(3) Water Valuation

A number of water valuation studies have been undertaken in the MDB, including several non-market studies [49–54]. However, a major omission in terms of quantitative valuation studies is in terms of Indigenous water values [55], notwithstanding several important qualitative studies, such as Weir [56].

Hatton MacDonald et al. [54] provided a total economic value for environmental assets located at the Murray River Mouth of A\$13 billion. Akter et al. [49] estimated marginal non-use values of water in a key Basin wetland that are comparable to the annual market price for water used for irrigation. While these non-market studies and hydrological-economic studies [57,58] have been important in making the possible trade-offs between use and non-use values of water transparent, there is no evidence they made any difference in the determination of SDLs in the 2012 Basin Plan. Indeed, sworn testimony to the Murray–Darling Basin Royal Commission (MDBRC), shows that the final determination about what should be the SDLs under the 2012 Basin Plan was dominated by political considerations with little or no regard to scientific or valuation studies [59].
