In BAs, economic water-dependent assets are confined to groundwater and surface water management zones or areas and comprise specific water access entitlements or rights and other water supply features or infrastructures. Within these asset subgroups there may be many individual asset elements (e.g. water supply bores within a groundwater management zone).
The scope of the BA methodology (Barrett et al., 2013) does not require detailed analysis of the economic impacts of changes induced by the development of the coal resources. Instead the impact and risk analysis concludes at the assessment of changes to the availability of the relevant groundwater or surface water.
Within the scope of BA, potential impacts to economic assets are tied directly to potential hydrological response variables, which can be assessed against specific management thresholds, whereas indirect impacts and complex feedbacks are anticipated for the ecological assets that are the focus of this submethodology. Within BA, there is no need for economic receptor impact modelling as the range of potential hydrological change can be considered against already defined thresholds such as those specified by the NSW Aquifer Interference Policy (NSW Office of Water, 2012) or the requirements of water resource plans under Queensland’s Water Act 2000.
Economic assets are discussed no further in this submethodology but are discussed in companion submethodology M10 (as listed in Table 1) (Henderson et al., 2018) where there is a broader consideration of impacts and risks.