Groundwater Sustainability and Management

IGS works with both government agencies and groundwater users to establish defensible science-based groundwater management principles. We have extensive experience working at the interface between science and groundwater policy. Our services in this area may include: reviewing existing knowledge and data, collecting new field data, interpreting results in the context of groundwater management options, developing conceptual and/or numerical models of groundwater systems and providing technical advice to our clients in negotiations about water allocation.

IGS is currently working with consortiums of irrigators located in theoretically over-allocated areas to provide a technical basis for revising the groundwater allocation principles applied. In some cases, groundwater flow models developed by IGS are being used to assess alternative management approaches and as a basis for discussions with government representatives.

In addition, IGS has specialist expertise in using state-of-the-art scientific tools and techniques to understand hydrogeological controls on groundwater dependent ecosystems (GDEs). This helps to assess the risks to GDEs from future development, and to develop meaningful groundwater pumping rules, such as buffer zones and set-back distances for ecological assets.