The National Water Commission has called for the formation of a national water science strategy in its third National Water Initiative report.

 

"A national-level water science strategy is needed to bring scientists and decision-makers together in a collaborative effort to better align research and policy and ensure that the best science is directed at the most significant water management challenges,” the report found.

 

Commissioners met with the Goyder Institute for Water Research and the National Centre for Groundwater Research and Training to discuss the possibility of a unified approach to national water research in Australia.

 

“The scale and urgency of the engineering and remediation measures employed reinforced the need for continued monitoring and evaluation of the effect of these significant interventions,” NWC Chair Chloe Munro said.

 

'As the Commission stressed in our recent assessment of the National Water Initiative, nationally, we need to foster a stronger commitment to ecosystem monitoring and evaluation.

 

'This is critical to determine whether environmental objectives are being achieved, and to develop adaptive management capacity based on improved knowledge and lessons learned.'

 

The report can be found here