Editors' Summary

Over a decade of reform initiatives in Australia have aimed at a more ecologically sustainable allocation and management framework for water resources, including provision for environmental flows. The key policy and legal developments to allocate and protect water for the environment include limits on consumptive use, operational river management rules, and volumetric environmental entitlements. Despite important reform commitments and subsequent legislative developments, an ecologically sustainable allocation of water resources is far from being realized. New federal legislation promises an increased and ongoing focus on this issue, and, in this light, key considerations for ecologically sustainable water allocation and management are discussed.