On-farm options for managing stream salinity in irrigation areas: an example from the Murray Darling Basin, Australia

Abstract

Increasing salt concentration in tributaries from catchments and rising water tables are the prime contributor to environmental degradation of rivers, creeks, streams or other water bodies. This is especially true during periods of mid-and low stream flows in arid and semi-arid regions around the globe. Catchment scale studies suggest that management of stream salinity requires greater land use change than is economically viable. Therefore, rather than focusing on the opportunity cost of catchment scaie interventions, exploring interventions that are potentially viable at farm scale could be an appropriate strategy for stream sclinity management. This paper presents an analysis of alternative on-farm strategies, such as evaporation ponds and serial biological concentration of salts, aimed at developing an economically self-sustainable stream salinity management system for the Box Creek stormwater escape channel located in the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB), Australia, it is concluded that irrigation areas, with careful management of flows in tributary streams, may be able to play a role in safeguarding the Murray River against further salinisation from irrigation and dryland areas. The outcomes of this paper will be helpful, but not limited to, the MDB in addressing environmental, economic and social issues associated with management of salt concentration in tributaries.

Rehabilitation of degraded dryland ecosystems – review

“…Some of the relevant issues presented in the literature which could be used in a cost-benefit analysis include: the economic case for government intervention and the overall cost of dryland degradation (Kirby and Blyth 1987;Beresford 2001;Roberts and Pannell 2009;Graham et al 2010), spatial modelling and identification of dryland areas affected by salinization (Graham 1992;Ive et al 1992;Horwood 1994;Kirkby 1996;Furby et al 2010), farmers and community perceptions about the salinization problem and the proposed alternatives (Greiner 1997;Hartley et al 1998;Kington et al 2003;Khan et al 2008;Kingwell et al 2008); landscape or river basin management options (Greiner 1998;Callow 2011Callow , 2012, modelling of on-farm management alternatives and economic trade-offs (John et al 2005;Cheng et al 2009;Finlayson et al 2010;Graham et al 2010), reintroduction of native trees and shrubs (Schofield 1992;Dorrough and Moxham 2005;Thrall et al 2005), and the effects of dryland degradation on human health (Jardine et al 2007(Jardine et al , 2008a(Jardine et al , 2008b(Jardine et al , 2011Speldewinde et al 2009Speldewinde et al , 2011.…”