Glossary
Access announcement

Access licence

See Licence.

Accessible storage capacity

Accessible storage volume

Account

Every access licence has an account (also called an allocation account) which contains the volume of water that that licence holder has available for the rest of the year to use under the conditions of that licence.

Active management

In unregulated rivers, licences often specify that water can be taken when flow rate exceeds a certain amount. So large environmental water transfers through the river need to be actively managed so that the water arrives where intended and is not taken unknowingly by licence holders en-route.

Active management of environmental water is implemented through a number of rules. They include the issue of Access Announcements which can vary the cease-to-pump levels for licences; the issue of personalised Flow Share Announcements to licence holders that could limit the amount they can take when environmental water is being delivered; and the triggering of the Resumption of Flow rule which prevents licence holders from taking water in the first few days of flows after a prolonged dry period to help maintain important biota refuge pools, to help “wet” the river bed to reduce later losses and for cultural reasons important to Aboriginal communities. Sometimes Section 324 orders are also issued.

Active volume

Allocation

Allocation is the volume of water to which a licence holder has been given access this year to use or trade from Available Water determination (AWD). An AWD expresses the allocation as a percentage per share in a licence or as a number of megalitres per share. For example, if you were to have 1,000 shares in your licence and the allocation is 40% or 0.4 ML/share then your account would have been credited with 400 megalitres (or as much as possible if your account has limit on how full it can be).

The volume allocated to your account in a water year is the sum of all available water determinations made. For example, if 0.5 ML/share were allocated and then later another 0.1 ML/share were to be allocated then the sum of AWDs is 0.6 ML/share of your licence, or in other words 60% of your entitlement.

Allocation account

See Account.

Allocation trading

Also called temporary trading, allocation trading is the selling of some of the water in the allocation account of a licence holder to another licence holder. The volume traded is transferred into the allocation account of the buyer who pays the seller a price per megalitre (ML). The buyer then has that volume available to use, trade or carryover. Contrast this with Entitlement trading

Approval

In order to take water you need three things: a licence, an approval for your water supply works (such as a bore, pump or small dam), and an approval for the purpose for which you want the water (such as irrigation, industry, etc). It is now very common to apply for an approval of your water supply works and purpose in one application and this is called a combined approval but in the past, you would have had to apply separately for a works approval and a use approval.

Archive (data type)

This information has been retrospectively and quality assessed and possibly edited to better reflect the true conditions.

Available water

The amount of water remaining in your licence’s account and which can be accessed during the remainder of the year. Water is credited to an account by being carried over from the prior year, by buying water, and by being allocated through an available water determination. Water is debited from an account by using it and by selling it. Water in the account at the end of the water year is forfeited unless carried over to the following year. In rare cases in some water sources available water can also be debited upon events such as dams spilling or if uncontrolled flow is converted to controlled flow.

The balance in your account at any time is the available water.

Available water determination (AWD)

This is a ministerial order issued to allocate available water to the accounts of licence holders. They are first made on the 1st of July each year (the beginning of the water year) and further AWDs may be made as more water becomes available (through rainfall) throughout the year.

The determination first considers how much water there is (also called the resource assessment) and then allocates it according to the relative priority of licence categories. You can watch this video about how water is allocated in an available water determination.

Basic landholder rights

An umbrella term for three types of rights to extract water from a river without an access licence. They include riparian rights, the right of landholders along the riverfront to extract water for domestic household and stock watering purposes, harvestable rights which allow landholders to capture a portion of the runoff from their land in farm dams and native title rights which allow Aboriginal native title holders to extract water for a range of personal, domestic and non-commercial communal purposes.

Carryover

Carryover is a proportion of last year’s allocation account for some categories of licence that was not used and which, under conditions specified in the water source’s water sharing plan, may be taken this year. For example in the Murrumbidgee Regulated River, up to 30% of general security allocation that remains in licence holders accounts at the end of the water year, may be used in the subsequent water year. Any water in accounts at the end of the year that is not carried over is forfeited.

Condition

Licences and approvals are granted subject to conditions with which the holder must comply.

Conditions are generally the same for all licences within a category, but occasionally licences or approvals can have, in addition, conditions that apply only to them.

Conditions that concern the circumstances under which water can be taken, requirements for metering, for keeping a logbook and for compliance are called mandatory conditions because they are imposed by the Act, the Water Sharing Plan or other regulations.

Conditions that are related to the protection of the environment or that arise during the process of application for, or replacement of a licence or approval, are called discretionary conditions, because they are imposed at the discretion of the Minister.

Regardless of being mandatory or discretionary, all are conditions with which the approval or licence holder must comply.

Consumptive water

A general term for water that is extracted for consumption and not available for further use. This includes water for irrigation & business, for town water supply and basic landholder rights. Compare this with Operational water and Environmental water.

Conveyance

In NSW, conveyance is a category of access licence meant for water delivery losses within an irrigation schemes’ supply area (such as infiltration and evaporation). As a consequence of trading, some such licences are sometimes now held by environmental water holders. The Murray Darling Basin Authority use the term conveyance to mean natural losses.

Cumulative

Some volumes of water like inflow into water sources or losses in a water source are shown as cumulative values, or in other words, running totals. This means that the value for August is the sum of July and August; the value for September is the sum of July, August and September. Cumulative values are used because they show the running total for the year so far. And of course, the June figure is the sum of every prior month so also represents the total for the water year.

Data Quality Coding

Operational data is automatically quality coded as it is received. This is sometimes referred to as AutoQC. The data will be tagged with the following codes and this will determine the display colour:

StatusDescription
Auto-Checked with No ErrorThe data has passed the automatic check
Auto-Checked with ErrorThere may be an issue with the data.
Data GapData is absent

Dealing rule

These are the rules in a water sharing plan and the Water Management Act for how licences can be traded, transferred or changed. These include changes of licence ownership or movement of share component from one access licence to another access licence (both called entitlement trading), conversions of licence category, movement of water allocation from one access licence allocation account to another (called allocation trading) and changes in the location of water supply that can take water.

Electrical Conductivity @ 25deg. C (μS/cm)

Salinity is measured indirectly using Electrical Conductivity or EC. The saltier the water, the more it conducts electricity. Electrical conductivity is measured in microsiemens per centimetre (μS/cm). A daily value is the salinity at 9am. Salinity is classified as Low (0-280), Medium (280-800), High (800-2,300), Very high (2,300-5,500) and Extremely high (5,500 or more).

End-of-system losses

When more water flows out of a river into the downstream connected river than is required by the water sharing plan or for delivering inter valley traded volumes, the excess is called an end of system loss. This water also becomes a gain for the downstream river.

Entitlement

See licence.

Entitlement on issue

The total number of shares in a set of licence. The number of shares is also called the number of unit shares or the share component of those licences. For example, the general security entitlement on issue in the Murrumbidgee is the total number of shares in general security licences in Murrumbidgee.

Entitlement trading

Also called share trading or water access entitlement trading or permanent trading, this is the selling of some or all of the shares in a licence. The number of shares sold is transferred from the seller’s licence to the buyer’s licence in return for a price per unit share. Contrast this with Allocation trading

Environmental Water

Water used for maintaining the health of the rivers or aquifers and their dependent eco-systems. It includes both planned environmental water and held environmental water.

Flow class

A flow class is a named range of flow rates. For example Flow Class B might be when the river at a reference point is flowing in the range 100 ML/d to 200 ML/d. The lower of the range is sometimes called the cease-to-pump (and commence-to-pump) level for the flow class. Flow classes are used in some rivers to share water more fairly, by imposing a condition on some licences so that they can only take water only when a particular flow class (range of flow rates) occurs.

Flow rate (ML/d)

This is the rate of water passing the river gauge. It is measured in megalitres per day, written ML/d. A megalitre is 1,000,000 litres. One megalitre per day is equivalent to about 12 litres per second. A daily value is the instantaneous flow rate at 9am.

Groundwater level (metres)

This is the depth of the water table in an aquifer below ground level, or when an aquifer is confined by impermeable rock, it is what the depth would be if the aquifer were not confined and allowed to rise. A larger number means it is deeper below ground. Each value is the depth at 9am on the last day of each month.

Groundwater source

This is a water source that only contains groundwater, the water beneath the earth’s surface that has filtered down to the zone where the earth or rocks are fully saturated. There are about 130 (out of about 800+) such water sources and they often use in their name the type of aquifer such as fractured rock, basalt, porous rock, alluvial. As a licence holder in one of these water sources you do not need to order water before taking it but you must satisfy all your licence conditions. Compare with Regulated River water source and Unregulated water source.

Held environmental water

This is another name for normal licences bought by environmental water holders. They may be of any category (eg general security) and subject to the same rules as other licence holders of that category. Both the NSW and Commonwealth governments (through the Commonwealth Environmental Holder) have purchased or been issued with water licences for environmental purposes. You can search for all such licences here. Contrast this with planned environmental water.

Individual daily extraction component (IDEC)

A component of a licence, IDECs are a limit on the volume water that can be taken in one day from the account associated with that licence. They exist in some water sharing plans in order to share limited water more fairly.

Licence

Also called a water access licence or WAL or water access entitlement, licences give the holder a perpetual entitlement to receive a portion of ongoing water allocations in a specified water source and to take that allocated water in accordance with conditions attached to the licence. Licences are called entitlement by the Murray Darling Basin Authority.

Licences have a number of components. They specify a number of shares or number of megalitres of entitlement in a named water source (called the share component), the management zone where water can be taken and any limits on the times, rates or circumstances of taking water (called the extraction component), and a limit to the volume that can be taken each day (called the individual daily extraction component or IDEC).

Every licence has an allocation account which holds the number of megalitres available to the licence holder this year.

In order to take water, you usually need to have both an approval and a licence. However some uses of water do not require a licence, such as basic landholder rights and planned environmental water.

Licences are registered by the NSW Land Registry Services in the same way as land. Like land, licence shares are secure, divisible and mortgageable.

Losses

Losses include both natural losses (also called transmission losses in NSW and conveyance losses by the MDBA) and end-of-system losses. You can read more about losses in the Murray River here.

Management zone

A management zone is a section of a water source that is defined so that it can be managed distinctly from other sections. For example, management zones are often used to define flow classes in each zone (see Flow Class).

Natural (or transmission) losses

When water flows down a river, natural losses happen when water evaporates, is used by river-side plants or seeps into the ground. These losses vary from year to year, depending on demand for water and conditions including rainfall, soil condition, heat, wind and inflows from tributaries. Natural losses are also called transmission losses.

Operational (data type)

Near to real time data generated that has had limited quality assurance applied. This data is provisional in nature and used to make dynamic decisions/observations.

Whilst every effort has been made to make this information as accurate as possible, it may be subject to change in the future when further information is gathered for validation.

Operational water

A general term for water that is consumed as a natural consequence of operating the rivers, including through evaporation in storage or in rivers, seepage out of rivers to aquifers, losses to floodplains (collectively called losses), water flowing out of the system through customers not taking water previously ordered, and water that is set aside in storage for future year’s needs (see Reserves).

Percentage full

This is the accessible storage volume expressed as a percentage of accessible capacity. Some water in the lake is not accessible because it is below the outlets from the dam. So, the percentage full is calculated as the accessible volume divided by the accessible capacity (the maximum accessible volume).

Planned environmental water

This is unlicenced water required under the water source’s water sharing plan. It consists of rules to provide for such things as minimum flow targets, end of system flows and translucent releases, and accounts setup for specific environmental purposes, called environmental water accounts (EWA) or environmental contingency accounts (ECA). Contrast this with held environmental water.

Regulated river water source

A regulated river is a water source where water can be stored in dams or inline storage weirs and consequently river flow rates and levels can be controlled or regulated. Only 15 such water sources exist (out of about 800+ water sources). A licence holder must always order water before taking it from a regulated river. Compare with groundwater and unregulated water source.

Reserves

Reserves are volumes of water put aside in water storage to allow the supply of future year water requirements, so that it would be possible at least to maintain supply through a repeat of the worst period of low inflows experienced.

Resumption of flow

River level (metres)

This is the level of water at the river gauge. The level is in metres above a zero point at the site, not an elevation above sea level. A daily value is the level at 9am.

Section 324 order

Share trading

Storage capacity

This is the maximum accessible volume of a dam’s reservoir or inline storage weir. Some water in a storage is not accessible because it is below the outlets and this inaccessible volume is called dead storage. Storage capacity does not include dead storage (except Menindee Lakes where the capacity is shown as Total Capacity).

Storage inflow

When it rains in the storage’s catchment, the run-off water eventually flows into the storage. The total that arrives each day in the 24 hours to 9am is called the daily inflow to the storage. Inflow is measured in gigalitres (GL). One GL is 1000 ML or 1 billion litres. A monthly value is the total inflow in the month to 9am on the last day of the month (or today for the current month).

Storage release

The volume of water released from the dam in the 24 hours to 9am, measured in gigalitres. Releases are made for orders placed by customers and to maintain the river and its environment, to stop storages overflowing and to mitigate flooding. Releases are measured in gigalitres (GL). One GL is 1000 ML or 1 billion litres. A monthly value is the total volume released in the month to 9am on the last day of the month. (or today for the current month).

Storage volume

This is the amount of accessible water in the reservoir behind a dam or weir. Some water in the lake is not accessible because it is below the outlets from the dam and this inaccessible volume is called dead storage. Storage volume does not include dead storage (except the Menindee Lakes where volume is shown including dead storage). The Storage volume is also called the active storage volume and effective storage volume. The Murray Darling Basin Authority uses the term active storage, and the Bureau of Meteorology uses the term accessible volume.

A daily value is the level at 9am, a monthly value is the value at 9am on the last day of the month (or today for the current month).

Supplementary water

Supplementary water is effectively surplus flow from storms that cannot be captured, or ‘re-regulated’, into storages such as dams or weirs for future use, and the water is not needed to meet current commitments. As soon as these conditions are identified for a particular river, a period of supplementary access is announced, and details of the river reaches and time periods for supplementary access are published. Holders of Supplementary Water licences can only pump water against these licences during these announced periods. Supplementary events depend on the amount and location of rainfall and ensuing streamflow, and the catchment conditions at the time. They can be triggered overnight and last for a day or two, a month to six months or more, depending on the river system and nature of the flow event.

See also Uncontrolled flow.

Temporary restriction

A temporary restriction is a ministerial order issued under a section of the Water Management Act 2000. The most common orders are Section 324 orders, which are also called Cease to pump orders, Section 71 orders which are restrictions on dealing or trading in water or licences and Section 49B orders which suspend parts or all of a water sharing plan.

Translucent release

Translucent releases from a dam are flows intended to mimic the flow patterns of a river by allowing to ‘pass through’ a portion of the inflows to a dam. This helps support ecological processes, increase nutrient availability, and support the reproduction and spread of native fish.

Uncontrolled flow

When periods of supplementary access are announced, holders of General Security licences may, under some circumstances, and in select valleys, pump water without debiting their account during these periods. This water is called uncontrolled flow. For more information on pumping during supplementary flow events go to the Accounting Rules section of the Rules tab of WaterInsights.

Unregulated water source

This is a general term referring to all water sources that are not regulated rivers or groundwater sources. There are about 590 (out of about 800+) such water sources and more than half of these contain both surface water and groundwater. As a licence holder in one of these water sources you do not need to order water before taking it, but you must satisfy all your licence conditions such as the level of water in the river.

Water access licence

See Licence.

Water sharing plan

A water sharing plan (WSP) is a NSW law that establishes a set of rules for how water is to be shared, used, managed, and traded in a water source. The objectives are to provide water users with a clear picture of when and how water will be available for extraction, protect the fundamental environmental health of the rivers or aquifers and their dependent eco-systems, and ensure the water source is sustainable in the long-term.

Water source

A water source is a collection of rivers, lakes or estuaries that are managed together under a single set of rules in a water sharing plan. A water source can also be below the surface of the ground or coastal waters. Water sources can be called systems by the Murray Darling Basin Authority (MDBA) and the Bureau of Meteorology. See also Regulated river water source, Groundwater source and Unregulated water source.

Water temperature (°C)

This is the temperature of the water at the river gauge. It is measured in degrees celsius . A daily value is the temperature at 9am.

Water year

A continuous 12-month period starting from 1 July. The same period as the financial year. Most water accounting is based on the water year.

Works approval