What is the value of monitoring groundwater levels?
For individuals the first value in monitoring lies in a greater awareness of the salinity threat and how it relates to their land and the district – “they believe the data if they measure it”. The monitoring carried out by farmers in the Jerramungup LCD, combined with the feedback and interpretation that was provided by AGWEST, allowed farmers to quickly become aware of the threat posed to the district by saline rising groundwater. The second value clearly evident is that groundwater monitoring can result in a substantial degree of learning, both of hydrological processes and also learning that can lead to monitoring being perceived as a useful management tool. Monitoring can be used as a management tool in two different ways: • to assess the effect of a particular management treatment, and • as a indicator of when a particular management tool (e.g. lucerne phase of a rotation) needed to be implemented (i.e. as a tool to know when to act). For catchments, groundwater monitoring has the
