Matter 12: Five-Year Water Quality Assessment for the Murray-Darling Basin

The Murray-Darling Basin in Australia is the focus of this report series. The NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water compiles these reports every five years to monitor progress towards water quality targets. Reporting commenced in 2020, with the next report scheduled for 2026.

Use Cases

• Track progress towards water quality targets based on the five-year assessment cycle mentioned in the description
• Identify risks to aquatic ecosystems and irrigation use based on the report's focus on ecosystem protection
• Assess climate change resilience for water systems based on the stated goal of supporting ecosystem resilience
• Evaluate the impact of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan on water quality based on the report's alignment with Chapter 9 of the plan

Strengths

• Reports are compiled on a defined five-year cycle, providing a regular assessment cadence
• Focuses on a critical national water system, the Murray-Darling Basin
• Explicitly links water quality to ecosystem functions, recreation, and irrigation
• Data is licensed under CC-BY-4.0, allowing for reuse and redistribution

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment
• Data is provided as PDF reports, which may require extraction for computational analysis

Provenance

Source

NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water

Collection Method

Monitoring and evaluation reports compiled for regulatory compliance with the Murray-Darling Basin Plan.

Time Range

Reporting commenced 2020, with reports produced every five years.

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-18 02:47:37.074723; freshness should be verified

Geography

Murray-Darling Basin, Australia