A Standard Approach to Salinity Risk Management

Although salinity is widely regarded as a significant geohazard within Australia, there is no nationally consistent approach to salinity risk management. Salinity risk assessment, prediction or management, is limited by the variety of meanings of "risk" in its popular usage. A salinity risk framework based on the Australian/New Zealand Standard on Risk Management (AS/NZS 4360:2004) is currently being developed in the Corangamite region of south west Victoria, one of the priority regions in the National Action Plan for salinity and water quality. This paper outlines a process for salinity risk assessment that considers salinity in the broader context, both secondary salinity as a threat to assets, and primary salinity which constitutes the regions most valuable environmental assets. In the most recent Federal and State salinity frameworks, the emphasis has been placed on the protection of community and catchment assets. In this context, the adoption of a national risk management framework based on the principles of AS/NZS 4360:2004 is both logical and timely. The standard provides a systematic, disciplined and rigorous approach to salinity risk management. It provides logical and defendable processes and practices for the assessment of salinity risk. It can inform the development of strategies and decision making to protect all classes of assets which are threatened by changes to salinity processes, even those where the salinity itself is the asset (e.g. a saline wetland or estuary).