the National Program for Sustainable irrigation (NPSI) has established an Ecological Risk Assessment Project, the overall objective of which is to develop a generic framework for assessing the ecological risks associated with Australian irrigation systems. This new decision support tool should assist the Australian irrigation industry in quantifying and prioritising the ecological risks from their activities, and also to better focus research efforts and management actions to minimise these risks. Additionally, this information should also provide an opportunity for regulatory authorities (such as EPA's) to better determine what needs protection and to use this as the basis for licensing and monitoring requirements