Cover

Contents

List of contributors

Acknowledgements

Prologue

1 Introduction

River basin history

The case today

A paradigm shift: a new view of river catchments

Sustainability science

2 Introduction to sustainability

Our common future

Working with the dynamics of nature

Economics and sustainability

The various forms of capital

More detail on the value of nature

Society and sustainability

To our next step

3 The principles of sustainability and economics

Sustainability and economics

What is economics?

The competitive economy

Correcting market failure

More than efficiency

The future compared to the present

Income distribution in valuing projects and policies

A dollar is not a dollar

4 Economic values of nature

A heroic attempt

Don’t attempt the impossible, do the practical

Doing what we can

5 Practical measurements: water as an ecosystem good

A catchment as a hypothetical country

Why catchment producers trade

Water as an example of an ecosystem good

Water in more detail

6 The world’s great river basins

Imagine a river basin

The Nile River

The Amazon River

The Yangtze (Chang Jiang) River

The Mississippi River

The Yenisei River

The Huang He

The Ob River

The Paraná River

The Congo (Zaire) River

The Lena River

The Murray–Darling River system

The Volga River

The Indus River

The Ganges River

The Tigris and Euphrates rivers

The Mekong River

In conclusion

7 Accounting for water

The basis of integrated measurement and management

Water accounting and budgets

Our goals for water accounting in Little Swanport

Water accounting advances

Uses for water accounts

Catchment-based water accounts

The natural state of a catchment?

8 An introduction to the Little Swanport catchment

Our team and what we do

A little history

The troubled waters of the Little Swanport

Not top down: nuts and bolts

9 The river system and water management

River ecology: landforms and river flow

Flows

Water quality

Ground water

Aquatic ecology

Riparian vegetation

Water management: protected environmental values

Water management plan

Environmental water requirements

Holistic flows framework

10 The Little Swanport estuary

Changes in the estuary over the last 7000 years

Estuary sedimentology

Catastrophic changes over the last 100 years

The estuary today

Physical and chemical characteristics

Estuarine ecology

Native oysters

Introduced species

Pathogen levels in the estuary

Future

11 Estuarine responses to environmental flows

Field observations

Nutrient budget

Ecosystem box model

Results and discussion

Conclusions

12 A short history of the catchment settlement

The first Tasmanians: the Palawa

Early European explorers

European colonisation and settlement

Settling the lower catchment

Settling the upper catchment

Land grants and land uses

Places of historical interest

13 The people and use of natural resources

The adjacent towns

The catchment landscapes

The land uses

A real mix of land uses

Oyster farming

Grazing

Forestry

The catchment communities

14 Communities and values

The farming community

The residential community in the lower catchment

The upper catchment

In summary

15 The catchment regional economy

Sheep

Other farming

Measuring what is produced

Tasmanian input-output tables

Contributions to the local/regional economy

Irregular purchases

Expenses not included

Lease payments

Farm workers

The lower catchment residential community

Household living cost across the total catchment

Farm expenditure by various categories

The flow-on effects

Caveats

To our next task

16 The Little Swanport water accounts

Introducing the framework

Mass water balancing

Preliminary water accounts for Little Swanport1

Human impacts on the Little Swanport water cycle

17 The value of water

Our case study

The impact of drought in the Little Swanport catchment

Preventative (defensive) expenditure

Destocking

Feeding stock

Re-sowing pasture

Some simple sums

The impacts of the drought: in summary

Estimating the value of water when it does not rain

Conclusions

In summary

Notes

References

Index