WATER RESOURCES

This section presents the first experimental step in compiling Australian accounts for water in accordance with the SEEA AFF Framework. Some of the data required to produce these water accounts are not yet available and feedback is sought from users about additional sources of data, priority data gaps, and the potential uses of these accounts. See the Approach taken and future plans section.


SEEA AFF FRAMEWORK FOR WATER

The SEEA AFF water accounts organises information on water according to the accounting framework in SEEA Water, based on the guidelines in the SEEA Central Framework. Two types of accounts exist, the physical flow accounts for water and the water asset accounts. The aim of the SEEA AFF is to assess the use of water in the production of items such as rice and wheat, and the sustainability of available water resources.

Physical flow accounts for water record flows into the economy from the environment, flows between economic units in the economy (including wastewater) and returns to the environment. The physical flow accounts for water (Supply and Use Table 18) consist of five main sections to enable tracking of the relevant flows of water from:

• the environment to the economy (section I)
• within the economy (sections II, III & IV)
• from the economy to the environment (section V).

Water asset accounts record the stocks of water resources, primarily surface water and groundwater, and changes in the stocks from flows such as abstraction, precipitation and evaporation. The asset account for water resources is designed to record the opening and closing stocks of assets and changes in stocks over an accounting period (a shell table is presented in Table 19 in the Downloads tab). Opening and closing stocks are challenging to measure as the scope of the asset account for water resources is limited to inland water resources – artificial reservoirs, lakes, rivers, ground water and soil water. Much of the data required to populate the asset account for water resources is unavailable at the national level.


POLICY RELEVANCE AND USE

The National Water Initiative, developed by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG), provides a blueprint for Australia’s reform commitment to enhanced sustainability, efficiency and productivity in the management and use of its water resources. Water policy and its implementation is carried out across national and state and territory levels, with the Department of Agriculture and Water Resources taking an overarching responsibility for policy and management. Key policy concerns relate to maximising agricultural producers' returns on water use, effective management of the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB), and management of environmental water flows for downstream ecological health. The Australian government has also committed to significant expenditures on water infrastructure.

Environmental-economic accounts are well placed to inform Australian water policy and management decisions on water use and water infrastructure investment. These accounts detail the users and uses of water, and associated transactions. The efficiency of agricultural water use can be assessed through production volumes achieved per ML of water used, and through dedicated valuation of irrigated agricultural outputs. Valuation of water infrastructure assets supports assessment of return on investment.

All agricultural, forestry and fisheries activity depends on the quantity and quality of the water. There is competition for water use, for example for energy, manufacturing, agriculture and human consumption. In view of increasing pressures on water availability in many areas, a coherent set of data on water resources and links to economic and human activities should be a key aim.


HEADLINE MEASURES

Table 18 in the Downloads tab presents physical flow accounts (supply and use tables) for water for each year from 2010-11 to 2015-16, at a national level. These tables detail the supply and use of water within the entire economy and between the environment and the economy. Detailed industry splits for Agriculture are presented for the 2015-16 reference period. Data was sourced from Water Account, Australia, 2015-16 (cat. no. 4610.0).

The key findings include:

• During 2015-16, an estimated 76,544 gigalitres (GL) of water was abstracted from the environment to support the Australian economy. Of this, 8,656 GL was abstracted for distribution (or supply) to industry and households, largely by the Water supply, sewerage and drainage services industry (8,568 GL). The Water supply, sewerage and drainage services industry abstracted a total of 10,527 GL of water from the environment - 1,959 GL of this was for this industry's "own use", which includes distribution losses.
• "Other industries" abstracted 61,339 GL from the environment in 2015-16; however, of this, 60,900 GL was returned to the environment - the majority of these returns (60,702) was used in-stream (for example, hydro-electricity generation) and was therefore a non-consumptive use of water.
• The agriculture, forestry and fishing industries abstracted 4,535 GL of water from the environment in 2015-16. This accounts for 6% of the total water abstracted from the environment to support the Australian economy. The majority of the water abstracted by the agriculture, forestry and fishing industries was for its "own use". Added to this, 5,625 GL of distributed water was supplied to the agriculture forestry and fishing industries (mainly by the Water supply, sewerage and drainage services industry) resulting in a total consumption of 9,604 GL of water, a decrease of 9.3% from 2014-15 when consumption was 10,592 GL.
• In 2015-16, the agriculture, forestry and fishing industries consumed 60% of the total volume of water consumed by the economy (16,132 GL).
• The agricultural industry groups with the largest volumes of water consumption in 2015-16 were Sheep, beef, cattle and grain farming (3,035 GL), Other crop growing (2,725 GL), Dairy cattle farming (1,490 GL) and Fruit and tree nut growing (1,465 GL).
• In 2015-16, water consumption by the agriculture, forestry and fishing industries was the lowest it had been since 2011-12 (9,482 GL). Between 2012-13 and 2015-16 water consumption by the agriculture, forestry and fishing industries decreased by 25%, from 12,809 GL to 9,604 GL.

MEASUREMENT GAPS AND OPPORTUNITIES

Physical Flow Account

Table 18 in the Downloads tab presents experimental 2010-11 to 2015-16 physical flow accounts (supply and use tables) for water, for the economy at the national level, with a focus on the agriculture, forestry and fishing industries. Data was obtained from the ABS Water Account, Australia (cat. no. 4610.0).

The physical flow accounts presented are incomplete. There is scope to further improve the tables presented in Table 18, as some of these data items have been produced via modelling and other methods (both internally by the ABS and by other organisations).There is expected to be further work undertaken to explore expanding the SEEA AFF water tables. Some of the current data gaps include:

• surface/groundwater splits (currently not available for all industries)
• soil water abstraction (experimental estimates are published in the Water Account, Australia (cat. no. 4610.0) for some industries but are not presented here)
• sea water abstracted for desalination - only includes water abstracted by the Water supply, sewerage and drainage services industry (for the purposes of distribution)
• water abstracted directly via precipitation (e.g. rainwater tanks)
• detailed distribution losses (included in "own use" for the Water supply, sewerage and drainage services industry only)
• wastewater flows (i.e. volumes supplied by industries/households to sewerage facilities)
• water consumption splits; i.e. evaporation of abstracted water, transpiration and water incorporated into products (note that "total consumption" is the sum of these three components).

The ABS has collected and published a range of different water consumption/use data. The primary publications that have been referenced to complete the physical flow account tables are the Water Account, Australia (cat. no. 4610.0) and Water Use on Australian Farms (cat. no. 4618.0). Both of these publications have a relatively long history and data time series. Data from the Water Account is presented here for major water-using industries (Agriculture and Water supply, sewerage and drainage services) and then further to the sub-industry level (for the Agriculture industry in 2015-16). However, from an agricultural viewpoint, data for individual commodity or crop types such as wheat or maize was not presented, as these do not align with the ANZSIC industry classification. Further disaggregation of the water data to individual crop types would enable specific comparisons that are not currently possible with the published data.

Asset Account

The physical asset account tables presented in this publication (Table 19 in the Downloads tab) are completely absent of data at this stage. Opening and closing stocks are challenging to measure as the scope of the asset account for water resources is limited to inland water resources – artificial reservoirs, lakes, rivers, ground water and soil water. Much of the data required to populate the asset account for water resources is unavailable at the national level - for example, stocks of water held in rivers and streams, groundwater stocks and soil water stocks. Therefore, shell tables only are presented in this publication. A completed table would provide useful information to assist with understanding the availability of water and issues such as water stress and availability.

Opportunities may exist to investigate alternative sources of data that could assist in completing these tables in the future. The SEEA Central Framework suggests that where opening and closing stocks cannot be measured reliably, the measurement of the net change in the stock of water over an accounting period may be derived, provided each component series can be measured directly. The net change in stock can be interpreted as a measure of the water yield. Recent work completed by the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM), complemented by some modelling, indicate that completing these tables is possible in the future.

Of significant interest is the BoM's 2016 National Water Account reports for the period 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2016 for:

• The Northern Australia region accounts - Burdekin, Daly and Ord
• The Urban region accounts - Adelaide, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth, South East Queensland and Sydney
• The Murray–Darling Basin region and the national overview highlighting broad trends and findings across the ten National Water Account regions.

Within each of these reports is a section dedicated to water assets, which loosely aligns with the proposed format in the SEEA AFF framework. Additional sections also consider entitlements, rainfall, stream flow, storage levels, trade, usage and outlook, making this a valuable source of data. Furthermore, the BoM have been producing these accounts since 2010, with most of the regions listed above included in all of these accounts, creating a credible time series for these areas. Partnerships between the ABS and the BoM for data sharing already exist; further collaboration with a SEEA AFF focus could enable a further data expansion of these SEEA AFF water tables.