Environmental Change in the Murray–Darling Basin
Download a five-page Year 10 Geography worksheet on environmental change and management in the Murray–Darling Basin, from image analysis to evaluating a management response.
- Subject
- Geography
- Year group
- Year 10
- Curriculum topic
- Environmental change and management: the Murray–Darling Basin
- Download
About this resource
Ready to print, adapt and use.
This worksheet works through the Year 10 "Environmental change and management" unit using Australia's most studied river system. Students start by reading evidence of stress in a Basin landscape, then analyse a data table linking irrigation diversions, environmental water, native fish and salinity, and label the parts of a Basin management system from reservoir to gauging station.
The second half builds the vocabulary of Basin management, including salinisation, overallocation, riparian vegetation, environmental flows, fish passage and water efficiency, before a scenario task asks students to explain the causes of change in a lower Murray community and choose, justify and critique a management response. It's structured to rehearse the explain-and-evaluate command words students meet in Year 10 assessment.
Teaching notes
The data table is illustrative, built to show a clear relationship between diversions, environmental water, fish health and salinity, rather than published MDBA figures. Say so before students start; it's a useful prompt about why real Basin data is messier and where they would go to find it.
The labelling diagram has no word bank. If the class hasn't met the terms yet, put reservoir, dam wall, regulator, wetland, salt scald and gauging station on the board and let students match them, or run it cold as a diagnostic.
In the scenario, a local council is choosing between fishways, environmental water and channel lining. In practice, water recovery is a Commonwealth decision, which is worth raising when students evaluate the options: who actually controls each response is part of its limitation. Expect strong students to argue that the best option depends on whether the community's problem is salinity, connectivity or flow, and reward that reasoning over any single "right" answer.
Learning objectives
- Identify evidence of environmental change in a river system and explain how human activity alters the movement of water.
- Interpret data on water use and river health and describe relationships between them.
- Explain and evaluate management responses to environmental change, including their limitations.
What’s included
- Five pages of classroom-ready activities
- An image analysis task on a Murray–Darling Basin landscape
- A data table on water use and river health with an extended response space
- A labelling diagram of a Basin management system
- A six-term matching activity on Basin management vocabulary
- A two-part scenario task on choosing a response for the lower Basin
Example PDF
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