Irrigation Development Guidelines
What are Irrigation Development Guidelines?
IDG are a means to guide irrigation developments in meeting best practice standards to avoid or minimise the off-site impacts of water-use and irrigation. IDG enable due consideration of natural resource management issues in the catchment (contained in the Regional Catchment Strategy, Land and Water Management Plan or other regional plans covering matters such as streamflow or groundwater).
The IDG document how any impacts will be accounted for, including relevant charges, when they will be implemented and how the fees will be recovered. IDG are regionally based and implemented by the relevant Catchment Management Authority(s) (CMA) and Rural Water Corporation(s) (RWC).
IDG provide guidance, to both irrigation developers and government agencies, on the process, matters for consideration, conditions and approvals required to obtain or modify a Water Use Licence (WUL) or Take and Use Licence (T&UL).
Irrigation Development Guidelines seek to:
- Document the approval process for irrigation development applications;
- Offer a cost-effective way to demonstrate that a new irrigation development will proceed in a way that will avoid or minimise environmental impacts;
- Clarify linkages with other environmental or cultural heritage protection procedures and agencies; and
- Reduce the uncertainty for prospective developers by clarifying standards and expectations.
IDG are developed to meet the specific needs and reflect the different characteristics of each region. They should articulate the outcomes that licence conditions will be helping to achieve, the standard of information that needs to be provided for development proposals to be assessed, and the criteria that will be used to determine if all parts of the IDG process are required.
IDGs Statewide Advisory Note (PDF~436kb)
The Irrigation Development Guidelines that apply to your part of the State can be accessed via your respective CMA’s website.