1.3.3 Economic assets

Summary

The total number of economic assets in the asset list for the preliminary assessment extent (PAE) of the Hunter subregion is 266. Of these, 148 are groundwater assets and 118 are surface water assets.

All economic assets in the asset list are by their very nature water dependent, but 17 assets (entailing 17 elements) in the list were excluded from the water-dependent asset register for the Hunter subregion because their intersection with the PAE was negligible. Thus the Hunter water-dependent asset register has 249 economic assets, of which 108 are classed as surface water economic assets and 141 as groundwater economic assets.

These assets represent groupings of surface and groundwater economic elements, including water access licences, basic water rights, water source areas, water supply infrastructure and the regulated river. In all, there are 10,327 elements, of which 5,463 pertain to groundwater management areas and 4,864 to surface water management areas.