This report sets out principles for aligning water allocation and catchment plans that can be applied, with some local variations, in any Australian jurisdiction.

This report is the final output of the Integration of Water Planning and Catchment Planning (NSW) project. A framework was developed and then trialled in the Hunter region of New South Wales.

The trial demonstrated that, while all the framework principals are relevant, the following are likely to make the biggest difference:

• There should be jurisdictional policies and objectives to manage freshwater aquatic ecosystems that apply to both water allocation and catchment plans
• There should be governance arrangements supporting ongoing coordination between agencies at state and regional levels. This would assist in developing plans and implementing actions that contribute to shared objectives
• Freshwater aquatic ecosystem condition, value and risk assessments should be done in a single, shared process
• Spatial representation of assessments should be sufficiently detailed to inform within-region prioritising decisions for both types of plans
• A paired program logic map should be developed for both planning processes in each region. It should include shared freshwater aquatic ecosystem objectives that are aligned through shared, spatially defined priorities to protect and restore freshwater aquatic ecosystems.