River Assessment Method
This document outlines a systematic approach to assessing river resources for irrigation purposes, focusing on supply and demand indicators. Key strategies include leveraging existing reliable national data and expert panel judgments while addressing challenges like data availability and feasibility. An aggregate scoring method prioritizes river size and irrigable area, with secondary weighting for soil moisture and alternative supply reliability. Significant findings highlight the predominant role of resource size and soil moisture deficit, particularly in Canterbury, while emphasizing the complexities due to water resource transfers and storage affects.
River Assessment Method
E N D
Presentation Transcript
River Assessment Method Irrigation Simon Harris and Claire Mulcock
Defining irrigation • No categories • No segments • Clusters of attributes – supply and demand
Indicators • Existing data, especially reliable, nationally available data • Expert panel judgement • Problems with: • Data availability • Feasibility • De novo approach
Aggregate scores • Tried unweighted – too much influence from minor attributes • Soil moisture deficit threshold • Weighted for river size and irrigable area • Secondary weighting for soil moisture, reliability and alternative supply
National, local significance • National significance - size = 3 (>70cumecs), irrigable area = 3 (>100,000 ha) and soil moisture deficit present • Local significance - size = 1 (>5cumecs), irrigable area = 1 (>5,000 ha) or soil moisture deficit not present
Findings • Primarily determined by size of resource, irrigable area where soil moisture deficit present • Likely most nationally significant resources will be in Canterbury • Robust in terms of comparative assessment, but level of discrimination difficult at smaller sized resources
Key concerns • de novo approach • Transfer of water resources across catchments makes individual catchment assessment difficult • Storage alters the profile and importance of a river – ie Ashley and Lees Valley dam. Also difficult to address other than through expert assessment • Lots of data for Canterbury, difficult elsewhere • Standardisation of national/regional/local significance across values