Banking water in aquifers during wet years for long-term storage then recovering it in drought is an application of managed aquifer recharge (MAR) that minimises evaporation losses. This requires a suitable aquifer for long-term storage of banked water and occasional periods when entitlements to surface water are available and affordable. This has been widely practised in Arizona and California but thus far not in Australia, in spite of severe impacts on agriculture, society, and the environment during recent droughts in the Murray–Darling Basin. This preliminary study based on a simple area exclusion analysis using six variables, some on a 90 m grid, over the 1 million km2 basin produced a first estimate of the order of 2–4 × 109 m3 of additional aquifer storage potential in surficial aquifers close to rivers. For 6 of the 23 catchments evaluated, banking capacity exceeded an average water depth of 0.3 m for the irrigated area. At one prospective site in the Macquarie River catchment in New South Wales, water banking operations at various scales were simulated using 55 years of historical monthly hydrologic data, with recharge and recovery triggered by dam storage levels. This showed that the estimated 300 × 106 m3 additional local aquifer capacity could be fully utilised with a recharge and recovery capacity of 6 × 106 m3/month, and recharge occurred in 67% of months and recovery in 7% of months. A novel simulation of water banking with recharge and recovery triggered by water trading prices using 11 years of data gave a benefit cost ratio of ≈ 2. Data showed that water availability for recharge was a tighter constraint on water banking than aquifer storage capacity at this location. The analysis reveals that water banking merits further consideration in the Murray–Darling Basin. Firstly, management across hydrologically connected systems requires accounting for surface water and groundwater entitlements and allocations at the appropriate scale, as well as developing equitable economic and regulatory arrangements. Of course, site-specific assessment of water availability and hydrogeological suitability would be needed prior to construction of demonstration projects to support full-scale implementation.

中文翻译：

---

澳大利亚墨累-达令盆地的水库提高抗旱能力的潜力

在潮湿年份将水储存在含水层中以进行长期储存，然后在干旱时将其回收是管理含水层补给 (MAR) 的一种应用，可最大限度地减少蒸发损失。这需要一个合适的含水层来长期储存银行水，以及偶尔在可以获得地表水的权利并且负担得起的情况下。尽管最近墨累-达令盆地的干旱对农业、社会和环境产生了严重影响，但这一做法在亚利桑那州和加利福尼亚州已广泛实施，但迄今为止尚未在澳大利亚实施。这项初步研究基于使用六个变量的简单区域排除分析，其中一些变量位于 90 m 网格上，超过 100 万平方公里的盆地产生了大约 2–4 × 109 m3 的地表含水层额外含水层储存潜力的初步估计。到河流。对于评估的 23 个流域中的 6 个，灌溉区的蓄水能力超过了 0.3 m 的平均水深。在新南威尔士州麦格理河集水区的一个预期站点，使用 55 年的历史月度水文数据模拟了不同规模的水库操作，并通过大坝蓄水水平触发了补给和恢复。这表明估计的 300 × 106 m3 额外的当地含水层容量可以得到充分利用，补给和回收能力为 6 × 106 m3/月，67% 的月份发生补给，7% 的月份恢复。使用 11 年的数据，对由水交易价格触发的补给和恢复的水库进行了新的模拟，收益成本比约为 2。数据表明，与该位置的含水层存储容量相比，可用于补给的水对水库的限制更为严格. 分析表明，在墨累-达令盆地，水库值得进一步考虑。首先，跨水文连接系统的管理需要考虑适当规模的地表水和地下水的权利和分配，以及制定公平的经济和监管安排。当然，在示范项目建设之前，需要对可用水量和水文地质适宜性进行现场特定评估，以支持全面实施。