Future Challenges

This final chapter addresses the future challenges that Australia faces over the next 30 years in further reforming water resource management. In our view, the six biggest challenges to water management over the next three decades to 2050 are climate change, population growth, water-energy interactions, increasing community expectations and demands, maintaining affordability, and maintaining the impetus for and commitment to future water reform. These challenges will throw up new trade-offs, and reinforce and create new policy dilemmas that will require the same attention and effort in decision making that has prevailed for the past 30 years. We briefly describe these challenges and then discuss them from the perspective of how they will influence future decision making in rural, urban and environmental water management. In our view, the responses to these challenges will form the basis for the next wave of water reform in Australia.