Future focused freshwater accounting

The core purposes of freshwater accounting are to:

• provide high quality information for a wide range of local, regional, and national needs
• increase public trust and confidence in the environmental management system through increased transparency, completeness, and consistency of information.

The report identifies two primary ways in which information from freshwater accounting systems can be applied to meet the purposes of freshwater accounting:

• Integrated freshwater accounting is the quantification of all water quantity and contaminant stocks (mass) and flows (movements) within and between catchments. This accounting allows understanding of the current state of the environment as well as changes over time and whether or not objectives, limits, targets are being met.
• Allocation compliance accounting allows assessment and reporting against allocation limits. Allocation compliance accounting is already being done by most regional authorities, but the report recommends that some standardisation is needed enable consistency, improved automation, and allow for reporting at multiple scales and timeframes.

The Ministry is engaging with regional councils and other partners to discuss the findings of the report and options for potential changes to how we account for freshwater in the future. 

The report provides information, options, and concepts for how accounting could be implemented in the future to better support good outcomes for freshwater.