planning Background
Australia has an ongoing requirement for improved water planning and skilled water planners in urban and regional areas.
Water planning is a key aspect of the 2004 National Water Initiative (NWI) agreements, and one of the most important tools for achieving sustainable use of water. At its core is planning for the extraction of water (both quantity and timing) from rivers and aquifers for irrigation, towns and cities, rural stock and domestic and other purposes. It also includes the management of infrastructure such as dams and weirs used to store and manipulate flows to supply water for human and economic benefits and environmental flows.
While in its broad sense water planning can apply to a range of matters such as flood risk management, water quality, urban and rural water supply systems, these are not the focus of water planning under the NWI, though they are linked to it and are sometimes addressed in the same planning process.
There are training courses for specialist technical areas such as hydrology and ecology, but there is also a need for training in water planning itself. Broadly, planners need to understand how to apply generic strategic planning principles and practices to water planning, while also understanding enough of the technical aspects to be able to pull them all together. With initial support from the National Water Commission (NWC) ICE WaRM offers a Water Planning Stream in the award-winning nested Master programme. The Water Planning stream is offered externally, enabling students all over Australia to undertake studies at their convenience.
Scholarships
The NWC support for skills development in water planning included funding a limited number of scholarships for eligible domestic students undertaking a Graduate Diploma in Water Resources Management specialising in Water Planning. However, applications for these scholarships have now closed.
