A new study has uncovered a startling revelation about the drying up of the Darling River, a vital water resource in Australia. Contrary to popular belief, the issue is not just due to excessive water extraction, but also the impact of climate change. The research shows that a decrease in rainfall in late autumn, caused by climate change, is a significant factor in the river’s declining water flows. This finding poses a huge policy challenge, as the Murray-Darling Basin Plan does not adequately address the effects of climate change. To ensure the river’s future, decision-makers must consider and adapt to the realities of a changing climate.
The Darling River Mystery
The Darling River, part of Australia’s south-eastern Murray-Darling Basin is a crucial waterway that has intermittently run dry for extended periods since the late 1990s. But scientists have looked into the matter and discovered that lack of late autumn rain, due to climate change, is not the sole responsible entity; definitive over-abstraction of too much water is.
Over the past 50 years (since the mid-1990s, when accelerated global warming set in), the team assessed patterns of rainfall and water flows along the Darling River from 1972 to 2024. In April and May, critical months after the rains, researchers found hardly any short duration rainfall events crucial to filling the river system back up as well. The decline in autumn rainfall has resulted in long periods of no flow or extremely low flows in the Darling River.
Atmospheric shift consequences
The drop in autumn rainfall is thought to be due to changing patterns of atmospheric circulation caused by climate change, the researchers said. Since 1990, these shifts have created fewer wetweather systems and so less rainfall in the Darling River catchment.
But without that late autumn rainfall, the impact on the river system has been awful. When the rain did come, it poured because of the dry soils and run into the river, leading to flash floods. The environment and human uses both had a lot less water to play with, making an already precarious situation worse.
Using the observational rainfall data, researchers determined that there has also been a decline in both extreme annual rainfall totals for all seasons since the 1990s which is a major driver of diminishing water levels in the Darling River.
Adapting to Climate Change
Policy Implications—The Key Challenge for Policymakers The Murray-Darling Basin Plan fails to account for the ongoing impacts of climate change on how much water can be siphoned off by towns and farmers, researchers say.
We cannot hope to fix the damage done to the Darling River and the Murray-Darling Basin if we continue as though climate change is not a reality. This might entail reworking water allocation policies, enacting efficient water governance practices and supporting investments into infrastructures and technologies that can counteract the effects of climate change.
Additionally, they argue their study illustrates the importance of an integrated water resource management strategy; one that addresses the combined effects of human activities and climate change. Understand and address challenges to secure this essential natural system & the communities reliant on it (& jobs) for future generations.
