Evaluation of a Tool for Investigating Water Allocation Scenarios: a Test Case for the Piako Catchment
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Waikato Regional Council Technical Report 2014/52 Evaluation of a tool for investigating water allocation scenarios: A test case for the Piako catchment www.waikatoregion.govt.nz ISSN 2230-4355 (Print) ISSN 2230-4363 (Online) Prepared by: Paul Franklin Jani Diettrich Doug Booker NIWA For: Waikato Regional Council Private Bag 3038 Waikato Mail Centre HAMILTON 3240 August 2014 Document #:3137210 Peer reviewed by: Ed Brown Date August 2016 Approved for release by: Tracey May Date August 2016 Disclaimer This technical report has been prepared for the use of Waikato Regional Council as a reference document and as such does not constitute Council’s policy. Council requests that if excerpts or inferences are drawn from this document for further use by individuals or organisations, due care should be taken to ensure that the appropriate context has been preserved, and is accurately reflected and referenced in any subsequent spoken or written communication. While Waikato Regional Council has exercised all reasonable skill and care in controlling the contents of this report, Council accepts no liability in contract, tort or otherwise, for any loss, damage, injury or expense (whether direct, indirect or consequential) arising out of the provision of this information or its use by you or any other party. Doc # 3137210 Page i Evaluation of a tool for investigating water allocation scenarios. A test case for the Piako catchment. Prepared for Waikato Regional Council. May 2014 Authors/Contributors: Paul Franklin Jani Diettrich Doug Booker For any information regarding this report please contact: Dr Paul Franklin Scientist Freshwater Fish +64-7-859 1882 [email protected] National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research Ltd Gate 10, Silverdale Road Hillcrest, Hamilton 3216 PO Box 11115, Hillcrest Hamilton 3251 New Zealand Phone +64-7-856 7026 Fax +64-7-856 0151 NIWA Client Report No: HAM2013-111 Report date: May 2014 NIWA Project: EVW13214 Contents Executive summary 5 1 Introduction 7 1.1 Background 7 1.2 Purpose 7 1.3 Scope 7 2 Methods 8 2.1 EFSAP model description 8 2.2 Applying EFSAP in the Piako catchment 11 3 Results 18 3.1 Piako allocation rules 18 3.2 Permitted takes 27 3.3 Current takes 32 3.4 No irrigation 41 3.5 Comparison of scenarios 47 4 Discussion 51 5 Conclusion 54 6 Acknowledgements 54 7 References 55 Appendix A Habitat model parameters 58 Appendix B Piako take details 59 Appendix C Summary outputs for the March FDC 60 Tables Table 2-1: Comparison of predicted naturalised and measured estimates of Q5 at selected sites in the Piako catchment. 13 Table 2-2: Indicator species used for EFSAP simulations in the Piako catchment. 14 Table 3-1: Summary of consequences for reliability and habitat change as a result of uniformly applying the allocation rules for the Piako catchment. 18 Table 3-2: Summary of consequences for habitat change and percent allocated as a result of estimated permitted takes in the Piako catchment (Scenario 3). 27 Table 3-3: Theoretical average annual reliability of supply and restriction for the estimated permitted takes (Scenario 2). 32 Table 3-4: Summary of consequences for habitat change and percent allocated as a result of current consented and estimated permitted takes in the Piako catchment (Scenario 3). 32 Table 3-5: Average annual reliability of supply and restriction for the current consented and estimated permitted takes (Scenario 3). 33 Table 3-6: Summary of consequences for habitat change and percent allocated as a result of the no irrigation take scenario (Scenario 4). 41 Table 3-7: Average annual reliability of supply and restriction for the current consented and estimated permitted takes (Scenario 4). 42 Table A-1: Species for which generalised habitat models are available in New Zealand. 58 Table B-1: Summary of Piako take data used as the input for EFSAP. 59 Table C-1: Summary of consequences for reliability and habitat change as a result of uniformly applying the allocation rules for the Piako catchment. 60 Table C-2: Summary of consequences for instream physical habitat as a result of estimated permitted takes in the Piako catchment. i Table C-3: Theoretical average annual reliability of supply and restriction for the estimated permitted takes. i Table C-4: Summary of consequences for instream physical habitat as a result of current consented and estimated permitted takes in the Piako catchment. i Table C-5: Theoretical average annual reliability of supply and restriction for the current consented and estimated permitted takes. i Table C-6: Summary of consequences for instream physical habitat and percent allocated as a result of the no irrigation take scenario. iii Table C-7: Theoretical average annual reliability of supply and restriction for the current consented and estimated permitted takes. iii Reviewed by Approved for release by Helen Rouse Murray Hicks Formatting checked by Executive summary The Waikato Regional Council (WRC) is responsible for managing the status of water resources in the Waikato Region. WRC’s approach to the protection, allocation and use of water resources is set out in the Waikato Regional Plan: Variation No. 6 – Water Allocation (the Plan), which became operative on 10 April 2012. As required by the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management (NPSFM), the Plan defines minimum flows and allocation limits for all catchments in the region. As a precursor to the review of flow and allocation limits set in the Plan for the Piako catchment scheduled for 1 July 2014, WRC have initiated investigations in the catchment to support and inform the Plan review process. The purpose of this project is to evaluate the use of the Environmental Flow Strategic Allocation Platform (EFSAP) to simulate the consequences of water quantity limit scenarios, using the Piako catchment as a case study. The aim is to help WRC understand how EFSAP can be used to characterise the instream and out-of-stream effects of different rules, and how this might be useful in the limit setting process, including managing over-allocation. In this project, EFSAP was used to simulate the spatially explicit consequences for reliability of supply and instream physical habitat of a range of water allocation limits in the Piako catchment. The scenarios developed in consultation with WRC included: . the Plan water allocation rules for the Piako catchment excluding water harvesting . current actual allocation (including estimated permitted takes) . current actual allocation (including estimated permitted takes), excluding takes for irrigation. Using EFSAP it was possible to demonstrate that under the Regional Plan minimum flow and allocation limits for the Piako catchment, the potential annual average reliability of supply for both the primary and secondary allocation blocks is relatively high for much of the catchment. Median reliability of the primary allocation block is 96%, and 90% of reaches have potential reliability of greater than 80%. For the secondary allocation block, median reliability is 95% and 90% of reaches have a potential reliability of greater than 81%. The predicted impacts on instream physical habitat availability relative to that available at the natural mean annual low flow (MALF) were also relatively small (<10%) for much of the catchment, with the largest effects mainly restricted to smaller headwater streams. The EFSAP tool was also used to illustrate that estimated permitted takes alone are predicted to result in over-allocation at a reach scale (average reach length 700 m) in approximately 50% of impacted reaches (i.e., those reaches downstream of at least one abstraction) in the Piako catchment. When consented takes are included, over-allocation increases to 70% of the impacted reaches. Relative to the current limits for the Piako, it was shown using EFSAP that most of the Waitoa River from its headwaters to the confluence with the Piako, and the main stem of the Piako between Milliken Road and the Paeroa-Tahuna Road, are over-allocated, assuming limits are applied at a reach scale. In 10% of the impacted reaches, the primary allocation limit is exceeded by 500% or greater. Overall, the results of the EFSAP modelling work suggest that there may be a problem with over-allocation in certain reaches of the Piako catchment when compared to current water quantity limits. This may have significant implications for WRC with respect to fulfilling the requirements of the NPSFM. The aim of this project was to assess the value of EFSAP to WRC for assisting in the water quantity limit setting process. The EFSAP methodology has been demonstrated to offer an approach that allows water managers to evaluate the consequences of setting different water allocation limits and to characterise the consequences of existing allocation. The integrated use of scientific tools allows transparent and concurrent evaluation of consequences for both instream habitat and reliability of supply for out-of-channel water uses. It also accounts for the interaction between minimum flow and total allocation limits. By modelling a range of scenarios EFSAP also allows resource managers to more 5 effectively communicate to stakeholders the varying consequences of different water resource limits and the trade-offs that are necessary between different values. 6 1 Introduction 1.1 Background The Waikato Regional Council (WRC) is responsible for managing the status of water resources in the Waikato Region. WRC’s approach to the protection, allocation and use of water resources is set out in the Waikato Regional Plan: Variation No. 6 – Water Allocation (the Plan) (Waikato Regional Council 2012), which became operative on 10 April 2012. As required by the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management (NPSFM; MfE 2011), the Plan defines minimum flows and allocation limits for all catchments in the region (Table 3-5; Waikato Regional Council 2012). Included within the Plan is a schedule for systematic review of the flow and allocation limits set out in Table 3-5 of the Plan (Table 3-4; Waikato Regional Council 2012).