Sensitivity of Goondiwindi Regional Council Towns and Communities and/or the BROC Region to a Reduction in Water Availability

The project involved an appraisal of irrigated agriculture, its importance to economic activity, and of the socio-economic sensitivity of the community to reductions in the amount of available irrigation water.

A sensitivity analysis was conducted to identify the potential impacts of long-term reductions in the amount of available irrigation water for agricultural communities in the Border Rivers catchment.

Specifically the sensitivity analysis involved:

• developing a community profile of each LGA involved in the study, using quantitative and qualitative data;
• undertaking primary data collection through face-to-face and telephone interviews with key informants and integrating analyses and results with community profile (Census) data;
• developing and mapping an adaptive capacity index to identify particular vulnerabilities in the study area; and
• drawing together the desktop analysis, adaptive capacity index and interview data to identify particular sensitivities within the LGA, and the nature of the potential future impacts of reduction in the amount of available irrigation water, both directly on agricultural production, and indirectly through flow-on effects to the community.

Completed in 2010

Funded by: Border Regional Organisation of Councils