Identifying the water-related economic values of the Murray-Darling Basin and rating the quality of water economic studies

This report on the economic values of the Murray-Darling Basin (MDB) and their drivers was undertaken for the 2023 Murray-Darling Basin Outlook. It represents the first phase in the development of the economics chapter. Although the focus of the review was addressing the terms of reference, namely: a) what the main values are and how they are measured; b) what is known about the benefits and impacts of each value; c) what is known about the current condition and trend; d) what is known about the major risks, threats and recoverability and d)what is known about the future condition of each value, especially under climate change -what became clear in our initial review is the vast difference (both in terms of findings but also methodologies applied) that exists within the economic literature as to the actual impact of water recovery (or reduced water diversions) on economic values. Given that there is an ongoing concern, both politically and socially, regarding the impact recovery programs have on economic values, we therefore extended our report to undertake a systematic literature review, develop a quality assessment ranking framework and apply this framework to the relevant literature. The quality assessment allows quantification of the quality of previous studies and assists in establishing confidence in their findings in order to make robust policy decisions.