Indicator Frameworks for Assessing Irrigation Sustainability

B. Kellett, K. Bristow and P. Charlesworth
CSIRO Land and Water
CRC for Irrigation Futures
This report summarises knowledge of sustainability, indicators, and particularly sustainability indicator frameworks. This knowledge delivers awareness of the tools available for the development of the Northern Australia Irrigation Futures (NAIF) Sustainability Framework. A possible structure for the NAIF Sustainability Framework is proposed and outlined. It is based on three major parts: 1. Sustainability indicators; 2. Knowledge of function of irrigation systems; and 3. Management and planning guidelines. We recommend adoption of the AMOEBA SI Framework and Bayesian Belief Networks to help progress development of the NAIF Sustainability Framework. The AMOEBA SI Framework to accomplish the following: facilitation of sustainability indicator development; facilitation of threshold setting; presentation of sustainability assessments; and facilitation of stakeholders’ understandings of sustainability. The Bayesian Belief Networks for simulating and testing planning and management scenarios.