Water Outlook 2012

The Water Outlook is a new approach to water management in Melbourne. It adopts the principles of adaptive management and provides the community with more water supply and usage information. This approach will ensure resilience is built into the water supply system, even in times of plenty.

The Water Outlook includes an analysis of the performance of the water supply system and trends in how water is being used.  It also includes consideration of the potential streamflows and how they impact on the amount of water the supply system can sustainably deliver over the short and long term.

The Outlook will be published in November each year and for ease of communication, system performance will be reported in three zones:

• high (Melbourne’s water supply is secure)
• medium (we need to take action to ensure a five year supply of water is available) and
• low (emergency circumstances have been experienced and water restrictions are needed to assist in maintaining supplies).

The status of the water supply system will be described in terms of water storage levels at 30 November each year.  The storage level may fall below this during the following year as part of normal variation and that has been considered in the Water Outlook.