Where to intervene in catchments affected by dryland salinity
Abstract
Natural resource management (NRM) planning in Australia has traditionally been based on ‘problems’ or issues such as dryland and irrigation salinity, pest plants and animals, loss of biodiversity and algal blooms. Particularly in the state of Victoria, this has spawned a plethora of single issue NRM plans and strategies. In each of the plans, decisions to intervene are generally based on the severity of the ‘problem’ and the capacity of resource managers to
influence the underlying processes. For dryland salinity, this has meant that investment is generally targeted towards sub-catchments where salinity is more severe, where the underlying processes are generally well understood and to positions in the landscape where rates of groundwater recharge are relatively ‘high’.
This paper outlines an alternative framework for investment decisions on landscape interventions in dryland salinity. While still issue based, the framework draws on contemporary NRM planning approaches that take an asset rather than a problem or issue perspective. The framework (Clifton and Heislers, 2004) was developed in support of the Dryland Salinity Management Plan for the North Central region of the state of Victoria, Australia.
Authors
C.A. Clifton1, D. Heislers2 and N.S. Fleming3