Regulating groundwater in a drying climate: lessons from South West Australia

The South West of Western Australia has experienced an enormous water resources challenge from a drying climate in recent decades. Increased groundwater extraction has helped meet water demand, but has tested the capacity of groundwater laws to keep extraction within sustainable limits. This article draws from Western Australia's experience to explore an important question facing a number of regions of the world due to climate change: how can groundwater use be maintained within sustainable limits in a drying climate? This article suggests that there is a better chance of achieving this goal with a regulatory framework that covers all significant extraction activities, takes climate change projections into account, has flexible water entitlements and saves some of the groundwater as a drought reserve'.