Invited by the Australia –China JointCentre for River Management, an 8-person delegation led by Prof. Cheng Genwei from Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IMHE) and Dr. Y P Wei from the University of Melbourne, Australia visited Catchment Management Authority of Goulburn Broken and Murray Daling on March 22-24, 2014. 

During the visit, the delegation listened to the briefing introduction about the management objectiveand development process of water resource management in the Goulburn Broken basin by Dr. Leon Soste, senior assistant of the authority, and visited integrated schedulingfacilities of water resource management in the basin. 

IMHE researcher investigates Water Resource Management of Australia. (by IMHE)

The delegation discussed the management objective and related engineering measures of water resource management in Goulburn Broken basin with Dr. Leon, and learned about the basic principle and management policy of water resource utilization in this area. Both sides also exchanged ideas about scientific scheduling of water resource in small watershed, and  visited the main water channel and automated dam facilities as well as water demand management of pasture and vineyard irrigated areas. The scientific management and subtilized control of water resource quite impressed the delegation. 

The Goulburn Broken basin has  2.4 million hectares in drainage area, and it’s the largest irrigated area in the State of Victoria, and also the best regulated area in water resource of Australia. This irrigated areawas established in 1915, and itsgoal has moved from flood control and farm irrigation to urban water supply, irrigation in pasture areas and ecological water utilization, and it realized multiple target automated quota management, and serving for the water supply of farms and enterprises in cities and towns. The management system  has played a great important role in the regional agricultural and pastoral development and ecological management of the State of Victoria. This visit also provided a great opportunity for IMHE researchersto understand the water resource conditions and its scientific management in Australia.