Water-cycle and climate-change impacts on the Gippsland Lakes

Jamie Pittock

doi:10.1071/RS23019

RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

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Water-cycle and climate-change impacts on the Gippsland Lakes

Jamie Pittock

^A ^*

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A Fenner School of Environment & Society, The Australian National University, 48 Linnaeus Way, Acton, ACT 2600, Australia.

^* Correspondence to: Jamie.pittock@anu.edu.au

Handling Editor: Bill Birch

Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria 136, RS23019 https://doi.org/10.1071/RS23019

Submitted: 27 July 2023 Accepted: 5 February 2024 Published: 11 June 2024

© 2024 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing on behalf of the Royal Society of Victoria. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

The environmental health of the Gippsland Lakes substantially depends on freshwater inflows. The quantity and quality of this water is being reduced by the impacts of agriculture, mining, and water transfers to Melbourne. These impacts will be exacerbated by both the direct impacts of climate change and thirsty measures adopted by society to respond to climate change. Changes in water use and increased investment in natural resources management are needed to effectively adapt.

Keywords: agriculture, climate change adaptation, fresh water, Gippsland Lakes, interbasin water transfer, maladaptation, mining, water quality.

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