Environmental flows are an integral component for the conservation and management of rivers, flood plains and other wetlands in the Murray–Darling Basin. Under the Basin Plan, environmental water is managed by the Commonwealth Environmental Water Office (CEWO) and the states. We assessed CEWO environmental flows (2014–15 to 2018–19), compared our findings with expected outcomes for vegetation in the Basin-wide Environmental Watering Strategy (EWS) and interviewed water managers about the efficacy of environmental watering. Some 21% of CEWO water was delivered as flood events, to 9 of 19 river valleys, inundating 7% of wetland area in those valleys annually and 0.8% of major Basin wetlands. A consistent pattern was the watering of many small wetlands on the South Australian Murray with small volumes (median area 43ha, volume 125ML). Just 12% of the area of river red gum subject to EWS expected outcomes was flooded, and half these events were likely suboptimal to achieve ecological benefits. Wetlands have not received the water they need and vegetation outcomes cannot be met by completion of the Plan in 2024. Rules that constrain flooding of private land must be relaxed if the Plan is to achieve its statutory requirement of wetland conservation.

中文翻译：

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涓涓细流，而不是洪水：澳大利亚墨累-达令盆地的环境灌溉

环境流量是墨累-达令盆地河流、洪泛平原和其他湿地保护和管理的一个组成部分。根据流域计划，环境水由联邦环境水办公室 (CEWO) 和各州管理。我们评估了 CEWO 环境流量（2014-15 年至 2018-19 年），将我们的发现与全流域环境灌溉战略 (EWS) 中植被的预期结果进行了比较，并就环境灌溉的功效采访了水资源管理者。大约 21% 的 CEWO 水被作为洪水事件输送到 19 个河谷中的 9 个，每年淹没这些河谷中 7% 的湿地面积和 0.8% 的主要盆地湿地。一致的模式是对南澳大利亚默里的许多小湿地进行小量浇水（中位数面积 43 公顷，体积 125 毫升）。受 EWS 预期结果影响的河流红胶地区只有 12% 被洪水淹没，而这些事件的一半可能不是实现生态效益的最佳选择。到2024年规划完成后，湿地没有得到所需的水，植被结果也无法满足。如果规划要实现湿地保护的法定要求，必须放松限制私人土地泛滥的规定。