Course overview
This course examines the governance, future security and sustainable management of water resources with a particular focus on agricultural production and increasing demands for water by other sectors (e.g. urban growth, environmental flows). Within the course, students will be exposed to topics such as: the historical, cultural and socio-political contexts of water governance; the range of administrative arrangements for developing, allocating, managing and protecting water resources; water and environmental asset valuation methods; the cross-jurisdictional, multi-level and multi-institutional processes for water governance; the intersecting and interrelated interests around water resource use and frameworks for stakeholder consultation; examination of frameworks and economic instruments for addressing increasingly complex water security issues such as allocation and trade; and recent remediation programs to counter land and water degradation.
Course learning outcomes
- Describe the historical context of water governance in Australia and other contexts and identify the critical points of institutional change.
- List important policy or program options for managing water scarcity and compare their effectiveness in different situations.
- Explain the multi-jurisdictional governance of water and analyse reasons as to why this approach is adopted.
- Critically analyse the drivers of water scarcity and demonstrate the usefulness of economic instruments such as trade, pricing and allocation.
- Apply assessment tools such as cost-benefit analysis, frameworks for interrelated stakeholder consultation and water resource planning to case studies.
- Evaluate the possible future outcomes of water governance decisions taken today, and debate the merits/costs of these decisions.