GDEs

Identifying Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems

Groundwater dependent ecosystems (GDEs) are important elements in the landscape that require access to groundwater to maintain their health and vigour. They are important because of their conservation, biodiversity, ecological, social and economic value.

There are two threats to GDEs — outright loss of habitat and outright loss of groundwater resources.

Implementation

This report presents the National Framework for the assessment of EWRs of GDEs. It has been designed to assist water resource, catchment and ecosystem managers, or their advisors, in considering the needs of GDEs in water allocation planning policy.