Extensive work on soil structure by researcher Dr Bruce Cockroft from Northern Victoria has brought the maintenance of soil structure into the spotlight as a promising area for irrigators to work on to improve their yields. An overview of Cockroft's research has been prepared by Dr Rob Murray at the University of Adelaide for the National Program for Sustainable Irrigation.un-off.

The Northern Australia Irrigation Futures (NAIF) project has undertaken a review of research into irrigation mosaics as an approach to irrigation in northern Australia. Irrigation mosaics involve smaller patches of irrigation distributed across the landscape as an alternative to large contiguous areas of irrigation. This research has examined the current understanding of irrigation mosaics drawing lessons from ecology, forestry, meteorology and saline basins. This

The Northern Australian Irrigation Futures (NAIF) project has worked closely with the WA, NT, QLD and Australian governments, researchers and stakeholders, to deliver new knowledge, tools and processes to support debate and decision making regarding irrigation in northern Australia.

The Wetting Front Detector (WFD) is a new tool to help measure how deeply water has penetrated into the soil after an irrigation event. The WFD also captures and stores a soil water sample, which can be analysed for its salt or nutrient content. The first commercial version of the Wetting Front Detector (WFD), called the FullStop, was released in 2004. The FullStop WFD is comprised of a

Right now, it is very difficult to accurately measure the water losses from evaporation on farm dams but a recent scoping study funded by the National Program for Sustainable Irrigation estimated the loss is as high as 7,000 gigalitres per year from Queensland's section of the Murray-Darling Basin alone. Given that water extracted from our waterways for all purposes is around 20,000 gigalitres per annum in the whole of Australia, the potential savings from addressing evaporation losses

Many of the research projects commissioned by the National Program for Sustainable Irrigation (NPSI) have adopted innovative approaches to achieve strong connections between the researchers and the rest of the community. Finding ways to include the practical knowledge that comes from the community into research is crucial to achieving a sustainable future. This research bulletin outlines approaches to engaging with communities that have been successfully developed

Catchment managers have a responsibility to ensure equitable use of water, balancing water requirements from the upper catchment all the way downstream to the end of the valley. On farms, efficient use of water is a goal which everybody shares to avoid plant stress from drought or waterlogging and to avoid paying for too much water.

This Research Bulletin describes the process of undertaking an extensive field sampling program, to understand if there has been a loss of biodiversity, and the risk of algal blooms.

National Program for Sustainable Irrigation Fact sheet 2005/4 As much as 40% of water stored in a farm dam can be lost through evaporation, depending on the depth of the dam and its surface area. Dam design can significantly decrease evaporation by reducing the surface area to volume ratio (deeper, narrower dams) and planting windbreaks to provide shade and reduce wind turbulence. Over the years, a number of commercial products have also been developed to minimise water losses, including floating plastic covers and chemical products that change the

National Program for Sustainable Irrigation Fact sheet 2005/3 Reducing water run-off, minimising nutrient leaching and optimising irrigation efficiency are major challenges for the nursery industry. A comprehensive review of Australian and international research programs covering all aspects of waste water management in nurseries has been carried out by Horticulture Australia Limited (HAL) - a funding partner for the National Program for Sustainable Irrigation. The review identified useful resources for the industry and best practice in