In 2021, Alluvium was engaged to undertake a major Murray-Darling Basin Plan integrated monitoring and evaluation project, following on from previous monitoring and evaluation work for the Murray-Darling Basin Authority (MDBA).

The Murray–Darling Basin covers over one million square kilometres across 5 states and territories in south-eastern Australia, and is of significant environmental, cultural and economic value to Australia.

Murray River (Source: Zac Edmonds on Unsplash)

The MDBA project consisted of 4 key components:

• Review of the 2020 Basin Plan Evaluation – a report on the strengths, weaknesses and lessons learnt from the 2020 5-yearly Basin Plan Evaluation, informed by background research and in-depth interviews with MDBA staff, Basin jurisdictional representatives, and independent experts.
• Basin Evaluation Framework – a new Evaluation Framework to provide enduring, high-level direction on current and future Basin Plan evaluation.
• Project Plan for the 2025 Basin Plan Evaluation – a detailed and adaptive project plan and ‘roadmap’ for the delivery of the next 5-year Basin Plan evaluation – a complex, multi-year project scheduled for completion in 2025. The 2025 Evaluation will help inform the 2026 Review of the Basin Plan.
• Basin condition monitoring and reporting – through an extensive process of engagement with community representatives from across the Basin, a suite of more than 50 cultural, environmental, social and economic monitoring issues were identified. This information, together with a set of matching indicators and metrics developed by Alluvium, is assisting MDBA to design a new 3-year Basin Condition Monitoring and Reporting Program.

Alluvium’s expertise in monitoring and evaluation, water resource management, policy and strategy, ecology, hydrology, economics, and social science has informed a wide range of river health and water resource management projects in the Murray-Darling Basin and elsewhere.

See Our Projects for more case studies.