Integrated Catchment Management:
Learning from the Australian Experience for the Murray-Darling Basin

Final Overview Report Download the documents
January 2002

This report was commissioned by the Murray-Darling Basin Commission to provide an integrated overview of State reviews of Integrated Catchment Management (ICM) from across Australia and an analysis of potential learning for the implementation of ICM in the Murray-Darling Basin. It addresses the Human Dimension Strategy Implementation Plan requirement for on-going research and activity to support ICM, and contributes to the implementation of the Commission's new ICM Policy Statement.

The project's specific objectives are:

Using the available literature, including recent reviews of ICM completed in each state of Australia:
(a) to identify key characteristics of ICM in each State and their effectiveness;
(b) to identify social or institutional arrangements, trends or issues relevant to the further development of ICM in the Murray-Darling Basin;
(c) to identify the core characteristics of 'best practice' ICM for the Murray-Darling Basin;
(d) to identify the implications and potential opportunities for ICM implementation in the Basin to:
(i) improve participation of local government;
(ii) provide better integration across jurisdictional boundaries;
(iii) increase the participation of Basin people in ICM processes.

Our approach to this 'desk top' review has been to develop an analytical framework to guide a comparative analysis of the systems for ICM. The core elements of the framework that structured the approach to the Review are resource use context, governance arrangements, knowledge context and natural resource management (NRM) outcomes. The research team studied each state in turn (see Appendices 2 - 7), conducted a comparative analysis of the different state systems (Section 2), and then identified current trends and issues in the development of ICM and its context (Section 3). Rather than present recommendations for the very different evolving contexts of each state system, we have opted to present principles for the future evolution of ICM in each jurisdiction, and a description of a hypothetical ICM system than would follow those principles (Section 4).

Download a copy of the Overview Report - PDF Versions

Executive Summary - [ PDF 56Kb]
Full report and appendices - [ PDF 3.66Mb]
Overview report -     [ PDF 693 Kb]
Appendix 1A, 1B, 1C - [ PDF 27Kb]
Appendix 2 - [ PDF 200 Kb ]
Appendix 3 - [ PDF 200 Kb ]
Appendix 4 - [ PDF 211Kb ]
Appendix 5 - [ PDF 105Kb ]
Appendix 6 -    [ PDF 297Kb ]
Appendix 7 -   [ PDF 75 Kb

Documents can also be obtained from:
Murray-Darling Basin Commission
GPO Box 409
Canberra ACT 260
phone 02 6279 0100

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Integrated Catchment Management: Learning from the Australian Experience for the Murray-Darling Basin

Integrated Catchment Management:
Learning from the Australian Experience for the Murray-Darling Basin