The impacts of climate change on Murray-Darling Basin communities will form part of a new $20 million study into water management.
The federal government will fund the independent research led by professor Rob Vertessy, who reviewed mass fish deaths in the Darling River last summer.
The four-year program will also look at hydrology, water use and ecology.
Water Minister David Littleproud announced the money during a tour of the southern basin which visited South Australia on Sunday.
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"Farmers have been adapting to a changing climate since we first put a till in the soil," he told reporters in Renmark.
"You poor metropolitan people are just catching up to us."
He vowed to act on Professor Vertessy's recommendations stemming from the research.
"If we get reports there's no point putting them on the top shelf, you've got to get on with the job," the minister said.
