Murray-Darling Basin Groundwater Plan Boundaries

Nineteen groundwater water resource plan areas define the Murray-Darling Basin's aquifer management zones. The dataset includes distinct boundaries for surface outcrop and buried geological formations in two specific areas. It is produced and maintained by the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, with a recent update in April 2026.

Use Cases

• Delineating groundwater extraction limits by analyzing the spatial boundaries of the 19 water resource plan areas (WRPAs).
• Modeling aquifer connectivity by comparing the 'Outcrop extent' and 'Buried extent' boundaries for the two relevant WRPAs.
• Integrating groundwater management zones with surface water data using the provided geospatial vector formats (SHP, GEOJSON).
• Assessing regulatory compliance for water usage by overlaying well locations onto the specific WRPA polygons.

Strengths

• Defines boundaries for 19 distinct groundwater management areas.
• Provides dual boundary representations (Outcrop and Buried) for 2 specific plan areas where geology differs.
• Offers data in multiple standard geospatial formats including SHP, GEOJSON, and WFS for interoperability.

Limitations

• No attribute data (e.g., aquifer properties, allocation volumes) is described for the plan area polygons.
• The exact spatial resolution, coordinate reference system, and lineage of the boundary data are unspecified.
• Sample data and row/feature counts for the vector data are unavailable to assess detail or complexity.

Provenance

Source

Murray-Darling Basin Authority

Collection Method

null

Time Range

null

Freshness

Updated April 2026.

Geography

Murray-Darling Basin, Australia