This report is concerned with a best practice framework for environmental flow assessments in Australia. It attempts to rationalise the different approaches and holistic methodologies developed and/or applied in Australia and to suggest the most appropriate contexts for their use.

Project objectives: To benchmark the distribution efficiency (DE) of the various components of a small, open channel gravity irrigation system and irrigation return flows from farms to the surface drainage system. To develop strategies to overcome water losses in the distribution system, including the implementation of smart systems for improved channel operations, system planning and services to improve the integration of distribution systems and farm systems, measure the improved DE and document the environmental benefits that result. To improve the distribution efficiency of a small open channel gravity system by 5% over 10 years, and hence meet the future increases in demand.

In April 2000, the RAAL R&D Program commissioned a Scoping Study to identify and scope the possible contribution of breeding, selection and biotechnology to develop new varieties of crop and pasture plants to help reduce deep drainage of water and nitrogen. The Scoping Study aimed to use current understanding and experience in breeding, selection and biotechnology to explore how a range of functions and characteristics could be incorporated into crop and pasture species so as to control deep drainage and nutrient leakage. Scientists involved in plant improvement were invited to develop a brief paper scoping the various opportunities in terms of cereals, oilseeds, grain legumes, pasture and fodder plants, other new crops and pasture species.

Submerged water plants (aquatic macrophytes) are a desirable component of shallow lakes and wetlands, and management activities should be directed to ensure their continual presence. * Aquatic systems dominated by submerged aquatic plants are resilient to low levels of nutrient enrichment, but higher loadings lower the resistance of shallow lakes to events that can result in the catastrophic and very rapid (greeater than 4 months) loss of these valuable plants. * As nutrient loads increase it becomes more likely that submerged water plants (macrophytes) will disappear and be replaced by algae and phytoplankton. These new species can be more problematic (e.g. in producing odour, health and taste problems) than the original species. * Management actions should aim to maintain submerged water plants because they protect against algal blooms and: * provide habitat and refuge for zooplankton which graze on algae; * reduce light available for algal growth; * produce compounds which inhibit algal growth; and * reduce nutrients available for algal growth. * Harvesting of submerged macrophytes when nutrients in the water column are high, may increase the likelihood of algal blooms and prevent the re-establishment of submerged aquatic plants.

The Social and Institutional Research Program of Land & Water Australia has brought together a set of papers from leading researchers and analysts on natural resources property rights and responsibilities. The authors include Paul Martin, Miriam Verbeek, Poh-Ling Tan, John Marsden, Mike Young, Jim McColl, Megan Dyson, Robin Connor, Stephen Dovers, Tony Gleeson, Kirstie Piper, Jennifer McKay and Henning Bjornlund

This report is concerned with R&D requirements and priorities to ensure the refinement, development and integration of methods and frameworks to facilitate their use in water allocation and water reform. It presents two main strands of R&D. 1. R&D required to improve individual methods of environmental flow assessment, based on the recommendations of the reviews contained in LWRRDC Occasional Paper Number 27/98, Comparative Evaluation of Environmental Flow Assessment Techniques: Review of Methods (Arthington & Zalucki 1998a). 2. R&D required to improve existing holistic methodologies and the proposed best practice framework for environmental flow assessment.

Namcala

In agriculture we often hear reports of new wonder varieties that are about.to revolutionise agriculture, yet when these varieties are released, if indeed they are released, they seem to fall far short of the publicity that heralded them. A major technological break-through in variety development.is rare. Most improvements cane in rather small steps. In the next few years improvements will be in small but positive steps .It is my endeavour here to present you with an objective assessment of what you, the grower, can hope to expect from cotton varieties in the near future.

This subject is very relevant to the Australian Cotton Growing Industry as the most common complaint against our major seed variety, DPL 61, is that this growth has a lower breaking strength when it is produced in Australia particularly in comparison with DPL 61 grown in Arizona, one of our keenest competitors in the South East Asia markets. The main virtue however, it that this variety, in Australia, produces high grades consistently, even.in wet picking seasons, with the exception of the disastrous 1983 harvest when much gray cotton was produced.